The Best!!

North and South.

The best Brit period drama I've ever watched!! Better than all the Jane Austen adaptations! The director did a good job in creating such a intense, passionate and compelling drama based on the Elizabeth Gaskell's novel with the same title.

Mr. Thornton is such a hunk! Waliao~ Can't get enough of him even though he's sort of a anti-hero in this story. Perfectly cast. As well as the heroine, Margaret Hale. She's so beautiful!

This whole drama is about the realities of the North and South of Britain during the Victorian era which existed with completely different cultures and industries. The Southerns were the laid-back and wealthier community whereas the Northerns were seen as uncouth and uneducated, living a hard life with the air constantly choked with putrid industrial smoke.

The Hales were uprooted by the family patron, Mr. Hale to Milton after quitting the parish as a clergyman as it was against his conscience. (Long story...i suggest you go read the book)

The Hales (esp. the women) found it hard to adapt to the hard life of Milton, filled with poverty and depressing. This setting reminds me of the setting in the book Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.

Margaret met Mr. John Thornton, a wealthy industrialist who owns a cotton-mill and there were misunderstandings between them as Margaret was the romantic and idealist type, full of compassion for the poor people in Milton (mostly mills workers) while Mr. Thornton was the realist who wouldn't bother showing mercy to his workers. (actually he does but if he's too soft, he deemed that everyone would soon start to step on his head) Thus, Margaret thought of him as a cruel employer.

Later on as the story developed, the workers went on strike and you can see the historical side of this drama as it shows how unionism came to be, of how desperate the lower-class community were in trying to live and from the viewpoint of the employer in such a case. The whole employer-employee relationship in this movie was so intense, you would not want to budge from your seats at all!

The reason behind the workaholic and grim Mr. Thornton was because his father lost all the family fortune in a speculation. Mr. Thornton was taken off from school and was forced to work hard like his present employees just to build up the empire again, and fending for his mother and sister after his father died.

See how Margaret and Mr. Thornton's love story developed in the drama. Simply breathtaking~

Alright, I wouldn't wanna spoil the whole drama for you. All you have to do is go on youtube and watch it. Believe me, you wouldn't regret it at all. I watched it the whole night until 5.30 am in the morning.