Review of Doctor Thorne

I feel like the story premise was good enough - I mean I did watch it through. But I felt like I wasn't sucked into it. A lot of that has to do with the fact that none of the characters were really likable. Other than Doctor Thorne himself, I wasn't really intrigued by any of the other characters. I felt like they were all lacking in depth. It didn't feel like these characters were real individuals with a sense of autonomy. They were pretty bland and were pretty much each driven by only one thing: Frank was driven by his love for Mary. Lady Arabella and her sister were driven by their desire to prevent Frank from marrying Mary. Mary was driven by her inner battle of deciding whether she was worth Frank's love. Frank's father was driven by his stress over the fate of his family. The sisters were in the background but seemed to simply be driven by the need to marry. And so on. Without each of these things, there isn't really much else left to make up any of these characters.

Aside from this, there's nothing I hate more than a writer/producer telling readers/viewers why they think we should find their creation important. I've admired some of Julian Fellowes' shows, like Downton Abbey and The English Game, but this show made me have a slight distaste for the man. I don't need 3 minutes before the episode and 3 minutes after the episode of him telling me why this show is relevant and why I should care about it. I should be able to tell that for myself if the show is done right.

Overall, this show isn't the most dreadful thing that I've watched but that doesn't mean it was good either. Good thing the good Doctor Thorne was there to carry whatever bit of it that he was able to.