Doctor Thorne: All Episodes

March 14, 2016 4:21 PM - Season 1 (Full Season)

A television drama adaptation of the Anthony Trollope novel, scripted by Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey). Mary Thorne, pennyless and with undisclosed parentage, grows up under the guardianship of her uncle Doctor Thorne. She spends much of here formative years in the company of the Gresham family at Greshamsbury Park estate. As they close on the world of adult cares and responsibilities the past starts to impinge and the financial woes of the Gresham family threaten to tear relationships apart.
posted by DirtyOldTown (5 comments total)

Some of the characters are a bit thin. But it's sort of like Downton Abbey in Dickens' era. Mary is improbably angleic, Moffat is boring and awful without managing go provide even any laughs about that... But Thorne is terrific. I hope he marries Miss Dunstable who is also wonderful.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:36 PM on March 14, 2016

I was excited about this because I've read the book, but I wasn't overly thrilled by the first episode. I feel like the ending--the way it HAS to end--is pretty obvious from the get-go and if everyone just spoke honestly with each other it would happen a lot quicker. And it doesn't have a lot of the dry wit of the book to make the journey enjoyable.

I'm on board if it means more miniseries based on Trollope novels, though. The Small House at Allington would be a good one.
posted by chaiminda at 4:39 AM on March 15, 2016

Thanks for the reminder, I'll be checking this out.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:52 AM on March 15, 2016

Well, now I've watched it, or rather most of it, I think I've got a half hour left. It's... okay. Knowing that it was written by Julien Fellowes means I watched it with a more critical eye. The sets and costumes were gorgeous. The story was fairly predictable (vs The Pallisers which was packed with intrigue and suspense). In this instance, I think the director is at fault. Scenes were poorly blocked and lifeless, characters were miscast, it jumped abruptly from from one short scene to the next without any feeling for how much time had passed.

I haven't read the book (books?), in fact I assume this was just the three episodes. Watching it, I had the feeling that a lot of story was left out, either that or it really was that simplistic. Sadly, not very good.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:44 PM on March 27, 2016

Goodness me I found this disappointing. The first episode was fine, but the next two felt like a basic restatement of a problem that had no tension. As soon as we discover that Mary is the heir, we can obviously see what's going to happen, and all the back and forth just feels like marking time. "They're engaged! No they're not! Yes they are!" Had it stuck with a purely comedic tone I would probably have enjoyed it more, but as it is it was tonally all over the place, with the absurd drunken son with none of the charisma of his absurd drunken father. I feel like there were plotlines buried in there that could have been more interesting, but the show's focus on woes which were obviously going to be resolved was just... odd.

I have no idea how the book reads, but the idea that you go "everyone's problems will be solved once these two characters die" and then have those two characters be mean a while and everyone worry, and then have them die? I can imagine a more fun version of this where Dr Thorne is deliberately murdering them, but otherwise, eh.

A very pretty production, and good performances all round, but the script just wasn't there.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 1:32 AM on April 5, 2016