North and South

A Southern saga in the manner of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" and "Scarlett" by Alexandra Ripley. Patrick Swayze and Kirstie Alley act wonderfully. The first two seasons were very even, while the additional filming years later was laughable. However, by quickly adapting the first two books of the "North and South" trilogy, "Love and War" and "Heaven and Hell" by John Jakes, the series did maintain the authentic perspective of the time. (03/04/2021)

I was expecting all sorts of things from this. In my family, we love the Scarlett mini-series, so I would have rather assumed it would be worse given its age, but wow, the series starring Patrick Swayze as a proud Southerner is divine and can be binge watched! It’s high-quality, suspenseful, and informative. The acting is great as far as the eye can see, the best being Kirstie Alley as the fighter for the abolition of slavery and the most beautiful lyrical protagonist Lesley-Anne Down. I'm looking forward to the next season. (06/01/2017)

As quickly as I got excited for Season 1, the second one doesn't give me as much joy. The story is still the same, the civil war is more driven by lace than anything else, and the expected highlights like the wedding between Orry and Madeline happen in passing... The overwhelming number of war events just keeps piling up and piling up until the successful end of the fighting. Unfortunately, though, individual characters lose their backstory and their development is odd, with Virgilia Hazard being the most pressing example (though she's still wonderfully played by Kirstie Alley). (08/01/2017)

It's simply sensational how far an originally great show has fallen. Season 3 is a waste of time. Orry got himself killed off-screen, which is as tacky as the cleavage of all the former beauties of the original North and South. So many recast actors create a completely alienating impression - it as if they are not even the same characters. Pure futility. I would like to believe that the quality of the series describes the era in this style – Season 1 is full of the glamour of pre-war society, Season 2 is disillusionment with the war, and Season 3 is a total reassessment of the quality of life. But it would be too ambitious and naive to approach the whole series this way. (10/01/2017)