43 thoughts on “Poldark Season 3: A Half-Hearted Review

  1. I actually don’t love this show much either. I stopped watching at some point in Season 2 but have seen most of Season 3 (not all as I didn’t see the Verity episode.) Ross is just such an ass, it’s hard to believe he’s any kind of a hero. And Elizabeth can’t decide whether to be Team Warleggan or Team Poldark – and allowing Aunt Agatha to be buried as she was was the final nail in Elizabeth’s coffin as far as I’m concerned. And, was Morwenna’s sister actually attracted to the reverend or was her whole game to blackmail him from the get go? And, is she really pregnant? That all made no sense – plus, they had the exact same face – the sister and the reverend – which was creepy in the extreme.

      1. My biggest dislike is the comicbook type villianhood of George W. Nothing is bad enough for him to do or think. It is almost comical. And suddenly Elizabeth is on board…wondering if her new aversion to Ross is due to her fear of baby parentage or just feeling spurned. She can’t actually LIKE George, can she? His ridiculous chin in air position is reason enough to hate him.

  2. Demelze’s red dress looks like Laura’s “grown-up” dress in Little House on the Prairie. And why does she slouch all the time? (In Aunt Agatha’s voice) “Stand up straight, girl!”

  3. Why do their dresses look so flat? Shouldn’t they be shaped a bit more. It looks like they forgot to put on any foundation garments!

    1. We’ve been complaining about the lack of petticoats & bum pads on this show since day 1. I nearly included some shots of Elizabeth & Caroline where it seemed like they had a bit more historically accurate silhouettes, but I reconsidered bec. it was still just barely a smidge better than it had been in past seasons. We know the ladies are wearing corsets/stays from behind-the-scenes pix, but that’s as far as it goes.

      1. I don’t watch this show at all, but looking at the pics I had the same thought , too! Where are all the paniers and padding? There’s no budget to order some from ebay or aliexpress???

  4. Those pregnancy prosthetics were AWFUL (having watched season 3 while 8 months pregnant). I enjoy the eye candy of the show – it’s a good crafting/sewing show, since everyone is so bland, I don’t need to pay close attention!

    To me, Poldark is just Downton Abbey, 1700s. Bad writing with impossible and vapid one-sided characters, but lovely to look at.

    1. Thanks for the confirmation about the pregnancy outfits! On the podcast, we were ranting & also noting that the three of us have zero first-hand knowledge. But just having been around modern pregnant women, wow, the Poldark ladies looked so wrong, I had to do some research into 18th-c. pregnancy fashion.

      1. Having been pregnant twice, one of my TV pet peeves is fake pregnant women, and either it’s the prostheses or nobody taught these actresses that pregnancy isn’t just having a beach ball strapped to your abdomen. I especially hate how no matter how pregnant they are, they still walk the same way and never have trouble getting up from a sitting position! Pregnancy throws your balance out of whack the last trimester when you basically have a bowling ball strapped to you.

        1. Not to mention that no one ever acknowledges that more than one’s belly expands during pregnancy. Boobs and hips enlarge as well.

  5. Agreed, this show is getting more and more soapy and predictable.

    Did you catch the almost-Regency dress Morwenna wore after having her baby? From behind the scenes pics I’ve seen floating on the inter webs, it seems they will finally switch to Regency dresses and bonnets/hats next season.

    1. Yep, I couldn’t get a full-length screencap of Morwenna’s last dress(es), that’s why I didn’t included it. But I have it on good authority that season 4 will be more of the 1790s-1800s high-waisted styles for the ladies as the series makes progresses in time.

  6. Almost every episode now has be ranting on FB about how stupid, how annoying, or how absolutely EVIL someone is, and why are we still watching? One friend chimed in that “the stupid runs strong in Cornwall.”

    1. I have season 5 on now, with partial attention…one thing I DO like is old George talking to Elizabeth as if she is still there, and his wicked uncle rolling his eyes…lol. But George is not so crazy to forget to be evil…

  7. My pet peeve is when every dress looks like it was cut from the same pattern, like this. Every dress has a quasi zone front? It wasn’t a legal requirement (although maybe it was in Cornwall?) No matter how influential a fashion trend, it never result in EVERY WOMAN wearing it. Same with hair – basically we see two regulation hairstyles in this thing.
    It’s almost as bad as Love and Friendship. Actually it’s worse because that film was at least funny. And did its part in using up curtaining textile remnants that might otherwise have ended up in landfill.

