'The Forsytes' Women Are Trapped By Their Name
Irene is the latest Forsyte woman who deserves better.
One of the questions posed by almost every teaser and trailer promoting The Forsytes' return to PBS after two decades is, in some variation, "What is a Forsyte"? If the penultimate episode of the series' first season is anything to go by, the answer is "generally miserable," at least and especially if you're a woman.
Although the women of the Forstye family all seem to be worth about ten of the men they're married or related to, none of them feels especially in charge of their own destiny at the moment. There's Irene, lured back to London under false pretenses and lied to by the man she just married. There's Frances, also getting lied to regularly by a husband who can't bring himself to close the door on his ex or kids, no matter how many times he promises to do so.
Even June, bursting with joy at the prospect of marrying a man of her choosing, seems as though she may have let her own doom in by the front door. (If that loaded, lingering pause on the moment of Irene and Phil's introduction is anything to go by.)
A big part of this episode centers on Irene's introduction to the family. This hour is probably the most time we've spent with her character since the series began, and honestly, she's delightful. Warm, friendly, and endlessly polite to the loser in-laws who keep looking down on her, it's immediately apparent she is yet another woman who's entirely too good for the family she's now part of.
It doesn't hurt, of course, that Millie Gibson is positively luminous in every scene. A standout as Ncuti Gatwa's companion on Doctor Who, she's incredibly charming here, imbuing her Irene with the kind of warmth and kindness that's often lacking in the rest of her new family. Is it kind of cringeworthy that she insists on calling the servants by their first names? Definitely. Is it a perfect distillation of who she is at her core? Absolutely.
Soames, who pretends his father has an imaginary wasting terminal illness to keep Irene from realizing he has no intentions of returning to France, seizes the opportunity to push her about all the things that will now be expected of her as a society wife. Frances and June make a point of attempting to welcome the latest Forsyte into the family, though both their attempts include acknowledging how dumb all the men in the clan actually are.
Given how much of this show is dedicated to the rivalries among Jolyn, Sr., Jo, James, and Soames, it's a refreshing change to see the ladies actually interacting and building relationships that don't include them. Of course, there's the requisite Forsytes & Co. business drama (boring, exists to make Jo look like some financial genius), but that's by far the least interesting part of the hour.
(Are there...people who care who runs the family company?)
The episode's most intriguing moment occurs when June, flush with the rebellion of getting her own way and convinced that love conquers all, visits Louisa, seemingly in an attempt to build a relationship with her. (Or, at the very least, be friendly.) It's unfortunate — particularly because Eleanor Tomlinson is always so likable — that Louisa's character is so siloed, and, at least at this point, exists as little more than an object for Jo to yearn over and fight with Frances about.
What does Louisa really want? It's unclear. What we see her doing is insisting that Jo needs to get up out of her life, the implication being that his insistent interest is making things harder for her than they have to be, but then not minding when he refuses to do it. Does she truly still love him? Does she want him to leave his wife for her? It's difficult to know, because The Forstyes has spent so little time on her perspective.
As for Frances, she gets to be the villain of the hour, secretly forcing Louisa to be evicted in an attempt to keep her out of Jo's life. Frances somehow becoming the bad guy here was probably inevitable from the jump — this show is allergic to allowing Jo to feel or face any consequences — but it's unfortunate all the same, and the show would be more interesting if it actually presented her pain as at least in some ways justified.
Meanwhile, Jo decides he's going to keep seeing Louisa and the kids — despite repeatedly vowing not to — without consulting or even telling her about it, let alone considering the impact his choice might have on her life. In some ways, she's as trapped in his choice as Irene is in Soames's decision that she has to pursue the kind of life he wants for her, or else.
Frances isn't exactly covering herself in glory by turning her anger on Louisa. At least her heel turn would be more complicated if we saw Jo expressing anything like self-awareness about how his behavior is impacting his wife. Danny Griffin's acting choices are truly befuddling throughout their entire exchange, and as Jo stomps off to sleep on the couch at Isaac Cole's, it's wildly unclear how we're meant to be feeling about it.
Seriously, The Forsytes, is this your king??
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.
