Season 45 - Poldark Series 1 (2015)
From hearing the first strains of music as the picture faded in I fell in love with Poldark. The sweeping Cornish coastline coupled with the theme music created an ache in my heart that made me nostalgic for a place I have never been. While I enjoyed the complete series, especially the encroaching Regency fashions, and hope that it will one day return to continue the story when they are older, the first series remains my favorite. This show wallows in star-crossed lovers, from Elizabeth and Ross to Verity and Captain Blamey to Dwight and Keren these are just the tip of the iceberg before Demelza's broody brothers were introduced. But to me what makes the show work is coupling the heart with the humor. The overly melodramatic Ross needs someone as pragmatic and blunt as Aunt Agatha to balance his histrionics. Also George and his fantasies are always blunted by his Uncle, the magnificent Pip Torrens. Though the humor of the series can be summarized in one person, Jud. When Phil Davis left the show they lost a comic genius and one of the checks and balances that kept this show sailing smoothly. There's a reason why the show was good but never quite as good after that first season. George had more depth, the plots seemed more personal, and there was Ross and Demelza falling in love. The way Demelza healed Ross's heart after Elizabeth shredded it to bits (and yes I'm fully ignoring what happened later.) Oh my, be still my heart. The scullery maid got the guy! Yes, she did force his hand a little but he grew to love her and she became his rock. The forth episode of series one might just be ranked among my favorite television episodes of all time. In the episode Demelza and Ross go to Trenwith for Christmas. This could be disastrous. On so many levels. But Demelza shines and not only do the other guests see what Ross saw all along, but Ross also sees Demelza anew and realizes how lucky he is. This was the pinnacle of the Poldark passion and romance for me. The dress, the singing, the pregnancy, the love, oh, I feel a great need to go rewatch the whole first season again and perhaps this episode more than once.
So I have a confession... I have yet to read any of the novels by Winston Graham that make up the Poldark Saga. Yes, I know! This is SO unlike me it's baffling! I've had most of the books for years, after watching Ioan Gruffudd as Jeremy Poldark in the 1996 Poldark TV movie I bought the ones then available and scrounged up the rest of the epic twelve volume series at library sales, only to watch them languish on my bookshelves. But once the new adaptation was announced, and before you ask, no I haven't seen the seventies version, I thought, heck, I'll give it a read because I KNEW I'd watch the series what with my love of 
Fall. The time of year when thoughts turn to the new TV season while also lauding the past year's work. While I love award shows and the Emmys are certainly a favorite, especially in a year when Stephen Colbert is hosting, it also makes me sad because my favorite shows are considered "genre" television so no matter how amazing the acting or the writing they just never get their plaudits just because they may have vampires. So I decided, I'm going to change that right here, right now. No, I'm not rigging the votes or casting my own statues, but I am going to pick my favorite shows that aired over the last year that just happen to have started out in book form and convince you to give them a chance! Be it science fiction, graphic novels, horror, some of my favorite shows got their start on my bookshelves. So let's hear it for Oz and Fillory and Midnight, Texas, and all the places in between that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences looks down on. Let's hear it for the underdogs, the Ross Poldarks of the world! Here's to who the Emmy should be going to...