  8. The 70’s version was my intro to frock flicks (so yea!). Many people complained about how they deviated from the books. This version though! I think my eyeballs have just about rolled out of my head a million times. I’m not sure why I’m still watching. Aiden Turner I guess, but I seriously doubt I will be up for season 4.

    1. Fact: Back in the ’70s, Alistair Cooke named Poldark as his all-time least favorite Masterpiece series.

  9. I think women of the period were wearing “robe battantes” (think early Watteau dresses) as maternity wear up to the Regency style. In France. Not so sure about Cornwall.

    But I chuckled at those pics… That was some bad burrito, ladies!

    I’m not keen on this… The soap opera thing, but also the gigantic man baby thing: “I love you, I adore you, and I deserve what I want, so I’m gonna rape ya… Besides, It’s Thursday.”

    Man candy doesn’t excuse everything… A lot, sure, but not everything

  10. And Elizabeth can’t decide whether to be Team Warleggan or Team Poldark – and allowing Aunt Agatha to be buried as she was was the final nail in Elizabeth’s coffin as far as I’m concerned.

    I never understood this need for Elizabeth to be regarded as some kind of villainess in this story. That is not the character whom Winston Graham had created. It was George who made that decision and Elizabeth had no say in the matter. I’m still flabbergasted about why Ross didn’t step up and take control of Agatha’s burial, once he was in a position to do so. She was a member of his family for Pete’s sake!

    Morwenna wears these drippy floral prints. Fine, whatever, she’s supposed to be in between lower-class and gentry, I guess it works, it’s just boring.

    Morwenna, like Elizabeth and Rowella, came from an upper-class, yet impoverished family called the Chynoweths. Which makes all of them from the landed gentry, whether their family had money or not. The same was the case for the Poldarks, when they were struggling financially.

    I really hated Debbie Horsfield’s adaptation of Graham’s fifth novel, “The Black Moon”. Elizabeth never took drugs to deal with George Warleggan. She was a strong-willed individual, whose biggest flaw was her insecurity. This led her to be more conformist – especially in her younger years. But that did not mean she became a drug addict. Good grief!

    As for costumes, it’s clear that those for this production have never really been up to par. I’ve endured the questionable costumes more than I have endured Horsfield’s narrative changes. However, I don’t understand why Ross and especially Demelza continued to dress as if they were still struggling financially. What the hell? Why on earth did Caroline have to give Demelza one of her dresses, especially since Ross could afford to buy her a new wardrobe?

    The 70’s version was my intro to frock flicks (so yea!). Many people complained about how they deviated from the books.

    I thought the 70s adaptation of the first three novels were not as good as this recent adaptation. So far, I’m not impressed by Debbie Horsfield’s recent adaptation of Graham’s fifth and sixth novels. It was done better in the 1970s. However, I feel that both the 70s series and this series did a shitty adaptation of Graham’s fourth novel, “Warleggan”.

    1. She started out pretty faithful, but as we move on it gets worse with every episode. Elizabeth and the opium bothered me, but the changes to Caroline & Dwight’s timeline drove me nuts. That was just something that would not happen! The list of little tinkerings that change the story line ever so slightly, but enough, is too massive to cover. And where did Jud disappear to?

  11. I am waiting for the DVD bc it’s opposite Madame Secretary or Wisdom of the Crowd. I’m addicted to Elizabeth McCord’s manner of foreign policy. Besides I can throw popcorn at DVD episode & rewind if I miss something – Horace – for instance.
    The pics I’ve seen from this season re Demelza’s wardrobe also bothers me as Ross and her are better off financially. And her slouching. But I like her better than Elizabeth Warleggen. And I really like Caroline and her pooch, Horace.
    Ross should grow up. If he doesn’t, he might loose Demelza.She did have a triste with Lieut. ‘Poetry-writer’.

  12. Oh, this poor show. The first season got me hooked on the Poldark stories (I ended up reading the first 6 books), but the second season was SO bad. Season three wasn’t good, either, but it was slightly above season two. I’m still watching because…well, it’s Poldark, and I basically signed my life away to it. Also, Aidan Turner. But aside from that, it generally disappoints me.

    (Sidenote, you called Sam “Silas” in his bathing shot. He does seem more like a Silas than a Sam, though, so I can’t really blame you.)

