World Without End on Reelz

I am not sure how Reelz was able to pull it off, but it began broadcasting Ken Follett's miniseries World Without End on October 17.  The story takes place in Kingsbridge, though it is now two centuries after the completion of the Gothic cathedral covered in Follett's earlier The Pillars of the Earth.

Pillars was broadcast on Starz back in 2010. It reminds me of another miniseries, The Kennedys, that was turned down by other networks and finally broadcast on Reelz only to go on to win an Emmy (Barry Pepper, as Bobby Kennedy, won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie).

The Hollywood Reporter summarizes the setting in this way:

Chronicling the late Middle Ages -- the start of the Hundred Years War against France, the devastation of the Black Death, the corrupt machinations of the Church and the peasant uprisings against royal tyranny -- Follett’s novel follows four adolescents into adulthood. Caris (Charlotte Riley) is a smart, compassionate girl drawn to the healing arts of medicine, while Gwenda (Nora von Waldstaetten) is a feisty peasant laborer accustomed since a young age to living by her wits. Then there are the brothers, Merthin (Tom Weston-Jones) and Ralph (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), sons of a fallen knight. The former is a builder’s apprentice with a natural aptitude for architecture, the latter a thuggish answer to Jake Gyllenhaal with grand aspirations and a talent for raping and killing.

While it sounds like another good story,  The Hollywood Reporter review finishes with little praise:

However, while the series is always at least mildly entertaining, it’s also stodgy. Even when it tosses in juicy ingredients (Incest! Fratricide! Gay monks! Lesbian nuns!), World Without End is just too tame and tasteful.

If you need a tame version of the Tudors, this may be a place to start.  As far as an Emmy, that may not be in the cards.  

Note:  Click here for a little more on the story from Ken Follett.