South Riding's Tragic Finish

Lydia from South Riding.

Last night's finale to South Riding left a bitter taste in my mouth, like being doused with salty, stinging sea water at the beach. Probably the most depressing show Masterpiece has shown in the past year, second only to Wallander, South Riding disappointed me from the beginning. I am all for realistic filmmaking, but at times the shots were too dark, the Yorkshire accents too thick, and the plot too barren. I think that I could have enjoyed the miniseries if it had been a bit longer; it takes time to become invested in characters, and I just couldn't fight for them like I wanted to.

The one bright spot in the series is the story of brilliant but broke Lydia. A scholarship student who lives in poverty, Lydia has to give up her education to take care of her brothers and sisters after her mother passes away. Lydia becomes the one character the audience can root for. She is completely innocent; she did not chose the path she is on, and she does her best to either "like it or lump it," as she puts it. Miss Burton becomes her champion, and, with her help, she gets back into school and eventually goes to university.

Lydia is the only character who gets a happy ending, unfortunately. Mr. Carne is killed in a riding accident, and orphaned Midge leaves South Riding to live with her grandfather. In a flash forward, we see Midge having her portrait painted, dressed up like her mother (because this audience isn't full of fools, we can infer that this alludes to Midge's impending mental breakdown. Like mother, like daughter). Miss Burton, heartbroken over Mr. Carne's death and fed up with the idle talk of town gossips, tries to leave, but she is convinced to stay, and we see in another flash forward that her persistence leads to a modern school being built.

South Riding ends on a note of hope that was so sorely lacking from the entire series. While it is nice to find some optimism in this tale of woe, I would have preferred to spend some more time with the town's inhabitants so that the somewhat cheerful conclusion would have meant more.

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Art of the Matter Salutes Mothers

Happy Mother's Day! To celebrate the woman in our lives who gave us life, taught us how to apply mascara, and to please drag a comb through your wadded-up hair, I've compiled a list of my favorite moms in film and TV. These three women exemplify some of my favorite qualities: crazy, colorful and kooky. They are devoted and often delirious, but you can't deny that they love their children.

Let's get crazy out the way first, OK? 1956's thriller The Bad Seed questions the nature of evil when it is seen in a seemingly pure form: a little girl. Nancy Kelly plays Christine Penmark, mother of the murderous Rhoda Penmark, who kills a classmate over a penmanship medal. Creepy? Absolutely. But Christine loves Rhoda and tries to protect her from discovery, realizing that Rhoda is crazy because of Christine's killer mother (takes mommy dearest to another level, huh?). Overcome with guilt, she tries to do whatever she can to save her little girl, and the consequences are diastrous. This cult classic is dark, but it leaves viewers spellbound and thankful for their own families.




My mother guessed that Lorelai Gilmore would make the list, and, of course, she was right. Probably the coolest, funniest mom in TV history, Lorelai (played by Lauren Graham) brought a new face to teen motherhood long before MTV created umpteen reality shows on the subject. The series began when Lorelai was 32 and her daughter Rory was 16, and viewers got to know the Gilmore Girls through ups and downs, many boyfriends and lots and lots of cups of coffee.


Auntie Mame from 1958 is proof that a woman doesn't have to give birth to be a spectacular mother. Oozing fabulousness from every pore in her body, Mame's party lifestyle is put on hold when her nephew Patrick is orphaned and sent to live with her. Mame's joie de vivre gives the sad boy a new lease on life, and they become partners in crime. Rosalind Russell is a delight, and her performance makes me want to don a kimono and do the Charleston.

So, here's to mom's everywhere, onscreen and off, who kiss our scraped knees, sing us our first songs and love us in spite of ourselves.







images from here, here, and yep, here

South Riding

Masterpiece is back y'all! After what I thought was a rather disappointing showing with Upstairs, Downstairs, viewers have a new three-part series to sink their teeth into. South Riding is like Anne of Green Gables meets Jane Eyre meets the gritty realism of post-WWI and pre-WWII England. Gone is the shiny veneer of the Victorian era; WWI, the war that was supposed to end all wars, took millions of lives, and this loss left all of Europe jaded. The effects of this war's awakening can be seen 15 years later in South Riding, a coastal town in Yorkshire. Being one of a surplus of two million unmarried women (their would-be spouses lost in the war), the protagonist of the series, Sarah Burton, is full of outlandish ideals such a pacifism and women's rights. She comes back to her hometown to be headmistress of a girls' school after teaching all over the world because she wants to make a difference. Her "radical" thinking doesn't immediately win her any fans, but her students adore her, and she slowly wins people over.

The cast is a who's-who of Masterpiece favorites. Anna Maxwell Martin, who was a delight in Bleak House, plays Miss Burton with such aplomb it's hard to imagine another actress taking on the role. Mrs. Beddows, a champion for Miss Burton, is played by Penelope Wilton, who most recently starred in Downton Abbey. Robert Carne, our Edward Rochester, is played by Sense and Sensibility's David Morrissey, who can break your heart with one glance. Everyone has their struggles in South Riding, but I think Mr. Carne might beat them all. He has an estate that is going bankrupt; his prized horse that he was going to sell to make everything better breaks its leg on barbed wire (hello sybolism and WWI allusion), and he has to put it down; his daughter Midge is so shell-shocked and damaged (from what we don't know) that she constantly worries that her father will leave her and never come back; and, finally, Mr. Carne's wife Muriel is insane and residing in an insitution, another obvious reason for the strain on the estate. These awful circumstances leave me full of dread for an unhappy ending. Miss Burton and Mr. Carne have an obvious yet tragic attraction, and this doesn't seem like a story where everyone lives happily ever after. Still, the acting is superb, and the plot is so realistic that I can't help but lose myself in it.

Because I think that there is always room for improvement, I do have one quibble with South Riding. There are three episodes of the series, but they're only 50 minutes each! Just when I felt like I could smell the sea air and feel the craggy cliffs beneath my feet, when I was so abosorbed I felt like I was in South Riding, Laura Linney's voice-over interrupted to tell me that the next episode would be here in a week. I'd rather stay up until 11 p.m. and watch the whole series than have to wait a week to see what happens. It spoils the mood, and the magic that each episode creates doesn't build. It's like getting to a cliffhanger in a book and then having to give it back to the library. It's a small problem, but vexing nonetheless. However, I already love this series, and I will tune in each week. The characters' problems are more complex and more dire than simply who marries who or who's in charge of making the night's menu. In the debate over what is more interesting, life upstairs or downstairs, I'm definitely more of a downstairs girl. And South Riding exemplifies the heart and passion that is seen in people who've struggled. I will definitely be watching next week, even if I don't feel an ocean breeze immediately.

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