Anna Rhyss-Parker The only thing this miniseries has in common with the book it was "based on" (?) is the name of the characters. This is not Ken Follet's World without end, it is something entirely different. If you hsve read the book, don't watch it! If you have not read the book, go read it, it's excellent!

cscsmith21 First off, I read the book which was okay but a bit repetitive of Pillars of the Earth. I was really looking forward to this series but ended up massively disappointed by it instead.Cynthia Nixon should go back to Sex and the City because her performance was 100% rubbish. God, if I saw her "I have a cunning plan" expression once I saw it a thousand times. She couldn't do anything with the character. Not that the rest of the cast were 1000 times better. Peter Firth was the only one who did well and Gwenda at least seemed interesting but neither were given enough time or breathing space to grow more.On top of that, some things are just implausible. Like how does Mother Cecilia get to be head of the nunnery and the town without learning how to spot and understand troublemakers like Godwyn. Politics, as Prior Philip understood, is part of being a leader of any description. Plus there is Gwenda, forcefully called "the Saxon" as if the writers were so lacking in confidence in this show that they hitched it "Pillars". Sort of "wink wink nudge nudge you remember Ellen don't you". Incidentally, the series creators lack of confidence is something that is obvious all the way though the 8 episodes.Another issue was its out and out invasion of history. Where Pillars would have local and town leaders meet with historical figures, this was possible because Kingsbridge was near places those people would conduct their business. Finesse, in other words. World without End pulls history around to have the likes of King Edward III give inordinate attention to, and finally launch an all out war against, Kingsbridge when he's only just begun invading France. I mean they have him specifically say Kingsbridge.There are other things too. Like how, when the plague strikes, does the character of Merthin know about "quarantine". He actually says quarantine. I'm pretty sure that wasn't invented until decades even centuries later. Or how the appearance of the statue of the Madonna changes so radically between Pillars and World without End without any of the people noticing or caring. Surely they must have realised at some point that (A) the statue was fake and (B) they weren't real miracles.The Bridge collapse was utter rubbish. Half the people looked like they were jumping off. Also, I just couldn't buy that falling off a crappy little bridge like that one would kill such a number of people as to be worthy of being called a major disaster.The way King Edward II was treated, as in the news of his "death" in the first episode, was stupid. It treated like freaking water cooler gossip or a scene from Eastenders or Coronation Street. For Gods sake, if a King back then died in mysterious circumstances, lords and peasants alike would be shitting themselves because more than likely a major war would break out.All in all, a very poor show and a slur on the fine work that was "Pillars of the Earth", both the book and the series.

SnoopyStyle It starts in 1327. The old king Edward III loses the civil war to his french Queen Isabella. She installs her son Edward III in as the new king. A knight Sir Thomas escapes after the murdered of the imprisoned former king to the fictional town of Kingsbridge. He seeks sanctuary as a monk. The toad Sir Roland uses his influence with the Queen to take over as Earl of Shiring. He launches a reign of terror condemning Edmund Wooler as well as the old Earl and others to death. Edmund's evil sister Petranilla (Cynthia Nixon) who poisoned Edmund's wife bribes to get Edmund freedom. Edmund's daughter Caris (Charlotte Riley) has the feel for medicine but the backwards world has little use for her except Petranilla is sending her to marry the brutal Elfric Builder. Petranilla's son is the weasel Godwyn (Rupert Evans). Roland spares the lives of the old Earl's sons taking Ralph as his squire while Merthin is given as Elfric Builder's apprentice. There are about twice as many other important characters.It's a maze of characters. This feels like a cheaper version of shows like Game of Thrones without the dragons. It's work to stay on top of every character. Basically the theme is bad things happen to good people. The world is an ugly place and people are ugly, too. It feels very repetitive. The best ugly people has to be Cynthia Nixon and Rupert Evans. That's a crazy mother and son duo. Caris feels a little too modern. She should realize what comes with the world she lives in. She seems to be always shocked at the injustice. Overall, there are good actors in a reasonable mini-series.

M Q Okay, as it says, there are spoilers below.I read the reviews. Seems like those that did not read the book enjoyed the miniseries, while virtually everyone who read the book did not enjoy the miniseries.I agree completely. I read the books and the miniseries left a lot to be desired. My issue is, why change the plot so significantly? In the miniseries, many key characters were missing, Caris marries Elfric,Petronella and Godwyn are murderers, the queen hates Kingsbridge, Sir Gerald was Earl, there is no mention of Shiring, etc. etc. and I am only half way through the videos. I understand cutting it short for film, but why the huge changes? And why did Ken Follett agree to this?Did he think it was an improvement on the book? (Maybe it was, I don't know). I was just looking forward to the video version of the novel. I found myself simply comparing all of the changes which seemed needless. 1) Maybe if you haven't read the book or seen the series, watch the series first. The book is much more detailed and it will still be fresh because of the huge differences.2) The only reason I gave it 7 out of 10 is that if you have not read the book, it probably would be an enjoyable miniseries. The acting is good, the characters are good. I want to be fair to the screen version and not tainted by my having read the book. (BUT WHY THE NEEDLESS CHANGES?)3) Mr. Follett, I really hope they paid you a huge amount of cash for the video rights. Not for it being bad, just for it being basically so different from the book.Hope this helps!!