tv on dvd

A smart, luscious adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s semiautobiographical story of the trials of one honest, moral man amidst the SNAFU milieu of Britain’s World War II military…

This is television to make you feel as if you’ve never seen television before. Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund reinvent the episodic series with verve…

Perhaps we’re supposed to feel sorry to see this young dumbsters being taken advantage of by modeling agencies or poked and prodded by photographers and stylists; perhaps we’re supposed to laugh at them — I couldn’t work up the enthusiasm for either.

These complex, fantastical stories, cast in nothing but shades of gray, never step over the line into ridiculousness or self-parody…

The pacing is slow to the point of tediousness…

The surface is still a lot of goofy crap, but the subtext is a sneaky and unexpected stroll through the dilemmas of modern feminism.

It’s still all heaving bosoms and handsome men in uniform and Darcy smoldering and smirking his way through insufferable country balls and Elizabeth being efforlessly witty and clever…

Smart, subtle, provocative, thoroughly absorbing…

None of it is really science fiction, but it will appeal to fans of the genre, as well as those of mysteries, thrillers… hell, to anyone who loves enthralling TV.

Words cannot do justice to the series’ wild humor and expansive exuberance…