'The Forsytes' Unroll a Decade of Drama on PBS in Its Series Premiere
PBS's new sprawling historical saga is heavy on the exposition, but its soapy drama has promise.
PBS has been searching for a replacement for Downton Abbey pretty much since the series ended in 2016. The period drama had single-handedly made Masterpiece relevant again to an entire new generation of viewers, racking up awards nominations, ratings, cultural cred, and donations to member stations around the country. (Not to mention a historic debut weekend where PBS beat all four broadcast networks in the ratings for the first time since the 1970s.) It is, in every respect, the gold standard for what this kind of programming is meant to be and do.
In the decade since the Crawley family helped put public television back on the map for modern-day viewers, PBS has fielded some fairly popular hits, from fresh takes on classics like Poldark and All Creatures Great and Small to new dramas like Sanditon and Victoria. But nothing has really captured the public's imagination like Downton did. Honestly, maybe nothing ever will.
But Masterpiece seems to think The Forsytes might.
If the series premiere is anything to go by, there's some reason to hope. True, it's not what anyone would call a particularly faithful adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning John Galsworthy's novels. But this story has clearly been reimagined with a TV audience in mind, leaning into its soapiest elements and letting its much more interesting women step forward to lead the narrative.
Our story begins with a flashback to a wedding. It's 1877, and the eldest Forsyte heir, Jolyon "Jo" Forsyte (Danny Griffin), is arriving home to marry Frances (Tuppence Middleton), a recently widowed young woman whose family connections make her the queen of London society. His father, Jolyon, Sr. (Steven Moyer), believes this marriage will cement the Forsytes' place among the peak of London's elite; he's been grooming his son to follow in his footsteps at the family's stockbroking firm, Forsytes & Company, his whole career, and this would serve to make Jo the family heir by default.
Jo's a bit blasé about being married off — this will become important later — but it's important to note that Frances is seen as high enough in society that the rest of the clan accepts that she brings an extraneous eight-year-old daughter, June, on the assumption that new heirs would supplant her anyway.
The series then skips forward to the present day, 1887, as June (Justine Moore), freshly turned 18, is desperate for a love match rather than the more... let's call them strategic choices her mother and grandmother will foist on her. Meanwhile, Jolyon Sr.'s younger brother, James (Jack Davenport), is petty and jealous, always looking to discredit his brother, in hopes of securing his own son, Soames (Joshua Orpin), as the family heir. To that end, he's been pushing the kid into obtaining a socially "ambitious wife."
Soames, however, has eyes only for Irene (Millie Gibson), a ballerina with incredible hair, whose grand plans to pursue a dance career in Paris are crushed when her father passes. Orpin seems to have been directed to play Soames's role in the family as "smarmy jerk," making his scenes opposite Gibson a breath of fresh air, if only because it's the only time anything about his character feels genuine.
(Is it a little weird that he essentially stalks her to her own father's funeral? Maybe! But at least for the moment, he seems to mean well.)
It's left to Francesca Annis family matriarch, Anne Forsyte, to convey this all to us, by means of some clunky exposition. The result is aiming for something between Bridgerton's Lady Whistledown and Downton's Dowager Countess. But it lacks the bite of the late, great Maggie Smith, and misses the sly fun of Julie Andrews. (I think I speak for everyone when I say that I desperately hope she has fewer awkward voice-overs next week.)
But the story really starts at June's 18th Birthday Ball, when a wine spill introduces Louisa (Eleanor Tomlinson, who's making a habit of these), a seamstress-for-hire who worked as a high society lady's maid before getting with child, making her an ideal overhire for sartorial emergencies. Even if we hadn’t already guessed she's the former flame on whom Jo's still hung up, she gets so freakishly twitchy every time Frances or June comes near her that you can't miss that there's more to her story than meets the eye.*
(*This Forsytes is many things, but subtle is not one of them.)
It's unfortunate that Griffin, as Jo, is the series's weakest link. His performance fails to convey the necessary pining. He seems to have no deep regrets about sacrificing true love on the altar of family ambition, and clearly has zero curiosity about her since he has no idea she's right under their noses with two conveniently timed kids.
Tomlinson fares better, evoking a desperate desire not to rock the boat of the decent life she's made for herself and her twins. She is painfully aware that she got carried away; that only someone in Jo's position could imagine he'd be allowed to run off and marry a lady's maid.
Meanwhile, Middleton is full on aces as the queen of society, who parlayed her widowhood into a ticket to the richest family in London. She comes in with no idea that to cement her place, she accidentally married into a mess. Her Frances is the one we're rooting for, as she puzzles out that their newest hire is Jo's former flame and "the one who got away," and also the mother of two illegitimate heirs. Meanwhile, she hasn't produced any new children; June is the default heir, but that's not a stable line of succession, and James is right there waiting to pounce.
By the time the final credits roll, the soapy excess is in full swing, with plenty of drama waiting in the wings. It's a bit too early to crown Forsytes the Downton successor we've all been waiting for, but it's still good enough to be appointment TV.
The Forsytes continues with new episodes airing and streaming on local PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET, through the end of April. All episodes are available to binge on PBS Passport for members. Seasons 2 and 3 are already greenlit.
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