Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.
“The Forsyte Saga,” based on the John Galsworthy novels and stories, has been a PBS mainstay since the first filmed-for-TV iteration debuted in 1967.
PBS remade the series once already with two seasons in 2002-03 starring Damian Lewis as Soames Forsyte.
Now we’re getting a third version on PBS’s “Masterpiece” with the title shortened to “The Forsytes” (9 p.m. Sunday, March 22-April 26, WQED-TV).
Set in 1877 London, this multigenerational story largely focuses on Forsyte cousins Jolyon Jr. (Danny Griffin) and Soames (Joshua Orpin) whose fathers, Jolyon Sr. (Stephen Moyer) and James (Jack Davenport, “Smash”), are also rivals.
Jolyon Jr. is a golden-haired, golden child with a windblown, surfer dude coif. He marries widow Frances (Tuppence Middleton) and welcomes her daughter, June (Justine Moore), into the family.
Soames, while still a nemesis to Jolyon Jr., is less villainous than in some past portrayals. And given Jolyon Jr.’s one-note demeanor, Soames is also the character viewers might want to spend more time with, at least in the early stages of his courtship of Irene Heron (Millie Gibson).
If you’re asking, “Why are they remaking this one again so soon?” Well, I had the same question.
Debbie Horsfield, showrunner of “Masterpiece” drama “Poldark,” cautioned this “Forsytes” is not a straight adaptation but more of a remix inspired by the time period Galsworthy’s novels are set in, a time when women were “beginning to have slightly more agency, the women’s suffrage movement was beginning to take off, so we were looking at the context of those stories.”
Horsfield was also intrigued by what today we’d consider the Forsytes’ intergenerational trauma.
“There are four generations and despite their best intentions, they all inflict damage on each other,” she said. “I think anyone with a family is fascinated by that.”
Finally, Horsfield wanted a chance to create more fleshed-out female characters.
“Irene is a really intriguing character, but we don’t really get to understand much of what makes her tick,” Horsfield said. “We don’t really get inside her head. She’s always viewed through all the men who fall in love with her and think she’s beautiful, but we don’t really get to understand why she ever married Soames in the first place, knowing that she didn’t love him. What did she expect from a marriage?”
“Forsytes” plays like “Downton Abbey” (minus the servant characters and plots) crossed with “Succession,” given the emphasis on family members jockeying for control of stock brokerage Forsyte & Co.
“Forsytes” plays Jolyon Jr. as a well-intentioned, cautious-in-business, Victorian-era soy boy stepfather to June, but because Jolyon and June look like they’re about the same age, it’s a little uncomfortable at times.
Early episodes reveal that Jolyon Jr.’s past misadventures in Europe come back to haunt him and from that point on, he’s kind of a miserable – but pretty! — gloomy Gus.
If “Downton” and “Gilded Age” offer a smooth blend of melodrama and lighter moments, “Forsytes” is choppier. It takes itself and its characters with utmost seriousness – until it doesn’t midway through episode three, allowing for comedic interludes mostly involving Winifred Forsyte Dartie (Eleanor Jackson) and her husband, Monty (Tom Durant Pritchard). Winifred encourages her father to add Monty to the Forsyte & Co. board of directors.
“Monty’s your man,” she advises. “He’s entirely without scruples and he’ll vote how you tell him to.”
Through the six-episode first season, “The Forsytes” explores themes of desire versus duty, what it means to rebel in the era and many exchanges of harsh words as characters fall in and out of love with such speed that some viewers may get whiplash.
There are other reasons this version of “Forsytes” is at a disadvantage: The 2002 series seemed fresh compared to the one from 1967, which was in black and white. And the 2002 iteration premiered in an era when costume dramas were scarcer, which made it more unique. This “Forsytes” comes on the heels of “The Gilded Age” and a new season of “Bridgerton.” It doesn’t help that “Forsytes” apes “Bridgerton” with narration by matriarch Ann Forsyte (Francesca Annis), who sounds a lot like Julie Andrews’ Lady Whistledown from the Netflix show.
“And so it begins, the crumbling of the polished façade, the unraveling of the carefully curated life we built for ourselves, free of scandal and inconvenient truths,” Ann Forsyte narrates at the start of episode two.
In addition to beginning with a never-before-seen prequel for its first season, “The Forsytes” is envisioned as an ongoing, annual series. Season two has already wrapped production and will likely air on PBS in 2027. A third season has also been ordered.
In addition to inventing characters from whole cloth, Horsfield also makes alterations to existing characters, some for the better, some not.
June’s governess has been replaced by Louisa (Eleanor Tomlinson). Jolyon Jr.’s first wife, Frances, only gets mentioned in the novel’s family tree, Horsfield said, but is a significant character in “Forsytes.”
“She’s considered to be so unimportant that she doesn’t feature in the book at all, but that seemed for our story to be a missed opportunity,” Horsfield said of Frances. “It is a kind of prequel, inasmuch as we meet this character and we do find out what makes her tick.”
By aging down Jolyon Jr. and Soames, in their 50s in the novels but in their early 30s in “Forsytes,” Horsfield gives the characters more opportunity to evolve over time.
“There’s endless runway” for story, Horsfield said. “The novels take place over about 30 years and we wanted to be able to go into a little more detail and stay with the characters for longer at certain stages of their lives.