Poldark, Episode 1

Poldark

by Winston Graham

Welcome to our reviews and recaps of BBC’s Poldark, starring Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson, based on the novels by Winston Graham! lets get started with the angst, shall we?

It’s woods, in Virginia, 1781.  A party of redcoats are camped in the woods, and two of them are playing cards. One, a ruggedly handsome Aidan Turner without his LoTR dwarf get-up, puts in a ring as his stake, and another man snarks “Gambling again? Remind me why you’re here, Poldark?” “To escape the gallows for brawling and assaulting a customs official.” The man snipes that the current army is full of wastrels and such, “but you’ll soon find the justice of our cause.”  “What cause is that, sir? Liberty or tyranny?” Poldark asks the hard questions.

Naturally, some American Patriots take that moment to stage a guerilla attack, and Poldark fights but gets a bludgeon to his head for his trouble.  There’s an arty flashback of a woman saying that she wants him to come home, she smiles and runs off, and he opens his eyes back in the woods.

The opening title sequence is scenery and fire.

We come back to a mail coach thundering down the road at sunset: “Cornwall, two years later.” Poldark is asleep, and other voices mutter that he was presumed dead, and gave no credit for his actions. His father was “no different, a scoundrel and a wasterel.” But a family name counts for something, and now he’s to inherit. Poldark wakes up, and asks if his father is dead. The woman gasps that she had NO IDEA HE WASN’T ASLEEP (that doesn’t make it better, lady), and Poldark confirms that he received no word about his father’s death while he was away. He has the coach drop him off to go to his uncle’s house- since his father isn’t there to welcome him, he’ll have to go someplace else to announce his apparent return to life.

Awkward looks are shared as he gets out of the coach. (He’s so pretty) He walks down a long road with no building to be seen, so our boy’s got a bit of a hike, but it takes him by the ocean and windswept cliffs, so there’s that.

In a dining room, a group of people are finishing what looks to have been an excellent dinner, and the same woman that Poldark remembered while he was concussed (Elizabeth) protests that she couldn’t eat another bite. The door slams, and the younger daughter is told that she’s too valuable at home to be thinking of suitors (so the parents are dicks), and in walks Poldark (whose given name is Ross). Another man, Francis, leaps up and says “It’s good to see you cousin!” and everyone is just shocked that he’s there and not dead. Elizabeth looks like she’s about to barf.

Lots of awkward looks are shared, and Ross is so happy to see Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s mother demands to know how they lost the war (“by picking the wrong side”). Elizabeth tries to tell him that she needs to speak with him privately, and her mother sends her out to fetch a wrap. Ross realizes that he’s interrupted a party, and his uncle says that Francis is getting married!  Yay!  Ross is thrilled!  Who’s the lucky girl! Elizabeth’s mother smugly says that it’s, yup, Elizabeth! Ross is considerably less thrilled, but tries to not make a scene.

So he asks about his father’s death. His uncle says that it was a poor end, and everything is a mess, mine closures, economic downturn, and “you scarred for life!” Ross finally reaches his breaking point, excuses himself, and leaves by making a toast to Elizabeth and Francis. He’s trying.

He borrows a horse and rides to his own home past lovely sunset scenery, finally gets home at full dark with broken gates and a door that doesn’t close all the way, and everything is dark and there’s a goat in the kitchen. He calls for Jud and Prudie, and finds a chicken in the kitchen, too. Jud and Prudie are found snoring in bed, and he stares at them for a minute before getting a bucket of water from the well and waking them up by dashing it upon them. “JUDAS! It’s Master Ross!” “BACK FROM THE GRAVE. On your feet!”

In the morning, they’re cleaning up the shithole that is the kitchen, and they appear to have been protesting ALL NIGHT that they thought he was dead and he’s like yeah, maybe you started that rumor, assholes. They pout, but continue to clean.

Ross takes stock- broken window, a horse skeleton IN THE FIELDS, hole in the roof- it’s a disaster. He rides off to visit his father’s grave, then finds some men who are shocked, but happy! to see him. At least someone is happy to see him. They’re his tenants, and there have been no repairs to their buildings since before his father died. He says he’ll take care of them, and they’re happy to help. He is reluctant to accept their help when he has no way to pay them, and when asked what really happened during the war, he says “I grew up.”

