Tomorrow evening is when the new historical drama series War & Peace, adapted from the Leo Tolstoy novel, will debut on US TV channels. So, what can you expect? A good mix, basically: some fighting, romantic subplots, and various twists and turns set to the backdrop of Russia during the Napoleonic era.
So, there’s the mild-mannered Pierre Bezukhov, played by Paul Dano, who gets wed only to realize that his new wife isn’t entirely what he’d expected and hoped for. Then there’s Anatole Kuragin, the playboy portrayed by Callum Turner and who doesn’t quite manage to charm a classy lady into marriage. We even get a few good sights of Napoleon Bonaparte, clad in his easily recognizable hat and uniform but depicted by Mathieu Kassovitz, who doesn’t bear the most immediate physical resemblance to the Emperor of the French.
Unsurprisingly given how much screenwriter Andrew Davies has condensed the incredibly lengthy source material, it comes across a lot like a historical soap opera – even if it can be easy to forget that the characters are meant to be Russian. If this all reads like it’s for you, it likely is for you. If it doesn’t… well, you’re unlikely to be converted by this particular screen genre if you do give War & Peace a watch. It will be simulcast on the channels A&E, Lifetime and HISTORY from 9pm ET/PT on Monday, January 18.
