User Reviews

If you compare this four hour TV mini-series to the twelve hour "Titanic: Blood and Steel" series, which also came out in 2012, then this shorter series is more enjoyable. And even with a much smaller budget, they accomplished a much more captivating and entertaining series. And one that is not actually a drag to sit through.

The 2012 "Titanic" series focus on the ship and the stories of the passengers, which is what the audience wants to see. Unlike the twelve hours series of political drama and shipyard problems.

The acting in this series was good and they had some good talents on the cast list.

I will say that the practical effects and special effects team managed to pull off the effects quite amazingly. And the visuals do play a big part in a drama about the Titanic.

The costume and props department also did their job quite well, fleshing out the atmosphere nicely.

If you have an interest in the Titanic then you should take the time to sit down and watch this 2012 TV mini-series, because it is actually quite entertaining and good.

I'm quite an avid Titanic enthusiast. Not as big a buff as I used to be, but I could probably still teach a couple of things. I wasn't expecting great things of this title (I have issues regarding things made by ITV), but as its the 100th anniversary coming up, I felt I should give this a watch, without trying to get to excited (although admittedly, I was really looking forward to watching it).

So far, I've only seen two episodes, and I have to say, while they aren't perfect, I feel that they are a good watch for a casual enthusiast of Titanic. Let me just touch on a couple of bad points.

Now, I don't know as much as a lot of people about the ship, but it does have some errors in historical accuracy, although reviewing from my perspective as somebody who knows a fair bit, but not a massive amount (or somebody, like me, who used to know, but is too stupid to remember...), I can say that you won't notice anything so bad that will ruin it for you, even though looking at the forums, some people seem to have taken great offence to this.

My main gripe with these episodes is that they are very rushed. A lot of effort has gone into the writing, but really I think there is too much going on and in such a short space of time to fit it in. While it was an interesting, if ambitious attempt at telling the story, I have to admit, I think that it would have worked better by going through in order, rather than chopping and changing the main characters every episode (although I have to say, it's nice they aren't doing a Cameron and just focusing on a couple of people). I'm hoping for the final chapter to be tighter.

Apart from the above, I really enjoyed watching the first two episodes and will be recording the final two as well. I'd really recommend this to someone like myself, it has some interesting characters and plots, and hopefully will be soon setting up to be an entertaining and engaging finale.

Tale of the Titanic disaster in four parts. The first three tell the same basic story but through the eyes of passengers in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class (steerage). The story lines overlap and all meet in the same disastrous finale: the sinking of the ship.

Although there are no big names in the cast, several are familiar faces (Maria Doyle Kennedy, Linus Roache, Toby Jones, Steven Waddington, Stephen Campbell Moore, Celia Imrie, James Wilby, Linda Kash).

To my knowledge this is the only "Titanic" story that has included the real-life Dorothy Gibson (played by Sophie Winkleman), an American movie actress, who survived the disaster. Back in the US, she was rushed into "Saved from the Titanic" within a month of the sinking. She played herself, recounting the disaster, but was so overcome by grief, she suffered a nervous breakdown during the filming and retired from acting. The 1912 film was an absolute sensation, one of the biggest hits of the time. The film was tragically lost in a 1914 studio fire.

I thought it was good. Not great, but good. The back and forth with all the characters/events was a bit much. It left me scratching my head towards the end of the first episode. Even when I got what they were doing I still felt it was too ambitious and confusing (see Intolerance 1916).

Though I'm not an expert, the sets looked good as did the cgi. It blended well with the set elements. I thought the acting was good for the most part. Noah Reid, who played Harry Widener particularly impressed me. Let's be honest, any love arc between two young people in this show would have been invariably compared to Jack and Rose. I think Harry and Georgiana's story can stand on it's own though. Character development was pretty good despite the ill advised editing. I was glad that they finally found an actor who resembles Thomas Andrews. The man playing J. J. Astor looked the part too. However, I was embarrassed by how Jack Thayer was portrayed. They seemed to get the hammiest actor they could find. Jack Thayer, based on my reading seemed to be a sensitive, reflective lad. He's portrayed heres as an obnoxious mama's boy. Despite his small part, that probably irked me the most. The coldness of the water was not depicted realistically either. You didn't get that sense of paralyzing pain that was in the Cameron movie. You would think that they could have added cgi breath to reflect the cold at least.

