Season 35 - Bleak House (2005-2006)
The Gillian Anderson version of Bleak House first aired as I was just getting back into Masterpiece. It's not that I'd taken time out from the show per se, it's just that life, combined with school meant that several seasons of Masterpiece were seen by me after the fact when my friend Jess would tell me to rent a specific show from Netflix. Yes, this was when Netflix was still only discs you sent away for. So I'd often spend the summer vacation watching the notable shows that had aired on Masterpiece earlier in the year and had now been released on DVD. The other reason I got back into Masterpiece was perfect timing. I could never watch the eight o'clock broadcast because other family members had the television at the time and for some reason our second PBS station decided to re-air that night's episode of Masterpiece starting around midnight. That meant I could finally curl up with my cat and be assured we wouldn't be accused of co-opting the television. So I settled in to watch Bleak House. The fifteen episode miniseries actually aired as eight on Masterpiece, so for eight weeks I was there for all the twists, turns, and explosive reveals of the people connected to the Jarndyce v Jarndyce case. And I kind of found it meh. I wasn't good at following the plot from week to week and just kind of forgot about it. Until I made a list of suggested viewings for a friend of my mom's and well, Nancy was VERY mad I didn't like Bleak House. Apparently it was her favorite. Therefore I had to give it another try. And yet she wouldn't give Poldark a second try!?! Just saying... So I sat down and watched all of Bleak House over three nights and you know what? I really liked it. I knew what was going to happen more or less so I was able to take joy in the characters, which is what this adaptation is all about. SHAKE ME UP JUDY! Also, Bleak House works better, in my mind, binged. Watching it over too long a period of time doesn't work. We are no longer in the age when we had to wait months for Dickens to actually write the next chapter, so why wait? That's right, why wait? Go watch Bleak House today. All of it!
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
Bone Crier's Dawn by Kathryn Purdie
John Updike: Novels 1978-1984 by John Updike 
The Ultimate Sherlock Holmes Puzzle Book by Pierre Berloquin
Murder at Wedgefield Manor by Erica Ruth Neubauer
Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce
There are only a handful of miniseries that I allow to be categorized as my favorites. They are sheer perfection and I return to them again and again because I love them so much. Wives and Daughters starring Keeley Hawes, Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth, The Forsyte Saga starring Damian Lewis, and a dozen more, these aren't just seminal to me, they made me who I am. As did Jane Eyre. This adaptation of Jane Eyre starring Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson will forever be the best adaptation of a Bronte book. Period. I came to Jane Eyre's story by such a roundabout route, watching different adaptations over the years on cable while never picking up the book. Ironically my first literary experience of the world created by Charlotte was actually in Jasper Fforde's book 
What most of us turn to Masterpiece for is a good old fashioned period drama. Yes, there have been modern shows here and there, and many quite exceptional, but for most of us it's all about the period drama. Well, watching The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard now it feels like a period drama. Looking back on a simpler time in politics before Trump and Brexit it feels so long ago that it's a different era. Plus with the cast, Steven Mackintish, Jodhi May, Janet McTeer, Carey Mulligan, Geraldine James, Tom Mison, Siobhan Finneran, and Harry Hadden-Paton to name a few, it is like the best of the best from British period dramas are represented here. Then factor in the Downton-esque music by John Lunn playing over several characters from Downton Abbey, and well, it might be modern but it feels like Masterpiece to me. Though it's an odd little miniseries, written by Sally Wainwright who has gone on to create the procedurals Scott and Bailey and Happy Valley, the feel good Last Tango in Halifax, and the sensational period lesbian romp Gentleman Jack, The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard never really finds it's feet and ends on an abrupt note, and that note was only on the DVD at that. Ros Pritchard is a woman with no political experience who ends up Prime Minister by just telling it like it is and vowing to never lie. While I adore Jane Horrocks, she doesn't have the heft needed for the role and is outclassed by everyone around her. But more importantly, I couldn't figure out the message of the miniseries. What was it trying to say? It is oddly pro-Brexit before Brexit happened with a bizarre streak of British exceptionalism. Also Ros's Purple party is almost all women, is this a commentary on women in traditional male roles and how they succeed or fail based on how much of the traditional female roles they're willing to give up, like motherhood. Also, while this was obviously written about a fake election it seems prophetic. I mean, look what we've just lived through here in the States! A person entirely ignorant of government being elected to the highest position in the land. But in reality there were tons and tons of deaths instead of everyone banding together and riding a bus. So yeah... it now cuts a little too close to the bone... The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard just doesn't understand the implications of what it's attempting and failing to say. 
