I know adaptations can be different from the original stories but this... I think it some of the "improvements" (or alterations) North and South suffered in this case were not only unnecessary, but they made it more difficult to understand the story and the characters. For example: when Margaret first sees Mr. Thornton, he is brutally beating a man, one of his "hands", who is already lying defenseless on the floor. How can she get to like him at all, when she knows he is capable of doing something like this? I think the way they originally meet in the book makes much more sense and it would have been better to keep it like that. Then, Margaret and Mr. Thornton barely speak to each other in the series!! It makes it very confusing (and almost ridiculous) when he suddenly decides to propose to her. As another reviewer already said, it makes you wonder "when did they fall in love??!!". It also looks like somehow Margaret started having feelings for him almost from that day on. Why? The ending felt quite weird for me (the scene in the train station), and not credible at all. I would have preferred it if they kept it a little bit more similar to the one in the book. I think the underdeveloped relationship between Margaret and Mr. Thornton is the worst part of this adaptation. Both characters change a lot throughout the story (in the book), not only because of each other, but because the people around them and they end up completely changing their minds about many things. Thus, in the book, the feelings they have for each other are perfectly understood. As for the rest, the actors were quite good and I really liked how they recreated this small industrial town and the rest of the characters. The relationships between Margaret and Bessy and Mr. and Mrs. Thornton were particularly good.

...an extravagant portrayal of the beautiful, the tragic & often senseless waste of time cause by restraint of feelings in human society. A satisfying story in every way, save a second or third series.So beguiled was I, by the many charms of this show, that, half way through the FIRST EPISODE I was compelled to pause while I looked up it's IMDb & WIKI to find out HOW ON EARTH I managed overlook this polished gem of British Television. The reason is simple: The original air date 2004. At that time, Richard Armitage's presence in British TV was relatively obscure. This series put him on the map in Britain, but the Downton Abby/British Drama market here had yet to REALLY take off. I never became aware of this actor until Armitage joined the cast of, "Spooks," in 2008 (MI-5 in N. America). Once his "Visage" crossed The Pond & blessed our TV screens that expanded exponentially with our passion for British Television, there was no looking back and happily, Richard Armitage is featured in a plethora of A-list TV shows & Films.I'll finish with a direct quote from Wikipedia & a thank you to the streaming services for bringing us this work of art!! xoxo :) -Kemble"As the BBC had low expectations for the series, it was not well publicized and went almost unnoticed by critics. Audiences, however, were more receptive; hours after the first episode aired in November 2004, the message board of the programme's website crashed because of the number of visitors the site was receiving, forcing host bbc.co.uk to shut it down. This sudden interest on the serial was attributed to Richard Armitage................"

From the title, "North & South," I thought this was about the American Civil War, but it is not. It is based on the novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1855. A minister and his wife and daughter, Margaret, leave rural southern England and move to the industrial north, to a mill town. The story is about their difficult adjustment, their friendship with cotton mill owner Mr Thorton, and Margaret's friendship with mill worker and union organizer Nicholas (played by Brendan Coyle, Mr Bates on "Downton Abbey") and his daughter Bessie, who is sick from "too much fluff in me lungs" (played by Anna Maxwell Martin, Esther in "Bleak House" and Elizabeth in "Death Comes to Pemberley"). The story is nuanced, and realistic, in that it shows the difficulties of running the mill as well as the hardships of the workers. The characters are three dimensional, not one side all good, one all bad. Richard Armitage is tremendous as Mr Thorton. Everyone in it is great. It is well done, but it is a very, very sad story until the very end. I haven't read the book, so I don't know how faithful the mini-series is. I watched it on Netflix, using closed captions most of the time, the regional accents can be difficult.

It is with no doubt different than an ordinary American love story as there are so many already- obviously you would say since it's from BBC. It is deeper, more subtle -subtlety: that's what's missing in today's American TV shows, and more real.In many ways I think this movie can be qualified as a good one: the characters do not completely change their opinions towards the factory although they do evolve. The love they have for each other doesn't make them change what they think or how they act, but more their ways of seeing thing: they both become more and more understanding towards the other point of view without totally refuting their own and that is new and refreshing in cinema I think. Also it shows a part of the Great Britain I hadn't seen anywhere else; and the way they contrast the ways of living in the south and the north is instructive, it shows how work can really shape a region.Moreover, I think that the cameraman's work is brilliant! The compositions of the scenes are so well done! And the way there's always cotton (this death kisser) around or snow (this pure lovely thing) is very interesting.Anyways I won't expand myself any further on the subject because I don't know if I can stop but good job to the BBC its movies are always so well done (from what I've seen so far) and so fascinating (here I go again, I really am stopping now).