So all in all, not greatness but I enjoyed watching it. I think people definitely should have watched all the episodes before reviewing this.

I have just finished a rewatch of this tv series.

My experience with it started when it was first broadcast in 2012 and I enjoyed it that much that I got it on dvd.

I then watched it several more times before it got left at the back of my dvd collection and subsequently forgotten about until now.

Dusting it off after all these years. It still holds up.

Yeah as with any Titanic related media one has to take it with a pinch of salt.

While not entirely accurate and at times it does contradict the testimony of survivors.

It is still well made. Great story. Hits all the right notes and leaves you feeling emotionally drained at the end.

It's entertaining enough with a well known bit of history as the backdrop for this tv show.

Good casting too.

Set design is alright. Parts of it are right and some aren't.

Being from the same writer as one would expect it's Downton Abbey on the Titanic.

I'd recommend it highly.

Most people are going to look at this film in one of two ways. The first type are going to criticise everything about it, such as the obviously fake accents, the cheesiness, the predictability, the un-originality, the script, the acting, and anything else they can use to tear it to shreds. The second type such as myself, who have the ability to overlook such apparent flaws, will take it for what it is, and actually get the enjoyment out of it that was intended. In all honesty I didn't really notice many of the above other than the accents, but as a Scottish guy myself, I found it more entertaining rather than insulting. I'm merely just going by what other people have written in other reviews.

As for the film itself, I thought it was actually very good indeed. I enjoyed it more than "A boy called Christmas" which I watched yesterday and could not get into at all. This in my opinion was much better and more enjoyable. It uses more or less the same formula as any romantic writing hence why I said predictable, but that really doesn't bother me, as it seems to work. It is clearly at the low-to-mid range of the budget spectrum, meaning there's no A list cast (except Drew Barrymores cameo role), or no fancy cgi, but a film like this needs nothing like that. In some weird way it reminded me of a cross between Monarch of the Glen and The Holiday. There was some very beautiful scenery through out the whole film and the convincing snow coupled with the christmas decorations really set the atmosphere for the festive period. Over all, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would certainly recommend it.

The DVD hasn't been released here yet but the 'mini-series' is now over. It is difficult to call this amalgamation of snippets about an historic tragedy a miniseries because it was spread out so unevenly (3 hours on first night, one hour on second night) and we are now informed that the film is a total of 184 minutes which means that the fourth hour was completely filled with the most distracting and disrupting of commercials. Why this new version of TITANIC wasn't place on cable television where it could have been enjoyed on one uninterrupted three hour showing is beyond understanding. Perhaps when the DVD is released and there are no loud and ugly commercials every 5 minutes the story will hold together.

Julian Fellowes, so respected for his writing of such series as Downton Abbey, etc. seems to have the urge to tell the story of the event through quick snippets of personal stories among the passengers - a commendable idea, but when the tiny tales are buried in the almost immediate collision with the iceberg and the attempt to flesh out the story by making it about how tragedy affects people's relationships come as little disconnected pop-ups, it is difficult to care about anybody, much less get to know them well enough to remember them at picture's end. Granted there are some moments before the ship is finished that emphasize the fact that the unsinkable Titanic was rushed to completion before it was safely ready, and those flashbacks to offer some interesting moments.

But basically the story is the same as all the other TITANIC movies - a study about class distinction not only among the peerage of Brits but also the differentiation among first, second and third (steerage) classes - with a hefty dollop of snubbing the crass American passengers. Jon Jones directs this amalgamation of ideas. There are some brief but tasty moments for actors such as Glen Blackhall (a memorable Paolo) and Antonio Magro (Paolo's brother Mario), Peter McDonald, Steven Waddington, Ruth Bradley Linus Roache and Geraldine Somerville as the Mantons, Toby Jones and Maria Doyle Kennedy, Celia Emrie, James Wilby and Dragos Bucur (the stowaway Russian). The rest of the cast is so little used that they all but disappear.