In town, his banker gives him the rundown on his inheritance. The house, two derelict mines, rundown cottages and land left to rot. As a banker, he in no position to help- there were debts. Lots of debts.

A douchebag, at home, with his uncle, muses that Ross is alive, and that might useful to them. At school, Ross had a following, and was one of those types that people flock to. “That might be useful for our cause.” His uncle urges caution and also that people tend to be very friendly when they cannot afford not to be. DUN DUN DUNNNNNN.

Elizabeth marches off, ready to go talk to Ross, but her mother holds her back. She’s engaged to be married! She can’t go running off to Ross just because! Ross can offer her nothing by poverty and a dubious reputation, and besides, if Ross truly cared for you, would he not have been at the door by now? Elizabeth accepts this version of reality.

Ross meets Verity, his younger cousin (the planned spinster one) and she gives him the rundown on Elizabeth and Francis- one moment she barely noticed Francis and then… she noticed his estate and shit.  The wedding is in a fortnight. She offers what help she can, but he will find his own way out of it.

Montage of Ross fixing things, hanging with his tenants, looking sad and drinking, and Elizabeth looking pensively over the cliffs to the sea.

Francis meets up with Elizabeth, and makes a sweet speech about how he may not be the most exciting dude, he will give her his undying love. “But if there’s something you wish to tell me…?” Elizabeth looks angst-ridden, but then smiles  and tells him that she cannot wait to be his wife. So there.

Francis finds Ross picking up rocks at one of the mines, and is like “omg you’re doing like, manual? labor? your father would be so sad also how do you pick things up?” They decide to check out the mine and see if it’s as useless as everyone says. Down into the ground they go. The mine is 30 fathoms deep, and most of it is underwater.

Francis tries to delicately put forward the idea that his father (Ross’ uncle) is worried that Ross will make bad choices, and maybe he should find a life elsewhere. Also, Ross, WHY HAVEN’T YOU ACCEPTED THE WEDDING INVITATION. ROSS IT IS OUR DEAREST WISH.  ROSS YOU MUST COME TO THE WEDDING. Ross tries a soft no, and Francis keeps going until Ross yells “MUST YOU RUB MY NOSE IN IT” and shoves Francis backwards into a sinkhole pool of water. Francis can’t fucking swim, and Ross takes a good long minute thinking about whether or not to save his life before pulling him out.

“Why the hell don’t you learn to swim.”  “For a moment, I thought you’d let me drown.” Ross is like yup, I thought about it.

At the wedding, Ross stands in the back, and remembers when Elizabeth gave him her ring. After the wedding, the douchebag (George) arrives in a velvet coat and shiny carriage, and Verity’s like yup, they’ve become rich and powerful in the county.

Dancing!  There’s dancing. I rather wish they’d held longer overhead shots so we could see the patterns, but they don’t, because no one appreciates English Country Dances like they should.  Verity looks sideways at Ross, hoping for a dance. George and his father talk loudly about how Elizabeth is wasted on the Poldarks. Ross gets disgusted and stalks out.  George follows him, and offers friendship, but it’s so slimy, and Ross isn’t having it. Verity comes in to rescue him, and they walk through a hall where cockfighting is happening.

“You see!” Verity says to Elizabeth, “He hadn’t left after all!” Elizabeth tells him that she was hoping that he’d come to see her- so she could explain and apologize. He tries to give her an out, nothing formal, etc, etc, and she’s not letting him and blaming him at the same time. Three years is a long time, but we can be friends, right?  Right?  Ross is like whatever. He’s really hurt, and really trying to be polite but give himself space to do what he needs to.

Once he’s at home, what he needs to do is drink. A lot. His great aunt does a tarot spread, and ends with “for all is fair in love and war.” Ross throws the ring across the room.

