james-191-406632

Life Without George was a wonderful series. How do I know? Well 20 years later you still wonder what happened to the characters. Did they get back together? How's Mandy. I'm not the kind of person who generally likes maudlin series, but this was more. Well written without being OTT... characters you wondered and worried about. My wife and I were living in the UK at the time and followed it religiously, as we did series like Blackadder. Life Without George is a gem. A piece of cultural British history located in a time when the country was changing -- losing the last of whatever post-WWII energy and ideas remained. Yes, I imagine (as an earlier review said) there may be 'yuppie' parts that seem out of date; but this is a story of ill fated love, of friends, of what could have been. These themes never go out of date. Sorry, too, that Simon Cadell died so soon. BTW -- WHEN WILL BBC MAKE THIS SERIES AVAILABLE? HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO DIGITIZE 20 EPISODES????? YES, SOMETIMES THE BRITS ARE INFURIATING!!!!!

You've got to pay attention -- the lines come quickly and they're simple, direct but deeper than they first appear. A lot like Hemingway's lost generation in The Sun Also Rises, Stealing Summers shows a new generation just as lost in seeming prosperity. They have everything -- but they have nothing, and at varying levels each of the characters gets it. Sophie Auster is beautiful and plays her part just right -- a bit reminiscent of Anna Karina in Band of Outsiders, James Jagger is surprisingly good (the role is perfect for him) and Wilson Bethel is tremendous -- what talent he shows in this movie. As I said, very well written, almost poetic... the more you watch it the more there is to find. A bit slow at the start, but it's all part of the 'slow burn' that the characters and the audience feel.