Bleak House

 It's the second time I watch the BBC Charles Dickens "Bleak House" series, yet I still can not recognise Gillian Anderson (X-Files Scully) as Lady Dedlock. Such a change, I just can't believe my eyes. Her play is absolutely gorgeous - a perfectly calm facade, sometimes it seems she has neither feeling nor emotions, just as a Victorian aristocratic lady should be, but actually there are storms inside.
Most of all I like the way they managed to create that Victorian atmosphere - cruel, well-mannered, inconsolable, mud, poverty and fatal disease, it seems consumption was a curse that could hit anyone. Through the scenes depicting the city you can almost feel that damp smoggy air when a light flu could end lethally. But even in that rotten environment roses bloom, I mean the character of Esther who is so nice and sweet and generous that draws all your sympathies at once.

And poor Ada (played by lovely Carey Mulligan) who enjoyed a marriage life for too short a period, the only consolation for her after the death of her beloved husband and cousin Richard Carstone, is their baby, that's all that's left of their love but in this baby their love still grows and it reminds her that their sufferings were not in vain.

Oh, and there is a crowd of minor characters that would certainly draw your attention, some by sympathy, some by disgust like Mr. Smallweed. "Shake me up, Judy", his looks are genuinly disgusting, my tribute to great make-up. On the whole, just watch it.