Review of Brideshead Revisited

This is quite possibly the best long for series ever. Jeremy Irons is great as Charles Ryder. It is the series that made him star. His performance is superb as Charles Ryder the upper middles class, but not quite upper class, oxford student who falls in with Sebastian Flyte. Flyte is the incorrigle upper class drunkard who takes full advantage of his class position vis a vis Ryder. This review will be about the first two episodes of Brideshead. I've longed thought of Brideshead as the most appropriate series to go along with Cannidines's book about the Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy. This series is the longest, thirteen episodes, to deal with the subject of Britain's slow decline in WWI and WWII. I've seen A Dance to the Music of Time which was Anthony Powell's very well done treatment of those years, but Brideshead is better; more serious, more tense, and, perhaps, more accurate in it's portrayal of Imperial decline. Regrettably I've not read Cannadine's book. Yet, I have seen both long form series which do not dissapoint in any way.

I save this space to write further about these long form series which are making a comeback with the growth of webisodes and binge watching among younger viewers who are eshewing television for the web. I can only say that the settings of Brideshead are impeccable. I was awe struck by the portrayals of Oxford and the Marchmain estate. Simply fantastic.

The performances are good; so far. Of course there is Jeremy Irons who plays the reserved Charles Ryder. Throughout the first two episode I could not think of why he endures such treatment by Sebathian. As to why he is so obseessed with his class position vis a vis Sebastian. Yet, I detect, this was a symptom of the times. The whole of British society was obsessed with class, the empire, and gaining money at whatever cost. Similarly the New York of the times was obsessed with money, jazz, and status. Until the Depression struck with a resounding crash that's all New York thought about.

I've seen the series before so I know the outcome. I've also studied the Great Depression so I know the outcome of that catastrophe.

It is clearly a portrayal of the decline of the aristocracy in this long form series. And I think it is the best portrayal of the upper class's loss of status that has been done to date. It raises questions about Capitalism and inequality that the film doesn't answer, yet. It may show how unequal and uneccesary the upper class was to British society during the war period.

To be continued....