The film was apparently shot on digital video. Some of the effects are fine, but the whole film lacks cohesion - at least on the American release on commercial television!

I thought I would re-write my review for the DVD and Blu-Ray version, as it might be of some interest or knowledge to some. I recently purchased my own copy of Titanic on Blu-Ray since and thought it would be of some use to share what I discovered. The DVD version has additional deleted scenes that fill in the gaps of where they put the commercial breaks. The most predominant scenes include: 1. Thomas Andrews and Benjamin Guggenheim in the first class smoking room as the ship is foundering as both the Manton's and Lightholler pass through. 2. A conversation on the bridge between Chief Officer Wilde and First Officer Murdoch. 3. A conversation on the bridge between First officer Murdoch and Captain Smith before Titanic's bridge is submerged. Other additional scenes (although not as drastic) are included that make the story lines better developed and flow much nicer between each episode. Also because of the added scenes, the characters' conclusions are much more satisfying (the only conclusion that still left me unsatisfied was that of Mary Maloney, in the end you are almost left wondering if you were ever supposed to really care about her or her story at all. I feel as though her character never truly developed as much as the other characters, because I was still lacking understanding for some of her actions). The deleted scenes are not bonus features and are included within the film. You have the option to "play all" episodes, or watch them one by one. I highly recommend the "play all" option, it has a running time of 187 minutes which will be long for some, but I find you are more aware and drawn into the stories, and because it is a drama it is much more of an emotional experience if you watch them consecutively because you are still in that mindset. The 1080i (not 1080p) high definition quality of the picture is beautiful and crisp. I didn't pay much attention to the sound quality but it was good for my ears (on a side note I did have to put subtitles on at times to understand some muddled dialogue because of some of their accents). Titanic is a two disc collection, Disc One contains all four episodes and the Set Up options. Disc Two contains 2 hours of bonus material for those interested, including: The making-of Featurette, Titanic: Behind-the-Production, Episode One Audio Commentary, and "The Curse of the Titanic Sisters" Documentary. Do not go on the opinion of others, watch it first then make your own judgements. Julian Fellowes' Titanic felt to me more like a re-imagining than a retelling of an all too familiar story. Titanic is told in such a style both visually and narratively, that I found it to be compelling. Of course that is just a personal opinion. If you still feel uncertain about purchasing Titanic, rent it (if you can) first it is your safest and cheapest option.

9 out of 10 stars

I wanted to like this mini-series, really I did. I love Downton Abbey and Gosford Park is great fun, so it isn't as if I am not a fan of Julian Fellowes. And this had a great cast on paper. Unfortunately, apart from some beautiful photography, gorgeous costumes and a wonderfully-rendered ship as well as some decent turns from Glen Blackhall and Geraldine Somerville, this soggy ITV drama sadly never seems to leave the deck. A main problem of mine was the pace. Most of the drama had a very rushed feel to it, consequently characters came and went, story lines(and rather derivative ones at that) were introduced but never satisfactorily elaborated upon or resolved(especially Mary Maloney's) and the main characters lack depth or even any sort of genuine personality and it doesn't help that here they are all underdeveloped stereotypes.

Some scenes particularly at the start take a while to get going, maybe in an attempt to give the characters depth but seeing as they failed with that aspect the first episode was dull, and the sinking scenes which had potential to be riveting lacked any true tension. The dialogue lacks the control and wit also of Downton Abbey and Gosford Park, it is all very stilted and soap-opera-ish with some parts like with the younger actors cringe-worthy and there are a couple of heavy accents too making some of the dialogue muddled. The rest of the acting considering the cast pedigree was disappointing, and the fact that a lot don't have much to do has a lot to do with it.

