Melissa McNair

It's so, so hard bringing beloved books to life in a TV series or movies. Super fans of the books know the material backwards and forwards, and when big changes are made to fit the books for screen adaptation, it's noticed. I wonder how people who have watched this series without reading the books first were able to form a coherent understanding of the story. Everything felt rushed... I watched the series with my husband (who did not read the books), and I spent more time answering questions and explaining backstory that was in the books but not the show than I did watching the episodes. I wanted to love the tv series version of this story, but I couldn't. I didn't hate it, I did like watching it overall. The locations, sets, wardrobes were all amazing. The period costumes for season 2 were magnificent. I was able to overlook some of the big book-to-screen changes, and if Diana was cast better I might feel differently. I wasn't crazy about Teresa's performance as Diana. She looks the part, but seeing her on screen as Diana just felt wrong. Her portrayal of Diana felt empty and devoid of emotions at times. I don't know if it's because the actress is Australian and was hyper-focused on speaking with an American accent, which resulted in a stiff, robotic and emotion-less performance much of the time. It was either that, or her over-acting in some scenes that were cringy at times. I've seen Teresa in some of her other work and thought it was great, but this - not so much. Maybe I just had high expectations of a character that has so much depth, emotion, and a sense of humor in the books. I saw almost none of that on screen. The rest of the cast was excellent.