Jon Breckenridge-Mitchell

I absolutely loved this series. I am surprised many seemed to completely miss the point of it. Throughout time people’s existence and relationships are built around religion and their understanding of the purpose of life. When faced with the possible return of a Jesus like figure he is constantly met with skepticism and ridicule; those who enforce the law are sure he is an evil doer. Of course, there are the masses of believers but the story centers on the many working to prove him to be a terrorist or some kind of con artist. That just fascinates me.

A good manifestation of a Jane Austin novel is the authenticity of the production and a skillful adaptation of her wit, humor and insight into human social constructs. I am no fan of the current style of rendering historic English period dramas with anachronistic phrasing and multi cultural actors which loses every bit of the author’s talent and prevents the audience from being drawn into the story. So this version was a big, flat bore.

Certainly a story about how Julia Child began her career is a compelling concept. I was initially pleased Sarah Lancaster affected Child’s distinctive voice and somewhat clumsy countenance. But over time Lancaster’s acting never really felt honest. Unless Child had vision problems Lancaster’s penchant for looking at people like she’s trying to get their faces in focus is odd but not informative. David Hyde Pierce plays Paul Child like a small somewhat pathetic mouse striving for some level of respect. The fact that Mr Child was a senior level diplomat doesn’t really jive with Pierce’s characterization. It isn’t a terrible series but it feels woefully miscast.

I liked the concept but it seems to be pretty random in the story lines. The big calling tests are always obtuse and more often than not are little personal issues that make me wonder why they are worthy of a show. With 3 seasons and over 36 episodes, this isn’t a clever Dickensian puzzle assembled to a clever whole; it feels more like writers struggling to come up with an episode while they don’t really know where they are going.

If you think rich people’s lives consist of drinking, doing drugs and having sex, this show’s for you. It gets so bored with itself plots are left dangling until some writer, three episodes later, goes, “oh yeah, we forgot about this.”