things i would have added to or changed about poldark:
george gutting trenwith and transforming it into the light, airy, gilded, sunshiney aesthetic he clearly loves (cardew, warleggan bank). make it yours, honey
demelza making a move on george at that party after ross cheated on her - what better way to get back at him than by fooling around with his sworn nemesis, and, in george’s case, his wife? one stone, many birds. it would have been iconic. like, i love that part of george’s character is his faithfulness, but nonetheless: iconic. and he’s beautiful. get it, sweetie
verity in lisbon. how hard would it have been to have one scene of her writing a letter or arranging flowers in her room, or walking with her stepchildren through a harbour-side market and smiling and laughing and chatting with them? it’s what she deserved
a big reveal that george’s accent is actually lower class cornish and he’s just been faking the posh one. where did he learn the posh one anyway??? uncle cary certainly doesn’t have it and i doubt his parents did either. just let it slip, or have him drop it when he’s talking to cary. what a character building twist
consequences for ross’ fucking actions. when will you learn!!!!!!!!!!
the entire last season, and especially the finale. but to start with: the final season. if they wanted the slavery plot, brilliant - put kitty and cecily centre stage and cut ned entirely. i think it’s fairly safe to say very few people gave one single fuck about ned, and he took up so much time that could have been used for giving caroline a worthwhile plot that wasn’t some vague jealousy, and concentrating more on george’s mental illness. if they were absolutely determined to put ned in it, they should have swapped the timelines and put the final season plot into, say, season four. the entire last season felt rushed and messy and inconsequential, and honestly? cary carried so much of it.
poldark’s formula was that every season was essentially insular and self-contained - new characters were introduced in the first episode of the season, a villain was vanquished by the last, and one or two of the new characters stayed on, so that every season we collected new people who then became series regulars. it was a wonderful, fun formula, and it worked well. in the final season, there should have been no new characters introduced. we already had all these lives we’d collected over the seasons - ross, demelza, george, morwenna, caroline, dwight, drake, sam - and the last season should have been about them. about giving them a fitting plot and a satisfying ending. a final episode should mirror the values, sentiments, and aesthetics of the very first one, either in parallel or in contrast. and what makes poldark poldark is: cornwall, love, friendship, mining. it should have been about that. it should have tied in with the rest of the show. it should have been relevant.
instead, we got a french plot in the second to last episode and a dozen loose ends that had to be tied up in one single episode - which was mostly taken up by a sword fight, ross cheating on demelza but it’s okay because it’s For England even though i’ve always been a renegade and never particularly patriotic aside from being a soldier for what i assume are personal reasons, babies, napoleon, and 1801 MI5. the last episode was absurdly bad - because it had nothing whatsoever to do with the four seasons that had come before it. i mean, george appears in the barn a la t-rex in jurassic park, unseen and unheard, and hits both targets with two pistols - despite the fact ross said in a prior episode that he had always been a dismal shot, despite the fact he’s just had an injured arm, despite the fact he’s left-handed. every single character arc ended on a depressing or just entirely unworthy note. george leaving trenwith and seeing elizabeth going inside? is that supposed to be anything but achingly, horribly heartbreaking? is that supposed to be anything but “george is still struggling with his mental illness, but in a misguided attempt to move on he leaves the woman he loves in the house neither of them were ever supposed to be in and moves forward into an unhappy, broken future”? that scene where he “thinks aloud” and the audience is meant to be “ooooh my god is he still seeing her”? sickening. demelza being hurt for the thousandth time and then just immediately forgiving ross because it was for england? fuck that. fuck that so much. she deserved to be hurt and angry and move on from him, she deserved MORE. and ross leads tess on for six months, starts an affair, lets her fall for him, knows full well what he’s doing by using her - and then when she’s understandably wounded, he’s like “YOU STUPID THOT YOU BROUGHT IT ON YOURSELF STAY AWAY FROM MY FAMILY” AAAAAAHHHHHH
when george came to nampara the second time, after valentine asked him yet again about having his own mine, i thought he was going to ask ross to teach him about mining so he could bond with his son. adorable. sweet. when that didn’t happen, i thought he was going to tell ross and demelza that they were right, trenwith had always and would always be a poldark house, and now that he’s settling in truro and london (not cardew, for some reason), they could live at trenwith, where they were always supposed to be. when that didn’t happen, i thought he was going to relent and give permission for ross to have a relationship with valentine. but no. all we got, for the thousandth time, was “stay away from my son.”
i won’t even get into the female characters. they were done so dirty. when the show made the point of having the grandmother watching wenna saying goodbye to her son and smiling sadly, i didn’t think it was actually a goodbye - i thought she would show up at wenna’s cottage and grudgingly say she can come visit on weekends. but no. so what was the point of having the grandmother overhear at all??????? cecily loses her fortune, is forced back to the place she said she would rather die than return to and where her mother died, has her reputation in tatters - and geoffrey charles gets to have a happy ending and go back to military school. speaking of which, when he said that, considering a past plot point had been his lack of funds and the fact that he was attending on credit, i thought they were going to have a little scene where geoffrey charles admits george is finally paying for his studies, because they’re starting to build a relationship based on their mutual love for elizabeth and their loneliness, but no. again, i hoped for too much. i assumed they were actually trying to give an ending that made sense, that left characters with a brighter future, and that made audiences happy.
