Parade's End: 6 Reasons It's A Must Watch Even if You Hate Period Dramas

3. The Complexity

At times you will lose track and yes, you do have to pay attention. Just like any good drama- you can€™t just slump on the sofa with a cheap Chardonnay (yuck!) and let your eyes glaze over. And it won€™t send you to sleep. It€™s not Inception, but there are multiple character strands (not enough to make it all feel bloated, and not too many to distract from Tietjens), it sometimes crossed back and forth through its own timeline, and its all the more enjoyable for it. There are double-crossings and gossip that is never told the same way twice, so you need to pay attention. It€™s the last thing you would expect at Downton€er, I mean, Corby Hall (That€™s the Tietjens family residence up in t€™North). There is one visual signature that is recurrent throughout Parade€™s End that for the life of me I can€™t yet understand- not that that is a complaint. It is in the opening titles, and usually only appears when Christopher and Sylvia are conversing. It is a glass kaleidoscope. Whether it represents different people looking at the same situations in differing ways, or a divide between characters, or it is yet to be revealed to me, I do not know- or maybe I€™m being really thick/ reading too much into a visual flourish. But that€™s the beauty of it all. It€™s a deep show, sometimes borderline philosophical, and it makes you think- all credit to director Susanna White (director of Generation Kill- like I said, not your average period drama). Like all the great works of fiction, it leaves many things up to the individual interpretation of the audience. You don€™t get that with Bleak House€ unlike most period drama, it doesn€™t insult your intelligence, and expects you to keep up- much like Tietjens himself.