Sharpe

[Aqua Letifer]

The Sean Bean miniseries.

It sucks for a whole lot of reasons. Poor production value, ham-fisted writing for secondary characters, etc., etc. But it's worth watching and making an effort to see past that.

Wellesley and Hogan are Machiavellian as all get-out, but to a good end. They concoct schemes designed to help themselves, Sharpe, and England, while also screwing over both the French and bad English officers. Neat.

The relationship between Harper and Sharpe is worth watching, too. Why in the hell did Harper tell the French to go screw? And how he gets the other guys to come around in the second episode is also interesting.

For as one-dimensional as the ancillary characters are, there's very little "for King and Country" stereotyping going on with all the central cast. It's not all "working class hero" crap, either. It's actually original once you get past the shortcomings.

[Jolly]

The books are better. Many are available on Open Library for free...

[Catseye3]

And Sean Bean was very hawt, which made all the difference.

But seriously, I watched this yo many years ago, and enjoyed it a lot. Though I've never been much of a critic; it doesn't take much for me to enjoy a thing. Aqua is obviously a much more discerning critic than I.

So if you're pernickety judicious about what you watch, go the Aqua route. If you just like a good yarn and don't much care about all the bells and whistles, and you think Sean Bean is hawt go with my way and enjoy!

[Doctor Phibes]

Just for you, Cats...

Link to video

[Catseye3]

Gosh. Thanks.