wmeyer-8 *** This review may contain SPOILERS ***First of all, seasons 1-3 were very well done, with few disappointments. Characters were well developed, as were relationships.Then came season 4. With all respect to the reviewer who claims Eleanor "dis not go off the rails", she clearly did. And so did the writers, who appear to have little sense of balance or subtlety in season 4. I am inclined to believe that the absence of some characters in the closing season resulted from their having read the scripts and dashed for the door.Major failings include: - no clear sense of the time elapsed since end of season 3 horrible music, intrusive and forgettableloss of characters without explanation (Sidney, Robert, Kate, and others) new characters whose back story only becomes apparent in snatches over time near total suspension of reason on the part of Eleanor, and of morals, as well utterly implausible introduction of Dr. Marsham's moral turpitude (the man worked too many hours to have had time for that) uneven exposition of plot: there are jarring leaps over details which needed explication, and on the other hand, dreary working to death of the details of the search for Dora, which added little to our understanding, or of the plight of such girlsI could write more, but suffice it to say, your time will be spent much more happily on more engaging activities; arranging your books, or doing your taxes, or even a visit to the dentist.

dbh850 *SPOILERS!!!!*Season 1-3: LOVE IT! Season 4: HATE IT!!What the heck happened?!?! They ruined this series. By the time I was into Season 4, I realized completely different people probably wrote it - or if they are the same people, they all got brain injuries. I don't know which and I'm too disgusted with the whole thing to look that up.As time went by, I became more and more disgusted with the protagonist, Eleanor Bramwell. She made some really stupid decisions and didn't learn from them. She lost her charm for me - I was more interested in her father and step mother by Season 4 than by her - and they disappeared completely. I don't understand why they wrote so much heartache caused by her. Poor Dr. Marsham! A completely decent fellow, honorable and smart and responsible and - well, I LIKED that relationship. Why kill it? They could have written ANYTHING happening. And all that unprotected sex and the big crisis is a pregnancy. REALLY?!?! She's a physician at a time when there were very few women doctors and ALL of their battles were uphill, she knows everything about how pregnancies occur, they had very primitive birth control, and she's UPSET that she got knocked up?!?! Oh man - that really ticked me off. She KNEW that a pregnancy would be a career-ending scandal. I spent 13 years in university and a few more in internships myself. There is NO WAY I would do something that stupid if it could destroy a couple of decades of schooling and training.On the medical side of things, it was remarkable to me that they showed so little in the way of the mortality rate from surgery at that time. It was a terrible, agonizing death. Opening up people's bodies and sticking your bare hands in there is NOT always helpful. It would have been realistic to have some of those sorts of things going on.But most of all, it's not a good idea to write a protagonist whom people like in the beginning and despise at the end. Reading some of these reviews - and looking at what people are saying on Netflix - I'm impressed with how much people dislike the way the show ended and dislike the protagonist. This series should be required viewing for film majors.

sherry-86-950063 This is an exceedingly hard series to rate because the first three seasons are so terrific and the fourth is unaccountably bad. First season deserves the 9 stars I gave it. I would seriously only give the last season one--half it they'd let me. Do yourself, Eleanor and the other characters a favour and resist the temptation to watch the fourth season.The first three seasons are interesting, well composed period pieces of life in Victorian London. Story lines focus on an intelligent, educated young woman and her widowed father. Both are doctors. At the time women doctors were an anomaly. The class and sex divisions of that society are depicted in interesting detail throughout the series as Eleanor moves from a hospital position, dabbles in middle class general practice and goes on to become head of a free infirmary in the slums of the city.Jemma Redgrave and the other actors are simply excellent. The casting director is to be commended. The third season ends at a good point, but the series is so well done you naturally want more. Resist if you can that tempting fourth season. It is a poison apple.Apparently the Pod People visited the set in the third-fourth season hiatus, taking over the bodies and minds of both cast and crew. The last two tedious episodes are imitations of bad art-house fare--darkly lit, with unnaturally bright lighting on certain characters' faces. Intrusive, annoying and at times downright weird music. Eleanor's devoted father and other ongoing major characters apparently were abducted by our alien visitors, for they are nowhere to be seen. The Men in Black must have visited the Thrift (Eleanor's slum-based infirmary) because there's not a mention of them or the fact the Thrift appears to be an entirely different building (with several new floors!)in the same place it always was.Worst of all is the fact that the characters we've come to love, with all their warts and bumps, have been replaced by automatons bearing the same names and clothing. It was of passing interest to see an actress as good as Jemma Redgrave tackle the role of an entirely new (and unlikeable) character with only a name in common with the person she'd portrayed so beautifully in the past.Do not sully the memory of these people by watching the last season. You'll only regret it. Your time will be better spent looking up Jemma Redgrave in IMDb to see her other work. That's where I'm going next.

vgs1895 I came upon this miniseries by accident, and I am glad I did. I'd never heard of it, but it sounded interesting. It really does a good job of portraying what London and medicine probably were like back in the 1800's. Though not an overtly feminist piece, it does depict what women doctors had to go through to gain a bit of respect. The story line might be considered thin for four videos, but it held my interest enough so that I purchased it. If medicine, Merry Olde England, or good acting is of interest to the viewer, this is well worth watching.