Guerre & Paix

The classic that BBC had to serve me on a silver platter, for which I can only give them my thanks. When the mess of many characters turns into a proper web of relationships, it's got you. All the moments of love, hate, and emotional intensity are polished to perfection, and the central trio of characters – the lost Paul Dano, the charismatic James Norton, and especially the radiant Lily James – who the viewer believes in her naive charm from the moment she first blinks, won my sympathy from the very beginning. If it weren't for the deceitful Kuragin family, I might even go for the highest rating. Nevertheless, the modern War and Peace has become a classic that doesn't hurt, but is instead tailored precisely to the viewer who enjoys being carried away by the inexhaustible stream of British television. (21/02/2016)

If you can get over the fact that "Russian soul" has disappeared from it and it is so noticeably British aristocratic and somewhat unnecessarily decadent in the behavior of some characters, it's excellent (so far). That is for sure. It's just no longer THE War and Peace. Which is a bit strange, especially when it strikes your eyes how many times Harper has seen Bondarchuk's version. In any case, you will hardly see a better television (not only) production with such a cast again, and if so, it will hardly be of such high quality. (05/01/2016)

I was really upset about the way the first part of the title was handled in the screenplay due to the budget. Practically all key battles took place off-screen. However, I liked how the romantic drama was executed. Paul Dano gave a brilliant performance in my view. The only problem was that he didn’t feel like an authentic Russian character. Anyway, I liked the series as a whole, but the creators could have put more effort into the details. (29/01/2019)