Cinematography and acting are good. However, I just read the book and can't get over how much they rewrote the story. What they filmed was so different it completely changes the experiences, history and fundamental motivations of the characters. I do not recommend if a fan of the book.

I very much love this story!

It's hard to match the subtleties of a book with a made for TV movie.

For years I loved the novel and dreamed of seeing the movies. When it came out on pay per view, I was devastated. I finally was able to watch all four episodes (2 episodes per each Part) this past weekend. Other than leaving one story arch out -- at least I remember one missing arch -- everything about the small screen adaptation was riveting. 5 stars.

The book is phenomenal. Highly recommend reading before watching. Good movie but... $40 to get both parts? Ridiculous. Way over priced even for the non-HD version. Overall quality of acting and presentation is in between an in theater movie and a network mini-series.

The theme is set to begin during the first reign of King Henry about 1000 A.D. I give high praise to Ken Follet, the author for his imagination and deeply researched story telling (some of which is hard to believe, but true nonetheless). The movie direction is well cast with characters who represent this time period with a breath of fresh air, because we are seeing NEW material, done in all the potential originality possible. Mature, but what can we expect when we look back into European history when religion, politics, love, and war often occurred hand-in-hand?

A strong character driven drama that gives believable angles to each of it's heroes and villains. Of course it plays loose with some of the specifics of both history and the book that it's based on (fans of the book should be prepared for changes to some character ages for example). But it still provides a compelling story arc over the course of a few decades and by the end made each character's choices believable. Set in the same period of English history as another of my favorites, The Brother Cadfael series. A strong cast of actors and it made great use of it's sets to immerse you in the time and place. Mature content for nudity and violence and some depictions of sex.