but, okay, let me spell out what i wanted for the final season - and, more importantly, the final episode:
the final season: cut ned, put kitty centre stage for the slavery plot, and cecily centre stage for the woman’s emancipation plot. that takes place in london. back in cornwall, go back to the show’s roots and return to mining. cut tess and any sort of human villain, and have the characters battling against the natural elements of the county. focus more on truro, on the red lion, on prudie, on jeffrey and clowance, on pascoe’s new baking venture - and have the peasants more spread out like they used to be, just not on one small set by the coast. amp up the fond nostalgia. bring all the old sets and locations back into it, including cardew. have a scene where someone sets flowers by henshawe’s grave. reopen wheal leisure. when we’re in cornwall, make it feel like it. take it all back to its roots. give demelza a worthwhile plot, and reunite morwenna with her son. take more time with her trauma plot in general - a promise by drake that he’ll never want a carnal relationship with her followed up a day later by disappointment on his part that he hasn’t gotten laid doesn’t cut it. so, that’s cornwall.
in london, put caroline to use. she knows everyone there is to know in high society; she’s independently wealthy; she’s cunning, articulate, strong-minded, and unbelievably powerful. use it. a perfect example, just for a tiny alteration, is the scene where a man spits at kitty - it wouldn’t be seemly for dwight to confront him, but caroline could: she, a powerful, untouchable aristocrat, could have cornered him and chewed him out without any repercussions or consequences. she’s the only truly upperclass character who is painted in a positive light - let her use her power and influence for good.
the final episode, but i’m focusing on george because he’s my favourite and also he was done so dirty: george’s hallucinations actually are gone and he’s started the process of healing. he and enys have started a positive, meaningful friendship. george helps ross in some different way - getting his hands dirty and going into a mine for the first time to rescue him, for example; imagine george in a cramped tunnel, covered in black dirt and sweat, terrified, clothes ruined, saving ross’s life: powerful - and their dynamic changes to a strange friendship that stays like that. george is clearly changed - he’s kinder, fairer, more mellow - but they keep up pretences for the fun of it. a scene in the red lion to demonstrate this - they have a confrontation (”oh, hello, ross - [bitchy comment]”), turns into a bit of verbal sparring, they clearly still hate each other for old time’s sake but there’s a hint of a smile and they both know they’re secretly fond of each other. they don’t go so far as to actually sit down for a drink together - they still go to their separate tables and their separate lives - but you know. it’s a healthier relationship.
a scene in the graveyard - geoffrey charles is leaving flowers, george comes up behind, hesitates a moment, then finally joins him; it’s awkward and they’re both bristling for a little bit, but finally george begrudgingly tells him he’ll fund his military training. cut to another scene - they’re both in trenwith. it’s still awkward, they’re still expecting something bad from the other, but their hackles aren’t quite so raised. finally, bessie enters the drawing room with francis’ portrait. george has it hung back in its old place above the fireplace. it’s a soft moment between george and geoffrey charles - the beginning of a reconciliation, an understanding, an apology. they both gaze up at the portrait for a moment. finally, george offers him a drink. geoffrey charles accepts. it’s the beginning of a gentler relationship and the ending of a mutually painful animosity.
george goes to nampara and asks to be taught about mining; ross agrees. when george leaves trenwith, it’s a quiet, joyful, powerful moment of healing and moving on. in the carriage, he has ursula on his lap and valentine sitting beside him with the miniature portrait of elizabeth. george puts his arm around him, a little uncomfortable at first with the tenderness but settling into it, they smile at each other, he starts to talk about mining. as they drive away from trenwith, george and valentine are too absorbed in their own newfound closeness and gentle conversation to look back. from the upstairs window, elizabeth watches them go with a smile.
in the truro townhouse, the household is busy preparing to move to london. suddenly, a knock at the front door. it’s demelza, dishevelled and frenzied and smiling - they need all hands on deck to bring in the harvest. george resists at first (“me?”), valentine begs to go, he finally relents - and it’s a throwback to the harvesting scene in the beginning of the show. the final scene: music over a montage. all the main characters are helping in the wheat field. it’s soft, sunny, and beautiful. george, in just his shirt sleeves and breeches, is laughing and free, helping pile wheat onto the cart and playing with valentine - chasing him around, picking him up and spinning him around, both of them are smiling. caroline and dwight are throwing stalks of wheat at each other and laughing, caroline’s hair a mess and she’s pretending to care about it, demelza runs up behind her and showers her in wheat, caroline is melodramatically incensed, demelza is laughing, caroline swears revenge and chases after her, female friendships deserve the world. demelza and ross have some stupid romantic moment, like kissing with the sun as a halo behind them. morwenna, her son, and all the school children help (morwenna and her son share a sweet moment), as does rosina and prudie and kitty and geoffrey charles. cary watches at the edge of the field with his arms crossed and a disapproving (but secretly fond) sneer on his face. all the characters are together - draw back to show the cliffs and the sea in the background - fade to black. everyone is set on their path of healing. everyone is where they should be. the french don’t exist. also squeeze george meeting harriet in there somewhere, and for the first time in two years he feels soft and healed enough to begin to love again, slowly, patiently. EVERYTHING IS GOOD, EVERYONE IS HAPPY, GIVE ME A SIMPLE, ORDINARY ENDING INSTEAD OF SOME SORT OF CHAOS WHERE TOO MANY SENSELESS, MEANINGLESS SUBPLOTS WITH NOTHING TO DO WITH THE REST OF THE SHOW OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS ARE CRAMMED IN. I’D RATHER BE UNDERWHELMED AND DISAPPOINTED BY THE SIMPLICITY THAN OVERWHELMED AND GIVEN A HOLLOW, FRENZIED, OVERDRAMATIC NOTHING - but, better yet, give us happiness by giving the characters happiness. thanks for coming to my ted talk