Toby Jones for example is a good actor, but is one of these, and for me he also had a character that was all too derivative of some of his other roles(such as a less-evil version of Quilp from The Old Curiosity Shop). The rest of the cast that aren't the main focus of the drama are so little used and so scatter-shot in their appearances that their acting is downright forgettable. All in all, a big soggy and largely unmoving disappointment, better than the animated versions, which are the "what-the-devil-did-I-just-watch?" sort of quality, but for a better version try the sumptuous James Cameron version which had an absolutely riveting last hour and especially the brilliant A Night to Remember. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I'll admit, I wasn't overly impressed with the first episode. It seemed like it was something and nothing, but I tuned in next week because I had faith that the storyline would start to make sense. It certainly did. Anyone who felt like the first episode made no sense needs to see it as a game as tetris. Each new episode layers on top of the previous one and fills in all the gaps. Having watched all four episodes, I can say they interlink perfectly. I read that originally, the show would be broadcast over three consecutive nights with episodes 1 & 2 shown back to back. Perhaps if this had been done people wouldn't have been so quick to switch off. I think a lot of people are comparing this to James Cameron's Titanic, but if you want a different take on the actual sinking on the ship, then do watch this. Titanic (97) was centred on a fictional love story, therefore we saw everything from Rose's point of view - it was linear. This program shows several different perspectives and we are able to see the extremely different fates that would have befallen us depending on what our sex/class would have been. It includes some really heart wrenching moments that do not cushion you from what a traumatic experience it must have been. Absolutely worth watching each episode more or less at the same time. Several people have said "We see the ship hit the berg so many times, it detracts from the poignancy of it, what can the fourth episode offer?" It offers a hell of a lot! I gave this 9 out of 10 simply because I wasn't too happy with the first episode.

Having been on my DVR since last April, I finally watched this miniseries "Titanic" the last few days with the final hour just now. Because each hour told the story of the before and after from various classes, there were some repeated scenes in each one but with some explanations not explored in one of the other hours. As a result, I found myself moved by some of the characters but confused by others and therefore, not as entertained, or at the least interested, as by the recent re-release of the 1997 James Cameron version, that was converted to 3-D, at the same time as this broadcast, both of which were out in time for the anniversary of that ship's going under a century ago. Really, all I'll now say is if you want to watch yet another version of what happened on that ship with yet another depiction of the ways people acted then, whether fictionalized or not, go watch this version of "Titanic". Just don't expect everything to make perfect sense, at least in my opinion.

How did anyone approve the making of this mess? It can only have been because of the power of Julian Fellowes' name, after the success of his Edwardian soap, Downton Abbey.

Who needed another upstairs-downstairs version of the Titanic? There have been so many before, most notably the infamous Leo-and-Kate one of 1997. To make matters worse, this one rehashes the story four times, adding huge globs of soap each time, and sucks all the drama and pathos out of the event. I have just seen the last part, marvelling at the mini-lifeboats as they floated around serenely on a harmless boating lake (no signs of cold whatever), while looking on in horror at the pathetic CGI sinking.

As I write, it is the 100th anniversary to the day, and this afternoon BBC2 showed "A Night to Remember" (the 1958 non-soapy version). Julian Fellowes should watch it and weep.

I couldn't believe how bad the 2012 mini series 'Titanic' was. Insipid directing, poor acting and soap-opera script writing. What a missed opportunity. A hack attempt to milk the publicity of the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic to sell some advertising space on a network. It makes Maid in Manhattan look like To Kill a Mockingbird. Don't even get me started on the goofs that somehow made it into the final cut and the massive inaccuracies, such as the second class stairs being the entrance to the Officer's quarters. You kidding me? They didn't even bother to google the Titanic blueprints? What an absolute crock of a production.

I was really looking forward to this series, and I have seen my fair share of TV-movie hatchet jobs, but I still can't believe the quality of this production. After Cameron's Titanic in 97, the bar was set quite high. If you were going to do another Titanic mini series, then you needed to bring something new to the table. It was the 96 mini series all over again, but done even more poorly.

Can anyone tell me: what did this production bring to the table? Forget the poor quality of acting, directing, lighting. What did we learn about the disaster that we didn't already know? Why throw in a soap-opera to such a rich, historical story? Why not focus on the real life characters and what DID actually happen, which would have been far more interesting? Why not look at the building of the ship, the court case and the aftermath. Virtually no films have been made of these key events in the larger Titanic picture. In all, this was an absolute waste of time and as a Titanic enthusiast, I can't help but be appalled at how this turned out.