The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear
The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers
Karolina and the Torn Curtain by Maryla Szymiczkowa
Finding My Voice by Nadiya Hussain
I unabashedly adore Northanger Abbey. This is something that took me quite a long time to discover. I had actually never re-read Northanger Abbey after first reading it right after high school when I was too naive to get the Gothic parody aspect and therefore ranked it as Austen's worst novel. Older, and hopefully wiser, I reevaluted the novel and adored it for it's humor. And as for Henry Tilney? He instantly became my favorite Austen hero. Why? Because he is a fully rounded character, not some ideal. He has a sense of humor, he loves to read, and well, he's not perfect and somehow that makes him perfect. Which brings me to the masterful portrayal of Henry Tilney by J.J. Feild. In fact, I'm sure that my reconsideration of Henry was in no small part helped by J.J. There's only so much a book can do until you can affix a visual to a character, which is why I often dream cast books as I read them. I couldn't have done better than J.J. for Henry Tilney. The humor? The arch looks? He's perfection. He nails the comedy but he can combine it with pathos and stern censor yet all coming from the heart. He became my heartthrob. I've watched everything he's been in since, yes, even Captain America. I even tried my hardest to like TURN with his little rat tail, but even he couldn't elevate that show. But while I'll always point to Northanger Abbey as the true beginning of my crush, the zenith is 
The thing about Wuthering Heights is I always really want to like it but never do. I've seen more adaptations than I can count all hoping that one would strike a cord in me. I chased down old productions for actors I liked just in the vain hope that maybe, just maybe, having say, Matthew Macfadyen in it would improve it. He did not. Hell, he didn't even speak as far as I can remember. In fact the introduction on that old VHS tape from the library was more interesting than the production itself. Thank you Russell Baker for explaining exactly why I hated the Laurence Olivier one so much! Most of the novel was cast aside in favor of a "happy" ending for the 1939 film. Yes. They tried to make Wuthering Heights have a happy ending! The mind boggles. Therefore I didn't have much hope for this new version staring that guy who was good in The Virgin Queen, that guy from The Walking Dead and Love Actually (a film I detest), and Owen from Torchwood. And yes, this is exactly how I categorized it in my head. Well, my lack of expectations led me, late one Sunday night, to find the first version of Wuthering Heights I enjoyed. No, enjoyed is too milquetoast, I was enraptured by it. Yes, it has a grim beginning with Tom Hardy as Heathcliff disinterring Catherine's skeleton while wearing a really bad wig, Tom, not the skeleton. But as I'm sure everyone else who's seen Tom Hardy act will agree, there's just something so magnetic about him, you can't look away. He became Heathcliff. What's more, Charlotte Riley was so perfectly cast as Catherine that she and Tom fell in love. You can feel their attraction through the screen. This is real. This is emotional. This is what Catherine and Heathcliff should always be. That heat, that passion, that tragedy. Thankfully in real life they are living a happily ever after and Tom isn't out back digging a grave where he will later cradle her corpse. But this didn't just become my all time favorite Wuthering Heights adaptation, if forever made me fans of Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley, who while perfection in this, are even better in Taboo and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell respectively.
Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs
What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
Mike Mignola: The Quarantine Sketchbook by Mike Mignola
Carmen and the House That Gaudi Built by Susan Hughes and Marianne Ferrer
A Tapestry of Light by Kimberly Duffy
The Whispering House by Elizabeth Brooks
Not Yet Dark by Peter Robinson
The Cook of the Halcyon by Andrea Camilleri
Behind the Lens: My Life by David Suchet
The old saying is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and that is exactly what Julian Fellowes did with Downton Abbey. He took the classic premise of Upstairs, Downstairs and basically remade it to laudatory reviews. Yes, there are changes here and there, but seeing as I just did a rewatch of Upstairs, Downstairs, literally starting it about thirty days after seeing the Downton Abbey movie, I could see how eerily similar they are. Fortunes changed because of the sinking of the Titanic, check, daughters up to no good, check, rape, check, conception issues, check, closeted gay staff, check, concern over a royal visit, check, integration of families, check, bright young things, check, the list goes on and on and on, all just slight variations on a theme. And I really think that's why Downton Abbey became such a worldwide phenomenon. It tapped into the nostalgia that everyone felt not just for bygone days but also for Upstairs, Downstairs. The irony being that Downton Abbey's success scuppered the Upstairs, Downstairs reboot. But how could 165 Eaton Place compete with a house the likes of Highclere Castle? And the truth is, I fell right in love with this show like everyone else. I didn't care that I'd seen it all before, the truth is no one can deliver a line like Maggie Smith and that alone made this show perfection. I remember watching the premiere up in my library all by myself and about half way through I realized that everyone in my family wouldn't just want to watch the show, they would love it. So I literally dragged everyone who was still awake into the TV room and put the show on. I knew I had everyone hooked, especially my dad, when Robert runs out onto the drive to stop Bates from leaving and my dad was sobbing. Yes Julian Fellowes, you hooked us with one episode and thankfully after all that twisting on the hook you gave us not just one happily ever after, but you came back and did a movie which at the time I felt unnecessary, but once I saw it I knew how much I needed the Crawleys in my life. 