In the morning, Ross is working (Jud and Prudie are still there, sullen and pouty, but silent) when his uncle comes to deliver some “truths” that I’m sure aren’t engineered to make Ross go away at all. The Cornwall mines aren’t producing enough to keep things going (in Wales they’re pulling ore out by the cart load) and there’s debt all over. And Ross’ mines? Derelict. Land, barren. “There’s nothing for you here, boy. A change in profession.” He offers to fund Ross’ education. Ross says he’ll think about it, but his uncle is really angry at that answer. “You shouldn’t be biting my hand off!  What possible reason is there to stay?”

On Market Day, Ross heads back into town with his father’s pocketwatch. With the money, he buys a cow, and then finds a crowd setting up for a dog fight. A filthy girl in rags shrieks that the bait dog is hers, and she’s held back (Oh, look, Elizabeth is in the crowd, too, as are George and his slimey uncle) and she fights and fights. But she is small, and they hit her. She’s knocked to the ground, and Ross jumps in and grabs the ringleader. “Take my advice, and you run.” “Or what?” “Or you get a cane to the face.” Ross tells everyone else to disperse and hustles her off to a tavern to get her a bowl of stew.

A man at the tavern identifies her as Carne’s daughter, and that she’ll get beaten for running off in her brother’s clothes. She’s methodically stuffing her face and not cowering, but hunched over it protectively, better to bite the hand of anyone who tries to take it away from her. Ross gets it out of her that she has six brothers, and her father beats her (he can see the marks on her back) and that she loves her father only because “the bible says I must.” Her name is Demelza Carne.

George saunters in and snarks that Ross is befriending the rabble. George and his uncle exposit that they’re tradesmen, but rich, so that explains that.

Ross brings Demelza to the crossroads (she’s singing), and he offers to let her go home, or she can take a job with him as a kitchen maid. Food, clothing, too far from home. She drives a hard bargain- he’s got to let her bring her dog, Garrick.

Jud and Prudie aren’t thrilled at the idea of another mouth to feed (well, two), and after having D get a bath and a headscrub, Ross finds some candlesticks and Elizabeth’s ring to sell.  He also finds a letter from his uncle, stuffed full of banknotes.  He eats and stares at the notes, while D lurks off in the corner.  He tells her that if Jud and Prudie won’t make her welcome, she’s got to stand up for herself.  Also the dog is not be brought inside.

The dog cries at night, so D sneaks him in and the two of them bed down by the fire.

Ross rides to his uncle’s and waits in the dining room, and Elizabeth finds him- he asks for his uncle. He doesn’t want to talk to her.

D comes out into the yard, and sees three men coming towards the house. She looks concerned.

Back at Ross’ uncle’s, Elizabeth tries to make small talks, and Ross is like this is terrible. I should go. Elizabeth makes it ALL ABOUT HER and says that it just pains her to think about how much he hates her! Ross finally tells her that there’s been no one else for him since he set eyes on her, but “I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD and there’s no one else for me but Francis” and for god’s sake, girl, you think this doesn’t suck for him? Please realize that while you thought he was dead for years, he got dumped like three weeks ago and there’s been no wallowing time. He doesn’t have the luxury of Ben and Jerry’s. He stalks out and gets on his horse. “At least let us part as friends!” OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE. “We can never be friends. Tell my uncle he has his wish.”  Elizabeth is confused.

Back at home, Ross tells Prudie to tell D to pack up, that he’s going to London and she’s going to her father. “But her father’s here!” Whaaaaaat.

Her father and his toughs demand the return of D, who is missing, and then Jud sees a huge pack of men coming up the road. They’ve come for justice. D’s father headbutts Ross, and Jud goes down to the road to stop the pack. But Prudie ran off and got Ross’ tenants, and there’s a full on melee brawl. (The tenants win.)

Ross and D’s father fight, until her father gets a knee to the balls and a punch to the gut that throws him across the table.  “Please be so good as to close the door on your way out.”  Prudie comes in, and tells Ross that she hasn’t seen D in a while. Ross is like “Well, that’s for the best, seeing as she’s way more trouble than she’s worth.” Prudie announces that Jud is fighting the pack of miners, and Ross runs off to help. D was hiding in the liquor cabinet, and Prudie encourages her to leave for real. D looks like she’s considering biting Prudie’s face off, but stomps out.