It was very, very disappointing and I don't think this captured any part of the Titanic legacy.

The actors seemed like 21st century actors wearing 1910's clothing. Parts of the ship were wrong. There was little to no chemistry between actors, and their motivations were unoriginal and melodramatic.

At least James Cameron could balance a historical drama through the eyes of fictitious characters. It might have been a bit soppy, but at least there was attention to detail, historical accuracy and believable characters. This mini series only goes to show just how good of a job Cameron did.

If you want to watch a film about Titanic, watch Cameron's Titanic, or A Night to Remember with Kenneth Moore. This is just rubbish.

The James Cameron film is a big-budget Hollywood studio disaster/action movie, in which the main characters are fabrications who are not based on historical fact. This television series is a sober and serious drama that tells the story of class conflict and tragedy, based on real life characters who actually were present on the voyage. They are two different things. I was very moved by this version. It takes patience and attention to detail to appreciate the emotional momentum that builds to the final episode. Special effects are not the focus here--appreciate the subtlety of the writing and the fine performances of the actors involved.

I found the official website for this miniseries. It's : www.titanictv.net

I really enjoyed this TV miniseries! I was really impressed by the creativity in the story line, and how they incorporated all the different characters.

It was really interesting to see this story from so many different perspectives. Until watching this mini series, I never comprehended just how brutal people treated each other due to their social level, religion and nationality. This series brought out a lot of emotions towards my feelings of the Titanic tragedy. In addition to being sad, I am now also angry and appalled by all of the arrogance.

I also fell in love with all of the actors in this series. It's nice to see some fresh faces with legit accents, (as opposed to always seeing the same Hollywood faces.) My favourite characters, (and storyline) were Jim and Mary Maloney (played by Peter McDonald and Ruth Bradley,)- and the "mystery man".

I will definitely be buying this on DVD. I would love to have this miniseries on DVD forever. I know I will watch it all over again, many times :)

Given the easy potential for creating a compelling, suspenseful drama set aboard the most famous ship in history during its final hours, TITANIC is shamefully poor. It's a wasted opportunity from the get-go, a lazy class-based drama in which – unforgivably – the sinking of the ship comes second to high melodrama and character relationships. I can wholeheartedly pin the blame on the lapel of writer Julian Fellowes, an old-timer with successes in the past (most notably GOSFORD PARK) but whose recent work has been marred by stereotyped characters and a distinct lack of depth. I gave up on series two of DOWNTON ABBEY after one episode, and TITANIC follows that in a downward spiral.

The problems with the writing of this series are endless. The ridiculous decision was made to tell a four-hour miniseries in four separately placed episodes that cover much of the same ground from different perspectives. So we get numerous scenes which are repeated over the four episodes; if a conversation wasn't boring enough the first time around, rest assured they'll show it again another three times! The sinking takes place in the last half hour and almost seems incidental.

The characters are dull and featureless, each occupying a clichéd niche in society: there are the haughty aristocrats, the tradespeople, the servants, the Irish working classes, the stubborn captain, the decent officers, the good-looking Italian waiter. There's a reason why critics dubbed this Drownton Abbey – it's as if the ideas and ethos behind that series were simply transplanted onboard the Titanic with no effort to make them believable whatsoever. Even worse, Fellowes ignores dozens of untold dramas which have been written about but not filmed over the years in favour of his pat, seen-it-all-before character interactions.

It hurts that the characters are so vapid, formless and devoid of features. The aristocrats are invariably repulsive, their servants hard-working and good natured, the Irish shrill and argumentative. If it wasn't silly enough, a murderer is thrown into the mix for no good reason! Decent actors like Maria Doyle Kennedy and Toby Jones are lost amid the sea of faces – if there ever was a series with just too many extraneous characters, then this is it. Half of them are simply forgotten about come the ending (with dozens of loose ends), and none of them feature enough for us to care about them a jot.