The Dark Heart of Florence by Tasha Alexander
The Dark Heart of Florence by Tasha Alexander
Spellmaker by Charlie N. Holmberg
Maniac by Harold Schechter
Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison
Fatal Fried Rice by Vivien Chien
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Omnibus by Kieron Gillen, Simon Spurrier, et al. 
Upstairs, Downstairs is like the brick and mortar of Masterpiece. This show took America by storm when it originally aired in the seventies so anyone who considers themselves an Anglophile was excited when a reboot was announced. Instead of retelling the tales of the Bellamys which ended with the stock market crash of 1929 we jumped forward several years with the Holland family taking up residence at 165 Eaton Place in 1936. The wonderful holdover from the original series is that they were able to convince Jean Marsh to return as Rose Buck. Joining her was her co-creator of the original series, Eileen Atkins, finally taking a roll in front of the camera as Sir Hallam Holland's mother. The first season consisted of three magnificent episodes that felt like coming home. The new series had that perfect balance of aristocracy, government intrigue, human rights, and scandal that made the original series so addictive. Yet for me I fell irrevocably in love with the show during the second season because of Hallam's affair with his sister-in-law Lady Persephone, played by future monarch Claire Foy. It all started on the eve of World War II, rescuing Lady Persie from the clutches of the Germans while strains of music drifted through the streets. Almost a decade ago I found this doomed romance beyond thrilling, especially with it's tragic ending. Last year I rewatched all of Upstairs, Downstairs and was surprised that I no longer found this affair romantic. I was firmly on the side of Hallam's wife, Lady Agnes, played by the extraordinary Keeley Hawes. How could I have changed so much in a decade!?! How could I be wishing Persie's demise to arrive sooner!?! It just goes to show that the indication of a great television series is that with each watching you find something new about it and yourself. Which made it all the more painful when the success of Downton Abbey led to Upstairs, Downstairs being cancelled too soon. I'm sorry, but I watched and loved BOTH shows so they can coexist! After all Downton Abbey is just a reinterpretation of Upstairs, Downstairs! 
Two series about the advent of department stories debuted within six months of each other and if I had to pick one I would not have picked Mr Selfridge, Jeremy Piven and Andrew Davies must accept my apologizes, because I would have picked The Paradise. Created by the team behind Lark Rise to Candleford with many of the same actors, this was another loose adaptation of a classic that captured my heart and swiftly became one of my most favorite series ever. There was just such heart and romance and, unlike Mr Selfridge, there was more than a little of the Upstairs, Downstairs dynamic. Here we really got stuck into the lives of those working at The Paradise as well as those running and funding the roadshow. We saw the haves versus the have nots and how a major department store economically impacted it's small business competitors, a concern that is even more relevant today. When Denise Lovett arrives on the scene she becomes the focal point of all that is happening. She straddles both worlds, he uncle having a business that is struggling because of The Paradise, while she herself takes a job at The Paradise, and is soon seen by the owner, John Moray, as a girl after his own heart. She's smart and a self-starter and soon steals his heart. Of course there's a love triangle and many complications. This wouldn't be a show worthy of Masterpiece if there wasn't. But what I really liked most about this series is it wasn't afraid to go dark. As in, there's a murder! Arthur Darvill of Doctor Who fame gets involved in The Paradise when his storefront is bought by the expanding store. His style doesn't mesh well with the glamour Moray sells and, well, one thing leads to another, and his body is found in the river. The culprit is of course revealed, which goes into the ties that bind us as a community and as a company and as a people together. Just writing this makes me sad all over again that such a lovely show was cancelled too soon. But I'd rather have it cancelled too soon than have it overstay it's welcome, which is sadly what happened to Lark Rise to Candleford.
Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig
The House of War and Witness by Mike Carey, Linda Carey, and Louise Carey
An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn
The Conductors by Nichole Glover
Down Comes the Night by Alison Saft
Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare
Clockwork, Curses, and Coal edited by Rhonda Parrish
The Serpent's Skin by Erina Reddan
Rhapsody by Mitchell James Kaplan
Windhall by Ava Barry
