The Forsytes Is Supposed to Be Ugly

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John Galsworthy’s “Forsyte Saga” has been adapted for television many times over the past 50 years, and it’s easy to see why. The novels follow the fortunes of a wealthy Victorian family through several generations, showing their struggles and development. We meet the elder Forsytes, determined to maintain their status, and their children, who face their own challenges. The story centers on characters like Soames, who wants to grow the family’s wealth but falls in love with a woman who doesn’t fit into their world, and Young Jolyon, who deals with the fallout from Soames’s troubled marriage. Over time, new generations of Forsytes emerge, continuing the family’s story. The 1967 BBC adaptation was groundbreaking for its time, a lavish period drama. The 2002 ITV version, featuring Damian Lewis, kept the rich historical detail but delved deeper into the darker aspects of the novels. It portrays Soames as a deeply flawed and abusive man, highlighting how rigid Victorian values damaged the Forsytes and turned them into unhappy people – a central theme of Galsworthy’s work.

PBS’s new version of The Forsytes, originally shown on Channel 5 in the UK, changes Galsworthy’s story about a wealthy family’s downfall. It speeds up the timeline, losing the original’s slow build of tension and sense of impending disaster. While new storylines add more characters and give them more to do, the series feels bloated and loses focus. Most strikingly, and ironically for a story about looking beneath the surface, everything is visually softened. The show is overly glamorous, with the Forsytes’ luxurious ballroom looking just as appealing as a poor woman’s rundown apartment. The older Forsytes, who should appear frail and outdated, are surprisingly youthful and healthy. And the younger characters are all exceptionally attractive, seemingly styled for social media. Instead of a story about a vibrant new generation fighting against the constraints of their conservative elders, it feels like a superficial tale of beautiful people with very little to worry about.

The story initially centers on Soames (Joshua Orpin), who falls in love with and marries Irene despite his family’s disapproval. He soon realizes he can’t control Irene the same way he controls his possessions. Having been taught that power comes from ownership, Soames’s desire for control drives a wedge between Irene (Millie Gibson) and everything she cares about. This relationship remains the strongest part of the adaptation. Orpin brilliantly portrays Soames’s hidden jealousy and possessiveness, even when he appears calm, and Gibson’s ethereal beauty makes her casting – reminiscent of a travel influencer promoting luxury spas – surprisingly fitting. Soames is driven to cruelty because Irene represents a kind of beauty and power that he can’t simply buy.

The series gets off to a shaky start with Young Jolyon Forsyte, whose modern appearance feels out of place in this Edwardian setting – almost like a themed night on a reality show. In the original novels, Jolyon doesn’t become a central character until after a key marriage fails. Here, he’s pushed to the forefront with a completely new storyline. The first episode introduces his marriage to a wealthy widow, but he quickly discovers that London’s most talented seamstress, Louisa Byrne (Eleanor Tomlinson), is also his former lover. To make matters worse, she has twins who’ve never known their father, and they’re remarkably well-behaved. This plot feels overly familiar, as if borrowed from another period drama, and while it seems intended to give Jolyon a storyline about being unhappy in his marriage, the show’s bright and polished visuals constantly detract from any sense of darkness. Despite being supposedly poor, Louisa looks like she belongs on a glamorous show like Bridgerton, and her children, who are meant to be vulnerable, frequently appear to deliver overly sweet lines with unconvincing coughs.

The new take on ‘The Forsytes’ feels like it wants to be a dramatic, character-driven story about wealthy young Londoners and the fallout from their choices. However, the series doesn’t fully embrace that direction and instead gets stuck between the original plot and a desire to be something like ‘Downton Abbey,’ which ultimately makes it feel disjointed. We jump between Young Jolyon’s romantic interest in Louisa and scenes of Old Jolyon stressing about business, without a clear sense of what’s at stake or why we should care. The show gets too caught up in visually appealing moments – Irene dancing, Young Jolyon showing off – that the older generation’s financial worries feel unimportant and get lost in the shuffle. It prioritizes attractive people and their secrets over a compelling, cohesive narrative.

The series tries to tie everything together with voice-overs from Ann Forsyte (Francesca Annis), who observes the family with a worried expression. These voice-overs aim to give the story a sense of importance, framing the events as the beginning of the end for the Forsyte family’s carefully constructed world. The show wants to suggest it’s not just a family drama, but a commentary on the strict, judgmental values of Victorian society as they start to crumble. The younger generation can’t inherit the older generation’s legacy without dismantling it, and that process will be painful. However, this version of the story focuses too much on individual dramas, rather than the broader societal changes. It’s difficult to connect with the characters’ struggles when the show prioritizes scandalous reveals—like secret twins—over deeper themes of shame and financial hardship. The characters seem to have little at stake; they’re young and attractive, and the camera often lingers on their good looks, making it hard to discern if their lives are truly falling apart.

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2026-03-24 22:55