Tess, la de los D'Urberville

It's Victorian England. Poor country girl Tess Durbeyfield (Gemma Arterton) is told that she is descended from the noble D'Urberville house. She is torn between two men. Angel Clare (Eddie Redmayne) is a well-meaning gentleman from a religious family of its time. Alec D'Urberville (Hans Matheson) is the cruel supposed-cousin. Tess' father is a loving failure. As she struggles in the unforgiving world, she is befriended by the other milkmaids Izz Huett (Jodie Whittaker), Retty, and Marian.

This is competently made for a TV mini-series. Arterton has the alluring beauty and the defiant sadness. There may be other colors that she fails to fill in the eyes of some Thomas Hardy fans but she's perfectly good to me. Redmayne has a fragile goodness nature which is very helpful. This is a female suffering melodrama along the Lifetime mode but with more costumes, more British, and more depth. This is a four-part mini-series. The fourth part does struggle to wrap everything up. The melodrama climax gets a bit cringy. It may not satisfy everybody but it has enough worthwhile.