Ranking Every HBO Miniseries From Worst To Best
18. Parade's End
Powerful period drama with a real pedigree, this Ford Maddox Ford adaptation comes from the pen of Tom Stoppard, one of Britain’s preeminent playwrights, and boasts a seriously great lead performance from Benedict Cumberbatch.
He plays Christopher Tietjens, a wealthy statistician who falls in love with Sylvia, a socialite played brilliantly by Rebecca Hall. They swiftly marry - she’s pregnant, possibly by another man - and within years their myriad personal, political, and religious differences are causing no end of strife.
Into this comes the war in 1914 which serves only to complicate matters further. This is a story of pain and suffering, a particularly British one as exemplified by Cumberbatch’s stoicism. He exudes the unhappiness of Christopher through small, subtle movements, a man with a reputation to uphold but the world on his shoulders.
Like the book it’s based on, this is a measured but ambitious affair, tacking big topics in a sweeping manner.