British Miniseries

It was difficult, but I managed to make it through the entire first episode of 'Parade's End' without writing it off completely. The acting skill of Benedict Cumberbatch is obvious when you compare his role in Sherlock Holmes to that of an entombed statistician who speaks like he has a mouth full of prunes.  Watching with the close captioning button on is a necessity.

And Rufus Sewell, as a loopy reverend, is another example of how well the English can act, even if you don't understand what the hell they're all about. I suspect if I knew more of the Ford Madox Ford story watching would be more of a cinch.

But the scenery is so nice and colorful. It adds its own certain charm to the story. Certainly it's not easy to understand why a guy knowingly marries a woman who is pregnant with someone else's child, but then that's part of the story. The serially unfaithful wife Sylvia is quite a piece of work. If she sang, she'd be Carmen for sure.

So, with baseball not yet here, it may be possible to absorb at least another episode or so, since they're all out there on the DVR, waiting retrieval.

Who knows, if all finally ends well for Christopher Tietjens at the end of the parade, then maybe he'll be easier to understand when he talks.

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