Anna Fsadni I was intrigued by the first 15 minutes of the first episode, watched the rest and was disappointed. The plot moves so quickly with no character building what soever and the characters are so one dimensional. Caris is married to an abusive man in 30 seconds and then 1 minute later is raped and then he leaves her 2 minutes... and she seems to be unmarred by the horrific events - seriously? The men are either sexually perverse or chivalrous and there seems to be no redeeming quality to anyone that is bad. You either hate them or love them, you cannot be unsure of them. Let's not speak about all the historical inaccuracies. In fairness, the costumes and sets are brilliant and the casting is great. But I couldn't get past the second episode without turning it off.

Angel Clare While the production quality was excellent and the acting above par (the actors did what they could with the script), this mini-series was a huge disappointment.I was an enormous fan of the previous series ("The Pillars of the Earth")--indeed, enough of a fan to sludge through the tastelessly pretentious and mind-numbingly boring novel afterwards--so I was keen on a sequel series. Alas.Major issues: None of the protagonists had *any power whatsoever* the entire length of the series. None. I understand the whole "rising above the odds" trope that the plot was going for, but this series took it too far. "The Pillars of the Earth" used this trope, but perhaps due to actors with less charisma, or a weaker script, or something else, "World Without End" was simply painful to watch. Even the conclusion was weak--bad guys die in a hurry, hooray. The protagonists are never empowered. The antagonists, of course, are both many and powerful, and even receive the better half of the script.I couldn't cheer for any of the protagonists. One, because they never won anything; and two, because they were hardly given enough character for me to cheer for.You could call this a "sprawling epic," but I would place the emphasis on "sprawling." It overreached itself and fell on its face, sprawled on the muddy floor to be--hopefully--forgotten.

Leofwine_draca WORLD WITHOUT END is the TV miniseries follow-up to PILLARS OF THE EARTH; both are based on novels by Ken Follett and set in the medieval English town of Kingsbridge. I have a special place in my heart for PILLARS, because it single-handedly got me interested in historical TV programming, and since then I've gone on to experience the delights of ROME, THE TUDOR, SPARTACUS, GAME OF THRONES et al.WORLD WITHOUT END is nowhere near as good as PILLARS. Despite an equally impressive cast and budget, it feels like the show is rushed. The characters are occasionally artificial and the narrative feels manufactured. Many of the episodes are repetitive, at least thematically: it features the 'good' characters making progress only to be shot down by the 'bad', and the formula is repeated ad nauseum. The last episode, meant to tie everything up, does so in a merely defunct manner that robs the audience of so much emotional fulfilment.Despite the many obvious flaws, I still liked this show. It's extraordinarily fast paced, and never boring. A lot of the actors are decent: Peter Firth as the hateful feudal lord, Ben Chaplin as the mild-mannered monk, Charlotte Riley as the sensitive heroine. You even get that bastard Walder Frey thrown into the mix for good measure. The villains are increasingly pantomime, in particular Rupert Evans, but in the end I kind of admired the guy for his intractability and, of course, entertainment value.At the end of the day it's not a great show, and I can fully see where everybody is coming from in regard to criticisms. But I liked it enough to buy it and rewatch it in future; I just love medieval stuff filled with drama, political intrigue, the plague, swordfights, you name it. WORLD WITHOUT END fills all of the relevant quotas, even if it does so obviously and to a strict formula.

Jay_Jay2664 The storyline was great, the acting above and beyond and the villains were cringe worthy. I saw this on Netflix and was totally saturated with it. The villains were not only evil it made me feel as if I wanted to reach out and personally reach through time and strangle them myself.I thought C. Nixon was very inspiring as a villainess. The sex is tame compared to the awesome Borgias series on Netflix. Some complete female nudity, male behind. The sex scenes were more like light Skin-i-Max TV.All the ranting and raving of the book must say a lot and I might check it out. Although I understand it is quite wordy and time is not always on our side.If there is something that leaves you full yet wanting more it was this.