The Pillars of the Earth

The Pillars of the Earth is an eight part mini series set in 12th century England. From the start of the first episode you follow Tom the builder (aka Tom Builder) and his family trying to find a means to live through his architecture. Along his path to find a town in need of a master builder(that also had money), his baby is taken after he leaves it for dead, his wife dies, and he falls in love with a witch woman and merges their 2 families together. I mean hey, it's only 8 episodes to cover 20 years, no time to waste right?? Ultimately he lands his feet in Kingsbridge, and is commissioned to build a brand new church after the old dilapidated one burns to the ground.

The man pulling the strings is a priest (Waleran) who will stop at nothing until to get the title of Arch Bishop. The issue of separating church and state are obviously not something that has been brought up in the 1100s, therefore the church IS the state. Waleran (Ian McShane) is trying to protect a secret surrounding the burning of a ship that killed the king's son, ultimately putting the king's nephew on the throne and outcasting the princess. One thing that you know from the start, Waleran is pure evil. Fortunately the Bishop doesn't need to have any moral stability, or a conscience.

The love story is between Jack, a sculptor, and a noble girl (Aliena) who loses her title after her father is framed a traitor. They court for years and as Jack decides to become a monk, Aliena marries his step brother (while pregnant with Jack's child) so that she will have money to continue her brother, Richard's warrior path.

I have to say that some of the shooting style was poorly chosen, with some blame on editing. The Pillars of the Earth had a lot of potential With that amount of deceit, incestuousness, and foul play. It just could have been better. Some of the comments are cheesy and totally set up for that Horatio Caine moment.

On the flip side, watching a church being built that was the first of it's kind, and seeing the characters embark on a 10+ year project and never losing dedication really kept my interest. The Kingsbridge church was really it's own character that could make or break a person, and successfully did both.

Glad that I watched the series, but also glad that it was easy (and free).