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The Forsytes<\/a><\/p>\n Episode 1<\/p>\n \n Season 1<\/p>\n Episode 1\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 4 stars<\/p>\n ****\n <\/p>\n \n Photo: PBS\n <\/p>\n Here\u2019s the thing: We all need to reset our expectations. This is not a 2026 high-budget period drama. What you are about to witness is airing on your local PBS station in the year of our Lord 1997 and it will be interrupted by a pledge drive. The Forsytes is filmed like the director just watched a bunch of \u201990s BBC miniseries and got some big ideas, like \u201cWhy make the leading man change his everyday hairstyle even though the show is set in 1887?\u201d and \u201cWhat if every scene were underscored for drama?\u201d But they also add in new elements, like a weird filter that smooths everyone out. When I started watching, I was expecting PBS\u2019s The Gilded Age<\/a>, but once I realized this was spiritually a 1990s BBC soap opera, it became my favorite thing. This is what I actually want from The Gilded Age. I need melodramatic goings-on at all times. The evil cousin falls in love with an aspiring ballerina whose family he has ruined? YES. Oh Lord, yes. If All Creatures Great and Small<\/a> is our cozy and comforting show in this unending hellscape, The Forsytes can be our escapist junk food. The period-drama equivalent of a Slurpee from 7-11. Is it great? No. But also yes.<\/p>\n The Forsytes are a prominent family in 1880s London who have successfully married their way into society. The culmination of this work is the wedding of Jolyon Forsyte and Frances Lastname (it will not matter, at least in this episode). Frances is the queen of London high society and elevates the Forsyte name. This elevation will be tested as almost every member of the family tries their best to besmirch that name through DRAMA. Yesssss, my puppets, threaten the family\u2019s standing with your\u00a0 antics!<\/p>\n Ten years into his marriage to Frances, Jolyon is working for his father (Bill from True Blood! What a weird show this is!) and competing with his evil cousin Soames at their brokerage firm. Jolyon\u2019s hair and beard are very \u201cI walked off the set of a Gillette commercial,\u201d but that\u2019s okay. I have come to terms with it. Jolyon\u2019s wife, Frances, has a daughter from a previous marriage named June. June is not important, except as a link between the more interesting characters. She shuffles them around on the board through the power of her 18-year-old whimsy.<\/p>\n Other important players include Irene Heron the Aspiring Ballerina; Louisa the Dressmaker (it\u2019s Demelza from Poldark!); Soames\u2019s dad, played by Jack Davenport from Coupling and Pirates of the Caribbean (also famous for being Michelle Gomez\u2019s husband); and Jolyon\u2019s aunt, Ann, who speaks like Angela Lansbury in Anastasia.<\/p>\n Frances wants to marry June off and has arranged her coming-out ball. June wants to run off and be an artist or something. When Frances brings her to the dressmaker to prepare her gown, June is very \u201cWow, I love your simple life.\u201d Stop talking, June. Oh, also, Louisa the Dressmaker immediately looks overcome by Frances\u2019s appearance in her shop, so you\u2019re like, Okay, either this is somehow gay (unlikely) or Louisa had an affair with Jolyon (accurate). Also her hair is down, and that is bananas for the time period. Does Eleanor Tomlinson have something in her contract about getting to have Demelza hair in all her shows? If so, good for her. Louisa has two kids and I have a guess about their father. Soap operas: They don\u2019t have to be shocking, but they do have to take some big swings. Which this will!<\/p>\n \u201cHow have you barely mentioned Soames?\u201d I hear you asking. Yeah, I know. Soames is the Loki of The Forsytes, if Loki had a dad other than Odin who was constantly telling him how much Thor sucks. I guess that was that Frost Giant king. Regardless! Soames is the \u201cI shall never marry\u201d guy who only cares about money and ambition but then he passes a red-headed ballerina in the park and it\u2019s all over for him. Yessssss. Meanwhile, though, he is being evil at the stock brokerage and causing a big mining company to collapse by selling all the firm\u2019s shares. Jolyon is so mad. Soames thinks Jolyon is weak. He probably is! He keeps sketching things like he doesn\u2019t have a family to support. Get a haircut and bankrupt some widows, Jolyon.<\/p>\n By the way, was anyone else confused about the sexy energy between Frances and Bill from True Blood? I was like, Wait, are you two into each other? Is that gonna happen? I don\u2019t think I want to see it, but I do like when two evil people are really into each other. But also, sleeping with your father-in-law should only result in these kind of feelings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Okay, so Soames sees Ballerina Irene at the park and is thunderstruck. Her professor father immediately has some kind of heart issue, and Soames is able to render assistance. Wow, a rich, handsome young man coming to her aid. Does Irene even have a choice in this story? I mean, maybe. But mostly no. Also, don\u2019t tell me what happens, but I\u2019m immediately on Team \u201cLet\u2019s Reform Soames.\u201d Irene\u2019s dad dies, and Soames shows up at the funeral. Her stepmother flirts with him, and when he offers to help, she asks him to look at their finances. Well guess whose money was all wrapped up in the big mining company. That\u2019s right, that comment about bankrupting widows was foreshadowing! Soames has ruined Irene\u2019s family and her chances of going to Paris to study ballet. I can\u2019t tell if he\u2019s happy about this or not, because now Irene has no real options but him. Reform faster, Soames!<\/p>\n