Season 6 - Poldark Series 1 (1976-1977)
My introduction to Poldark was the 2015 adaptation starring Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson. I of course knew of the original. I even have some of the Winston Graham paperback tie-in editions from the seventies that I picked up at a library sale with that very yellow logo with it's double handled "P" and swooping "K." But, for me, the first season of the 2015 adaptation was one of the most perfect seasons of any show ever. So perfect in fact that as time went on the show was never able to recapture the magic of that first season, and the less said about the nonsensical plot of the fifth and final season the better. I mean, Ross was a spy embedded and in bed with the French!?! Deep breath in, pretend they didn't try to shoehorn the entire season's plot into one episode, and breath out. Which all leads to the fact I was hesitant to watch the seventies adaptation. I'd only seen Robin Ellis in a handful of roles and they didn't endear me to him. In every one he annoyed me beyond belief with his quick temper and hauteur, which, I have to admit, are qualities necessary to playing Ross Poldark. And yet he's a far less hot-headed Ross. I was expecting the sanctimoniousness of Aidan Turner's Ross and instead, Robin Ellis's Ross is blunt. His word is his bond. This, among countless other reasons, is why I now love the original seventies adaptation more than I ever loved the reboot. They may try to lure me back in by continuing with the story in a few years, but they won't be Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees! And yet this version of Poldark is far from perfect. The second season, which comprises the plot of the third and forth seasons of the reboot, was more staid. It was a faithful adaptation that didn't swing for the fences. Yes, we finally had the longed for addition of Aunt Agatha and her hatred of George Warleggan, leading her to proclaim that she hopes "shit take him!" And oh, Morwenna needs to do even more monologues about how she feels like a gutted deer. But these highlights weren't enough to make up for the toning down of the show and it's copious recasts. They literally recast Dwight Enys! He's one of the core four! I could almost forgive Nicholas Warleggan and Harris Pascoe, but never Dwight! Which leads me to the conclusion that I will only ever get a perfect first season of any Poldark adaptation. This one was just a little longer ending with Francis's death and Elizabeth's remarriage to George. And that right there might be the key to the tonal shift in the show. Francis Poldark as played by Clive Francis is a revelation. He is the core to the campiness of season one which literally ends with a party taken straight from the pages of Edgar Allan Poe with an homage to "The Masque of the Red Death." Francis is unhinged. His drunken Christmas dinner screaming about his sister being a whore and then brandishing a knife while hacking at the beautifully prepared bird before collapsing to the floor is up there with Truman Capote's Thanksgiving rant on Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. I need more of this in my life. Why couldn't Francis have had just an iota of this energy in the remake? We know what a fabulous actor Kyle Soller is, he could have brought this delightful depravity, instead he was just dissatisfied and petulant. The manic energy, the mood swings, the joy in Clive Francis's face when Ross asks Francis to join him in his venture at Wheal Grace. This was perfection. Too bad it didn't last longer. But the greatest things never do, unlike Aunt Agatha's curses. They last forever. No matter George's wishes that she may rot in hell.
Netflix isn't afraid to do high concept science fiction adaptations, just look to their recent success with 3 Body Problem. Bodies also fits strongly into this category, relying on a strange admixture of the grandfather paradox and the song made famous, in my mind, by The Muppets, "
