32 thoughts on “SNARK WEEK RECAP: North & South (1985), Episode 2

    1. WOW.

      I have this engraved into my memory as this sweeping, glamorous and well-made epic romance with the Swayze at Peak Hotness (also James Read is also teh (sic) Hotness), and wonderful costumes, but….

      It really doesn’t hold up, huh? I guess the audience has come to expect much more accuracy and quality.

      Having said that, I still love it to wittle, wittle pieces and will fight over it.

  1. How did Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum end up in this? Is schlocky tv fair where decent actors go once they’ve aged too much for the land of the perpetually young? (See also: Jane Seymour was a queen in A Royal Christmas. She is also still beautiful and a good actress but omg wrinkles!).

    The kissing is hilarious. But also gross. I’m ok never seeing that gif again.

    Also, I feel for all the people of color who worked on this. The slaves are basically window dressing to a plot supposedly all about slavery. What the what? I think this seals it—not watching again.

      1. Has Maum Sally thought of writing an advise column on Life, Clothes and the Dark Side of polybaroque satin?
        Yuck on the kissing scenes.
        And this was done after Roots? It boggles the mind. All this makes me wish for a miniseries on both Marion Anderson and Leontyne Price. As well as other women of colour.

  2. I am positive that in the 80s I owned barrettes decorated just like the one in Blond Bratty Sister’s hair. Probably with the exact same machine-made doily and poly-ribbon bow from the exact same JoAnns.

  3. ROFL! should have been called Acetate & Polyester… But I recall it was prestige TV when it first aired…I also remember sister and I were not impressed by the characters and had some nasty names for them… not Tits, though (too young)… I’m a bit sad about that, but better late than never! LOL!

  4. I love it all, and love the photo where she seems to stare right at the unspeakable leopard-spot cravat-ish droopy item in that neck-fabric collection. Thank you for saving me from having to watch this, but you could have spared us the yucky makeout gif–that was pretty mean.

  5. Year’s ago, I read a southern white woman’s account of life during the war. It was a tragic tale of how impossible it was to acquire pretty clothing. Seeing the recap above, I believe her.

  6. “Lizard-y tongues” ROFL

    That gif will be burned into my retinas for the rest of my days.

    1. Forgot to ask – would women wear their hair like Perfect Blonde during the daytime? That half up – half down style with the sausage curls?

  7. I must ask what the hell is going on hat-wise in this show. The mom character appears to be wearing a lace cap upside down, while tits flashy satin bowler hat makes me think of that weird bridal hat phase of the eighties, which has filled many a thrift store. So much monstrous millinery.

      1. I shall never forgive my cousin who married in the 80’s and forced all of us female relations into off the shoulder peach-y sherbet-colored monstrosities with hoop skirts and parasols.

        mutha-effin PARASOLS.

        (I was a junior bridesmaid at the time – only thirteen – so my non-existent decolletage was modestly covered in scratchy, itchy peach lace.)

  8. Huh. I thought for sure that the slave had his eye put out by a hot poker instead of being branded. I haven’t watched it in years, though. I was terrified of that scene whenever I was little.

  9. I completely lost it at the leopard print cravat. Wow.
    I saw this on the telly in the late 90s when I was a kid and now I must conclude that pre-teens are basically the only target audience that could reasonably be expected to like this unironically. But I’m loving this vicarious hate-watch through your recaps!!

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