  13. I love Esme Coy, who plays Rowella, Morwenna’s shocking little sister. She has a perfect 18th-century shepherdess face. (She’s the daughter of Jonathan Coy, the chambers clerk in “Rumpole of the Bailey.” Nice to see the younger generation stepping out.)

  14. I grew up on the 70s version, and don’t like this one at all. All the women look the same to me, just with different wigs…and they are all so SKINNY. Not a boob in sight. The only one I liked was Verity, but hey, the missus likes it!

  15. At least we have Caroline’s wedding dress. It was accurate (aside from the modern lace), stripey, and she had decent hair! It’s a step up from last season.

  16. I grew up watching the 70’s series, and Robin Ellis will always be Ross Poldark to me. I even read the 1st 6 books in between Series 1 & Series 2. My biggest complaint is Jack Farthing’s portrayal of George. He has none of the subtlety of Ralph Bates in the original, the only time I found him less than insufferable is when he broke down in the final episode. Otherwise, I have no use for him. And this Morwenna is so much drippier than the 70’s Morwenna. I like Aiden Turner a lot but I don’t like him as Ross.

    1. My biggest complaint is Jack Farthing’s portrayal of George. He has none of the subtlety of Ralph Bates in the original, the only time I found him less than insufferable is when he broke down in the final episode.

      Jack Farthing isn’t to blame. He’s doing everything he can with this role. Unfortunately, he has to deal with Debbie Horsfield’s increasingly hamfisted portrayal of George Warleggan. She’s trying to convert him into this one-dimensional villain. She had already screwed up the storyline involving Ross and Elizabeth . . . in order to salvage Ross’ reputation with the viewers.

  17. Oh that barrette! Every time it appeared (which was many, many times) I thought, “Wait until Frock Flicks sees this”.

    Possibly the ‘highlight’ of the whole series though was Verity’s moment on a cliff, with a baby which looked passably like an infant version of her husband, and a miniature which looked NOTHING like him at all. Yes, one of these things should be harder to achieve than the other. No, it should not be that way round.

  18. I really loved the costumes this season! I thought they were a real step up. The cut on the dresses and the fabric I thought was great and no back lacing!!! Carolines wedding dress is divine! Who cares about modern lace! I think the fullness and shape was right as it 1790’s as panniers had gone by now and it would only be a bum roll. I think the pregnancy padding was bad though. I totally hate morwenna’s hair! Looks like a really bad wig!

  19. Morwenna & Drake were the highlight of the season for me. But yeah her hair was bad – i think maybe it was a wig issue, because her actress has very short hair and a short fringe which might be hard to disguise?

    I have an issue with how Poldark has this whole hair up = prim and proper thing going on.
    Now Elizabeth is married to George she pins it up all time, Demelza’s is always “wild and free” and Morwenna starts wearing hers up after marriage etc. etc.

    1. I am opposite…not liking either character. Preferred the originals. This Drake is always leering, kind of creepy lol. And Morwena is much more forward than is realistic for era and her class. But the preacher is equally creepy in both versions…major yuk.

  20. Personally, the longer I watched, the more I felt for George. I thought the show did an admirable job at hinting at why he hates Ross so, and I am convinced that Ross deserves every bit of hate George can dish out.

    Ross looks down on George, and has done since school, when he seemingly tormented George for no reason other than his station. Indeed, George’s hatred of frogs comes directly from some horrid prank of Ross’s. The violence of his antipathy toward the creatures makes me think Ross must have really made life a living hell for him. Ross is a hypocritical, proud, blind idiot. George can be cutthroat and unfeeling, but at least he knows he is and doesn’t think himself some saint who can do no wrong like Ross seems to, never willing to admit to his faults and face the consequences of his own wrong choices. Which he never, ever admits are wrong. Insufferable, insufferable man.

    George has become much more an antihero than a villain to me. The scene when he asked Elizabeth about the baby’s father just absolutely broke my heart, and then the final scene on the beach when he so ademently, almost desperately, proclaims he trusts Elizabeth…he wants to trust her, is choosing to trust her, because he actually loves her. George Warlaggen is vulnerable with no one, yet with Elizabeth, he was. I personally thought the actor did an amazing job in those scenes, and with the character in general.

    If I continue watching, it will be for Demelza, George, and Dr. Enys (I have a weakness for navy men). Ross can go jump off a cliff for all I care.

    Is Ross likable in the books? Because somehow women keep mooning over him in the book reviews, and I just plain don’t understand it.

Comments are closed.

Discover more from Frock Flicks

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue Reading