If I can spare the time to binge this is it worth it?

Edward Jackson <Beaver_Fever@live.com> wrote:
> If I can spare the time to binge this is it worth it?
>

Boy does that question bring back memories from 2008 when I binged the
whole thing. I just looked up my comments and the subsequent thread on
Usenet. And my answer to your question is that if you like this kind of
thing then yes by all means you want to watch it. BYW, in the intervening
years I have visited Austria and other central European countries and
toured the palaces and visited the museums and I have to say watching this
series was a great preparation for those trips.

Bill Anderson
unread,
7/8/08

Yes, this is off-topic, but I'm posting it anyway -- so there.
I just completed watching the 13-part 1974 BBC television miniseries
"Fall of Eagles," the story of how the pathetic ineptness of the
Hapsburgs, Hohenzollerns and Romanovs gave us much of the misery of the
20th Century. The show is just a magnificent soap opera with all the
brilliant acting, eloquent writing, and limited production values of "I,
Claudius." Patrick Stewart was very convincing as Lenin, and I
especially enjoyed Curt Jurgens as Bismarck, Gayle Hunnicutt as
Alexandra, and especially Barry Foster as poor wacky Kaiser Wilhelm --
"Willy" to cousins "Nicky" (Tsar Nicholas) and "Franz" (Joseph, Emperor
of Austria-Hungary).

I've been watching most of it on my iPod while traveling, though I
finished it tonight here at home on TV. Watching it came in handy
during one of my trips a few weeks ago when I found myself at a banquet
seated across from a very nice-looking young lady from Europe. She
spoke English, but seemed shy at first, especially when I asked where
she was from. She replied, "Austria; do you know it?" I suppose I
looked puzzled, because she added, "My colleagues have told me Americans
have never heard of Austria." Well, I attempted a weak joke about some
Americans perhaps mis-hearing or confusing Austria for Australia, but
no, she seriously thought I'd likely never heard of her homeland. So
after admitting that while I've visited Italy, Germany and Switzerland,
I've never been to Austria, I quickly scavenged my brain cells for facts
about Mozart, Strauss, the New Year's Day concerts I hope some day to
attend, The Third Man and the Ferris wheel which is still in operation,
and um, um, (no, idiot, don't bring up Kurt Waldheim) oh yeah, the
Hohenzollerns from "Fall of Eagles." She was suitably impressed, I
think -- at least she sought me out for lunch the next day. Who knew
"Fall of Eagles" would come in so handy, and so quickly, too?

It's a good series -- even more entertaining than Modern History class
in high school. (You know who wrote the textbook we used in that class
in 1965? Carl Becker, that's who. It was the only question I missed on
the final. I still hate you for that, Coach Graninger, wherever you are.)

Argh. Austria = Hapsburg or Habsburg, not Hohenzollern. Well, I got it
right on the final and at dinner too -- but not tonight apparently.
Time to go to bed.

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tomcervo
unread,
7/9/08
to

It's very good in parts, mainly depending on the screenplays, with
different writers for each episode. Trevor Griffiths anatomizes
Lenin's takeover of the party in exile incisively, but you need an
illustrated cast list to tell the Bolshies apart. The ep devoted to
Mayerling is like a police documentary told through the cops and
functionaries who have to create the cover-up--nothing romantic about
the sordid mess, but you end up with a sneaking respect for the pros
who have to make royalty look good.

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edju
unread,
7/9/08

My favorite line from "Fall of Eagles" -- Nicholas meets with his
ministers as Austria annexes Serbia, starting the chain of events that
would lead to WWI. The ministers were yelling about various approaches
to the problem. After they're dismissed, Alexandra says to
Nicholas -- "Nicky, just write to your cousin, the Kaiser. It's so
much easier."

Bill Anderson
unread,
7/9/08

Heh, that was a memorable episode all right -- well written and acted.
What's the first reaction to a major scandal? Cover it up, of course.
And then it all starts to unravel, and revelation piles on top of
revelation until stories like that of the President and that woman Miss
Lewinsky begin to seem downright unremarkable.

--
Bill Anderson

I am the Mighty Favog