Thorn Birds:Missing Years

This movie was terrible. I watch the TBs every year around New Years and love it! This was so bad, it hurt. I could not finish it. Not only is the story line stupid and the script really bad, the film direction is filled with areial sweeping pans that are just silly and over done. Poor Richard. Why did he do this to himself? Rachael Ward was smart not to return to the role.

I loved the original thron birds as well as the book. This was probably the worst film ever made. First of it doesn't at all compliment the original series weather it be story line or otherwise. Although richard chamberlain is charming as ever i cannot understand how he could ever acted in this disgraceful film. The book didn't even go with this story. Nothing they added was mentioned in the other movies or book except the background about mary carson which still wasn't covered. The fact that luke returns to maggie in this thinking dane is his son is unbelievable considering when maggie last saw him was when she was already pregnant with dane. Knowing that he wasn't anywhere near her after justine was born, it should have struck him as odd that maggie had another child knowing that dane could never have been his. Plus in the original series Maggie pointed out she never returned to luke! Also considering dane and justine saw father ralph for the first time when they were grown up to begin with makes it very hard to follow with the timeline. I tried to picture it as if it happened after the second part of the thorn birds and no matter how i looked at it , nothing goes along with the other movies at all. Overall this was a major dissappointment!

I can sympathize with TV producers who wish to make "prequels" or "sequels" to Mini Series but not "in betweeners". In this film Ralph de Bricassart (played again by Richard Chamberlain) comes back to visit Meggie (now played by Amanda Donohoe) while Justine and Dane are growing up (something that never happened in the novel). She also gets a visit from Luke (who also never resurfaces in the book except in a letter) years after she told him off. Meggie and Ralph are as distant as they were before Matlock Island in it, making the first "19 years later scenes" irrelevant (even before Ralph helps Dane tell Meggie he wants to enter the priesthood). There is also a place where Justine discusses Ralph with Dane though they don't see him, and Justine hints that Meggie must have fancied him, and the like which again ruins the book text/sciptwriting from the forementioned "19 years later segment". Since the original series is hitting DVD next week, and they decided not to include this (being the DVD is gonna sell a lot less expensive than the VHS copy), you are much better off buying it (the DVD of the original that is). If you really wanna know what happened in the time between Dane's birth on Drogheda, and the "19 years later" segment that comes next in the Original, then read the book, there is more story there, none of which is covered by this very "brief" miniseries. If THIS in betweener ever hits DVD, I will debate ALL Pros and Cons before buying it.