A&E's AWFUL "War and Peace" tonight

[Stephen Pruitt]

It's hard to say enough bad things about this mess of a production, which looks awful, sounds bad, is poorly acted, and, to top it off, it badly written.

This is a truly epic fail. Perhaps never have I expected more and gotten less. We gave up at the 1 1/2 mark of 8 total hours.

What drivel.

Stephen

 

[Nick Morrison]

To be fair, its a BBC co-production, and not everyone agrees with you:

http://time.com/4180279/review-war-and-peace-adaptation/

 

[Stephen Pruitt]

The BBC also co-produced brilliant films like "Brooklyn," "Jane Erye" and "Far from the Madding Crowd," and amazingly well-done miniseries like "Bleak House," "Emma," "Downton Abbey," and "Little Dorrit," all of which are vastly better than this drivel. Any critic who thinks that this "War and Peace" was anything but sub-par definitely needs a new line of work.

Stephen

 

[Marc Wielage]

Variety seemed to think it looked good but was dull:

http://variety.com/2016/tv/reviews/war-and-peace-tv-review-1201671720/

 

[Nick Morrison]

I personally applaud A+E for investing in War and Peace, regardless of the reviews.

As a cable group defined more often by reality hits, A+E's growing confidence in scripted can only be a GOOD thing.

Vikings on History is great. Bates Motel on A&E is fantastic. And Unreal on Lifetime is superb.

The more they double down on premium programming and bold scripted, the better I think their chances of surviving - and thriving - in this new media landscape.

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

But, why remake things when there is an unlimited pool of stories yet to be told.

 

[David Battistella]

But, why remake things when there is an unlimited pool of stories yet to be told.

Two words. Brand Awareness. With War and Peace you have to do virtually nothing to make people aware of the War and Peace brand. With some new story, that brand awareness needs to be created. Same applies to all the marvel movies, sequels, etc. They play off the brand awareness instead of building an entirely new brand. Many hollywood films have played off the brand awareness of novels, as a simple example, because they have been in the mainstream as a brand in another form.

David