‘The Forsytes’ Boss Reveals Season 2 Time Jump After Shocking Finale
Spoiler Alert
What To Know
- The Forsytes’ Season 1 finale revealed a new character, Harry Falconer, signaling a departure from the source material.
- Showrunner Debbie Horsfield breaks down the finale and teases what’s next for significant relationships.
Forget the marital tensions between the cousins and their wives. The biggest surprise in The Forsytes’ first-season finale on PBS was an end-of-episode revelation. Warning: Spoilers for The Forsytes’ Season 1 finale ahead!
Elderly matriarch Ann (Francesca Annis) announced to her son Jolyon (Stephen Moyer) that she has a grandson named Harry Falconer! It suggests the possibility of a major digression from the show’s source material, John Galsworthy novels, and its previous TV adaptations, in the already shot second season of Masterpiece’s Victorian-era costume drama, since the character of Harry, who had the money he lost due to a bad investment covered by Ann, is a creation of The Forsytes’ showrunner, Debbie Horsfield. We may learn more about him next season.
Overall, the series’ maiden outing was filled with an abundance of visual splendor, from the costumes to the scenery to the often shirtless hunks who filled the screen. (That’s not surprising, since Horsfield was also the creative force behind Masterpiece’s popular Poldark remake, which featured Aidan Turner frequently baring his chest.)
The outcomes of the show’s two major storylines weren’t unexpected to anyone familiar with past iterations of The Forsyte Saga, even if they didn’t play out exactly as they had in the past. Instead of leaving his wife and young daughter for the governess, artistic-minded Jo (Danny Griffin) moved out on spouse Frances (Tuppence Middleton) to live with first love Louisa (Eleanor Tomlinson). Jo fell for the dressmaker in Italy a decade ago and fathered twins he only recently found out about.
Tuppence Middleton and Danny Griffin (Sean Gleason/Courtesy of Mammoth Screen & MASTERPIECE)
“I thought there was more potential for drama if this woman came out of left field,” Horsfield says. “She’s left him alone for 10 years because she knew he was married. I wanted to give everybody a dilemma and then [explore] how they navigate it.”
Life without Forsyte money, however, may prove to be more challenging than Jo anticipated. “Jo doesn’t necessarily think through the consequences of what he does,” Horsfield previews. “We kind of assume if you follow your heart, everything’s going to be great. That’s not always the case.”
Newly married Soames (Joshua Orpin), meanwhile, followed through on his plan to keep close watch over Irene (Millie Gibson), his free-spirited, ballet-dancing spouse. He commissioned Philip Bosinney (Jamie Flatters), the architect engaged to Soames’ cousin June (Justine Moore), to build them a house in the country, far away from her London companions.
“This relationship is a study in what we now know to be coercive control,” Horsfield says. “Soames likes to own and possess things. Irene’s hoping to evoke that better person, and sometimes she does. That’s what keeps her hanging on.”
Unlike other versions of their story, Horsfield’s demonstrated that the Soames-Irene pairing had potential before it devolved. “I wanted to understand her thought process of getting into it in the first place, and I also wanted to suggest that he didn’t just go into it for the wrong reasons,” she explains. “He genuinely was in love with her. There was hope for that relationship at one point.” Expect the most traumatic moment of their marriage, a spousal rape incident, in the second season, the writer adds.
As for the sophomore round, Richard Rankin of Outlander fame, Sarah Alexander, and Nia Ashi join the cast. Details about their characters haven’t been released, but Rankin does not play Falconer, according to a Masterpiece rep. Horsfield says it will pick up about five to six months after the finale. “Enough to let the dust have settled after the quite seismic events at the end of Season 1,” she previews. “And enough to then join them at a particularly crucial point in their story.”
The Forsytes, Season 1, PBS app (with Passport) and PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel
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D
There was no need to do another adaptation of the Forsyte Saga given how excellent the previous adaptation was and that it only 24 years old. Even so I had hopes for this adaptation but they were soon snuffed out. There is so much to dislike about this from the totally unnecessary subplots the odd costume choices (why is Bosinney fi\ond of wearing a racoon hat? Why is Jolyon so often going about wearing a pale blue of cream colored suit or pioneering casual dress days at work?). Why is dialog so ludicrously out of keeping with Victorian England? Why are the 2 Forsytes living next door to each other - is it so that Soames and Jolyon can occasionally step out onto their front porticos to glare at each other? This adaptation has less to do with John Galsworthy than with the 1980s nighttime soap operas like Dynasty and Dallas.
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A
The Forsytes is not a remake of The Forsyte Saga, The Forsyte Saga was made from three books by John Galsworthy, and they covered from around 1900 to 1930's. This new series The Forsytes is a prequel. The first episode began with the wedding of Jo and Frances when Frances' daughter from her marriage to her first (late) husband June was 9 years old in the 1870's. It very quickly advanced (still in the first episode) 9 years to June's coming out party at the age of 18. The rest of Season 1 is in the 1870's. I'm enjoying this series very much. There were a lot of cliff hangers in the last episode: Ann has a secret grandson named Harry Falconer? Soames deliberately brought financial ruin on his future father-in-law in order to rescue the destitute Irene so she would marry him? Does June's fiance Philip have his eyes on Irene? Oh, the thick plottens!
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D
I didn't claim that The Forsytes was a remake of the Forsyte saga, I called it and the other earlier series adaptations - which they all are. And no, it is not a "prequel". It covers the same story covered in the earlier series. The fact that this new series included a few incidents that occur before the main story does not make it a "prequel". You can only call a film a prequel if all of the events in it happen before the film to which the prequel is related.
I am glad for you that you enjoy this series but I do not. It is a far cry from the type of period dramas that used to come out of Britain which were excellent first and foremost because of the excellence of the writing. This series is much too much like a standard American trashy drama and I find none of the characters at all believable. They are cardboard heroes and villains not a bit like the complex characters that the writers of the 2002 adaptation created. The acting is pretty substandard too. Any time you have a film or series include multiple scenes of a character punching a bag merely in order to titillate the audience with a half naked body you know they're not interested in quality drama, they're merely playing to the cheap seats. The fact that this has a "cliffhanger" is itself further proof that this is not aiming for quality drama.
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C
I’m glad I never watched the previous Forsyte saga’s so i can’t be disappointed or frantically searching for something to pick at.
I simply enjoyed the entire season and now can’t wait for the seasons to follow. This is pure fun and entertainment! That’s how I see it, period. Can’t wait for seasons 2 and 3 and…..anything done by Debbie Horsefield is guaranteed to be a fun ride!
Three cheers for the writer!
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J
I am enjoying the remaked FORSYTES. However, I did not appreciate a rerun of last week's show. This stinks!
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