Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Organnall Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

TheLittleSongbird I was expecting much from Birdsong. I had read the book three years ago for my English A Levels course, and found myself utterly transfixed by the poignant and gut-wrenching story. Since then, Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong has become one of my favourite books of all time. This series does have its good parts. It is photographed beautifully, exquisitely even, the scenery is wonderful in the whole part of the story before Stephen goes off to war, I liked the contrast between the lush pre-war scenes and the bleak colour palette of war itself the music is effective in its simplicity and there are two good performances, the scene-stealing Jack Firebrace of Joseph Mawle and the emotionally complex Jeanne of Marie-Josee Croze. Sadly, I never found myself convinced by the story and characters. This is not helped by a script that is largely incoherent, characters that excepting perhaps Jeanne are lifeless cardboard cut-outs(I know they are not likable characters to begin with but still there is a difference between that and the characters having no life at all) and sluggish pacing. I also found Eddie Redmayne and Clemence Posey miscast, Redmayne is handsome certainly but he was also wooden and uncharismatic while Posey has no chemistry with him and looks like twenty years younger than her novelistic counterpart. The story has scenes that are either condensed(naturally considering the time) or almost endlessly stretched out(not so much), but it was the lack of atmosphere and drama that really spoiled Birdsong. The intimate scenes between Stephen and Isabelle weren't that intimate to me as both actors looked in pain during those scenes, and the war scenes due to the poorly rendered battlefields weren't poignant, tense or gut-wrenching enough. Overall, does have some good things such as the beautiful photography, but the pacing and lack of drama made Birdsong rather dull in my opinion, sorry. 5/10 Bethany Cox

lucejuice100 Having been anticipating this mini series with some degree of excitement I was extremely disappointed by the complete lack of emotion through out the drama. I am a huge fan of romantic period pieces and expected to enjoy Birdsong very much. On watching the series I found myself struggling to care for any of the characters, I was completely unconvinced by the romance between the central characters, Stephen (Eddie Redmayne) and Isabelle (Clemence Posey). I felt there was no real development and was therefore unmoved. While it all looked very nice, the storytelling was appalling, there was so much mumbling it was almost as if the director had instructed the actors to be incoherent! I would definitely not recommend Birdsong to anyone and feel one star is generous!

potter34 Let me start by saying we love just about everything on Masterpiece. We also rent a lot of British mysteries, dramas, and especially period pieces from Netflix. Our main complaint is that the male lead in Birdsong is quite possibly the most wooden and boring acting we've ever seen. Just awful. The female lead is also pretty wooden and her performance is even worse than when she appeared in Gossip Girl. I have nothing good to say about this show except the outfits were pretty.We expect quality from Masterpiece and this sure did not measure up! You'd be better off watching repeats of Poirot or Foyle's War.

steven-222 This movie has fine production values, good actors, moving music...but the love story left me cold. There is zero chemistry between the lovers, and its seems a cheat to make her (otherwise quite desirable) husband impotent.More to the point...what was the point? After showing us just how miserable WWI was, and how degraded human institutions are (sending young men to die horribly for no good reason), and how pointless love and human relationships are, because life leads inevitably to suffering and death...our transcendent ending comes with the revelation that a child has been born--so hooray, the cycle of misery can just go on and on. This is the standard "uplifting" ending to many a novel and movie, but for me, it just won't cut it any more. The "miracle" of progeny is the exact opposite, no miracle at all but one of the most common things in the world. Two people screwed and created a baby. Big deal.I respect the integrity and the ambitious nature of this movie--but only up to a point. If you want to bite off a really big theme (human futility), you'll have to take me somewhere else. Making a baby merely plays the hand dealt to us by the Selfish Gene, our only true lord and master. It's not a solution or a resolution to anything, not even a made-up story.