Aside from the script, the production has genuinely bad values – it seems all the money was spent on the (wasted) ensemble cast members, and nothing was left for anything else. The Titanic is a cheesy CGI creation that wouldn't be out of place in a bad B-movie, there's no indication at any point that the sea was freezing cold (that's what killed the majority of the people, after all), and disaster scenes are limited to some water sloshing about on the deck – I thought the toilets had backed up for a second, I didn't realise that was supposed to be the ship going down! Add in tons of goofs and you have a production that's almost as much of a disaster as the sinking of the ship itself.

Titanic debuted in Canada on March 21 and if the rest of the series was like the first episode then I can't recommend this version. Written by Julian Fellowes and shown in four parts, the first part concentrated mostly on a fictitious first class family that embodied all the negative qualities of wealth and privilege. One interesting difference about this version is that the servants of the first class passengers are shown in the on-board servant's hall where they ate and relaxed. If that was true, then that was also educational and interesting. This series also mentions the dogs on board, which are usually ignored. Otherwise, the story is just more of the same fictitious crap devised to retell this story incorrectly in a new, agonizingly dull way.

That boat was filled with thousands of interesting stories that are never told - I have read snippets here and there over the years that include stories of stowaways, a woman who wouldn't sleep at night for fear of the ship sinking, a Japanese businessman, a French mistress travelling secretly with her lover, numerous honeymooning couples... surely these are fodder for new, real stories of the sinking of the Titanic.

To add confusion to the story, there are too many characters, the storyline moves too fast (it jumps from first night's voyage to the night of the disaster in an instant. Now we get to see it repeated from another viewpoint for at least two more weeks. This form of storytelling could work, but the stories would have to be kept tight and intimate, not epically sweeping through the entire story in about 45 minutes (there were a LOT of commercials) because you can't keep up. Frankly, this version of Titanic resembles Downton Abbey on Ice...

Come April 15 I hope TCM has a marathon of the better movies about the Titanic - A Night to Remember, and S.O.S. Titanic, because this series is dull and boring, not like the real story at all.

I love the story of Titanic and have read so much over the years about the ship and its' sinking . This version is extraordinarily cleverly written. Fellows took a subject that really has been filmed so much and his really clever writing creates a whole new depth to the story. The fact it goes back to the beginning at every episode makes it a masterpiece !!! I think I love this version just a tiny bit more than the 1997 version ( only just) . A truly brilliant and gripping watch !

This miniseries is underrated and deserves more attention.

I can see why people were confused about the plot when it originally aired; viewers had to wait a whole week for the next episode. However, now that it's been released onto DVD it deserves a second chance from viewers. I recommend people "binge-watch" it, either all at once or at least break it up into two episodes per day.

The episodes correspond well, in my opinion, even though the overall plot isn't about one person (like in Jim Cameron's Titanic). The series jumps around between different mini-plots. The stories are sometimes re-told in future episodes through a different character's perspective. Again, the overall plot is much easier to understand when viewed all at once. Each episode builds on the previous one, adding more detail to the different characters' (some characters are completely fictional and others are based off of real passengers) lives.

Even though the costumes, set design, and CGI aren't as spectacular or accurate as in Jim Cameron's movie, they're still very impressive. There are some historical inaccuracies in this miniseries, but then again, there are inaccuracies in Jim Cameron's movie as well.

In short, I firmly believe that this spectacular miniseries is underrated and deserves a second chance.

It was awful to say the least mainly because the format of the series being one episode per week instead of over four days, I think the opening episode has put a lot of people off basically because it's too rushed towards the sinking, the characters are all behaving in a bad and rude manner, everything is crammed in without saying what the point of it is about, it would have been better if it introduced you to the characters in the first episode leading up to the sinking in episodes three and four!, I don't know how this is going to work as far as I have seen it's poorly put together despite the money spent on nice sets!.

As for the acting I am truly disappointed mainly because the plots seem pointless, this is a weak episode but with more better episodes surely to come, I think this format has put a dampener on the mini series it could have had a better introduction.