emrys-948-238958

This was an excellent series that I thoroughly enjoyed watching over 2 nights. It does deteriorate somewhat in the later episodes, but "the Diplomat" bumping in the Prime Minister when they are raiding the kitchen/wine seller etc. Is good stuff. There's a lot of that.

It was marred buy the final episode, which was just ridiculous. The right way to end a series is with a satisfactory conclusion. Then for series 2, you go back, find a loose end, unpick it, until everything you knew in series 1, isn't. And on from there.

Ending the last episode with a big explosion is crude and boring. What were they thinking?

It's not about the building the Eiffel tower, a major engineering achievement in its day. It's mainly a day-time soap about the un-interesting love life of Mr. Eiffel. Even his reasonably interesting daughter barely gets a look in, the Eiffel tower under construction is mainly confined to back-drop, to provide variety from the over-long close-ups of faces with 'emoshunal' expressions.

What a wasted opportunity. Just tragic. The actual mechanics of the team that got this done, which would have been interesting, is un-touched. How they dealt with problems that occurred and differences of view during construction ... nothing.

I have enjoyed this. A good historical drama that stays the right side of 'soap', which is quite unusual these days. Good acting, good characterizations, good contact with history, credible and interesting story lines. And, my bete noir, no modern Americanisms foisted into 19th C London society. The dialogue is properly done.

I would welcome a 2nd series. The story is complete, and so it should be. I hate the series where the last episode is all dangle for series 2 and no denouement. But life goes on, there is no reason why there shouldn't be a 2nd series of what happens next for them all.