Francis finds out that Ross has been invited to leave, and Elizabeth is upset.

Ross and his boys trade notes, and Ross is little bit put out that he missed a full scale brawl. His boys have his back, though. And always will.

Francis doesn’t like anything about this situation.  “You’ll like it less if you lost your wife.” His father intones.

D is walking and singing, and Ross finds her. “What have you got to sing about.” He pulls her up on his horse and brings her to the crossroads. Elizabeth meets them (AT THE CROSSROADS GET IT) and implores Ross not to leave. He wasn’t. “But your uncle said!”

“I lost sight of something. Having found it, I’m going home.”

He and D ride past the mine, and she asks, “What’s that to you?”

“My inheritance.”

CarrieS:

I HAVE THOUGHTS.

First of all, I can think of reasons why Ross’s scar looks less like a scar and more like he got drunk at a party and someone drew on him with a permanent marker. But I want to see my scarred and sexy heroes look like they have scars, OK?  I have scars.  Lots of them. They are hard to come to terms with. Give me some freaking role models, people.

That being said, Ross is so broody and sexy with his wacky hair and his once-in-a-blue -moon huge smile, and he’s nice to Demzela and his tenants – but he also makes her dog sleep outside and he’s a huge whiner when it comes to Elizabeth. Yes, I know, it sucks, Ross, that you left and you came back and everything has gone to shit.  It really does suck. But she thought you were dead, dude. So don’t ignore her until after the wedding and then hit on her the minute the wedding is over. At this point, I really don’t know if I like Ross or dislike him. He’s like a real person, I guess – likeable in some ways and shitty in others. He’s not boring, that’s for sure.

Elizabeth has all the agency of a paper napkin. GIRL. WOMAN UP. At least her clothes are super pretty. The whole show is gorgeous. Love the landscape, the clothes, and the sets. But I also have been trying to figure out what it is about Masterpiece Theater Productions that is so inescapably Masterpiece Theater? Is it the film? The camera angles? As soon as Poldark was asleep in the carriage I knew exactly which channel we were on. Anyway, it’s very lovely Masterpiece Theater, so this is an observation, not a complaint.

At his point I actually don’t care that much about the fates of Francis, or Elizabeth, or even Ross.  But if anyone fucks with Demelza and her dog, we’re gonna have words. TEAM DEMELZA. DEMELZA AND GARRICK 4 EVAH.

RHG:

ANNNNNNGST. SCENERY PORN. CLOTHES!

Omg all the angst.  I’m so here for this.

Aidan Turner is so very pretty, and once she gets her face scrubbed, so is Eleanor Tomlinson (Demelza). Most of the this episode is setting up the who, the where, and the what with hints of the conflicts to come- Ross and his broken heart, Ross and his economic woes, landed gentry versus tradesman (especially new money tradesman), Ross and his greedy uncle, Francis and his total haplessness and cluelessness.

Demelza and Garrick, though. He’s such a good dog.

I’m in the process of reading the first book in the series, and reading it and watching at the same time creates an odd sort of a dissonance. It’s still quite dude-centric, but sensitively enough done that our hero isn’t some paragon of manhood- at this point he fucks up, and can be a dick (though I give him way more of a pass for his behavior than Elizabeth. “I know you’ve been waiting to come back to me for three years and then came home to discover I was marrying your cousin like, in a week, but we can be friends, right?”

Let me tell you internet, LET ME TELL YOU, getting dumped and then “but we can be friends right?” immediately after? Sucks. And doesn’t work. You need time. You need space. You need something else to focus on. Like, perhaps, a house that’s falling apart. OF COURSE HE DIDN’T GO SEE HER. “I’m so worried that you hate me!” Way to make it all about you, Elizabeth.)

I’m still mad about that, apparently.

Anyway. Yes, I am totally sold on this show.

Poldark is on PBS Masterpiece on Sundays at 9/8 Central. I hope you’ll join us for next week’s episode!