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The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years (1996)

Rate: 6
Viewed: 6/25

ThornMiss
6/25: I put off The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years for a while because I wasn't keen about watching it.

That's because The Thorn Birds was eight hours of boredom, and I thought this one would be more of the same. After watching the midquel for an hour which included rip-offs from The Scarlet and the Black, my sentiment was becoming validated, but the show started to get better afterwards. I noticed some things working in its favor, but the biggest problem was there's no suspense due to knowing what had happened ahead of time.

One, the filmmakers stayed with a single point in time from start to finish whereas in the original they kept skipping ahead by seven years which destroyed any character development. Two, the replacements were far better in terms of acting. Even Richard Chamberlain improved, too. Three, the storyline was more interesting. Four, it's actually shot on location in Australia instead of California.

I thought Rachel Ward was awful in The Thorn Birds. I didn't expect much from Amanda Donohoe at the start, but she convinced me that she's the right choice as Meggie. Ditto for Simon Westaway as Luke instead of Bryan Brown. Had the original miniseries been done in 1996, I could see it improving tenfold as long as the writing was of high quality with certain stuff cut out and Father Ralph de Bricassart wasn't a pedophile to begin with.

As for the custody case, the judge's decision was an all-time worst. Here he got a father and a mother fighting each other, and he decided to send their son to foster care. What the hell? Neither was on drugs or mentally unstable. But yeah, the boy shouldn't have been too honest with the judge. On the other hand, Justine O'Neill...oh, boy; I would disown her instantly. As a matter of fact, it was a good idea for the mother to send her away to Sidney. What a joke of a daughter she was.

All in all, The Thorn Birds could be safely skipped by getting what you need for the most part in The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years to save time.