First off, I randomly found this show on Netflix and decided to watch it when I saw the casting had Benedict Cumberbatch and Sam Neil. I had never heard of this, so I went into this completely blind and unbiased.Second, I've never read the books that this mini-series is based on, so I can't tell if it's faithful to the source material.Benedict Cumberbatch does a very good job playing as the snobby aristocrat, Edmund Talbot, who only thinks about himself and his own ambitions, and he does a very good job of portraying a man who is having difficulties keeping his aristocratic posture on board a ship that is full of lies, deceit and danger. There are some performances I find off- putting, like when Edmund meets Marion and for no real good reason goes absolutely insanely in love with her, to the extent that he tries to abandon ship to follow her. Maybe it's better explained in the books, but I just found it cringing.Sam Neil is among the actors who are prominently placed next to Benedict on the casting list, but it seems it was more to just draw people in with celebrity power since he is only really prominent in the last half of the third episode. Charles Dance does a brief appearance in the second episode as Sir Henry Somerset, but he too is given very little to do. Overall is just feel like wasted actors who could have been casted in more impacting roles.The story and drama itself is well done. I felt myself glued to the screen to follow what was going to happen. Who was holding big secrets and who was stabbing who in the back. Added to that is the claustrophobia of being on a single ship in the middle of the vast ocean with nowhere to go, forcing characters to confront each other. The story is well told and the actors does a very good of showing the desperation and drama that would happen in the close quarters of this ship.Lastly, the effects are pretty weak, but I don't blame them entirely since the cameras are mostly aimed at the actors, budget was probably very low, and there aren't that many scenes that requires VFX.I would recommend this movie to those who generally just like historical dramas, or maybe just like to watch Benedict Cumberbatch's earlier roles.

Factual errors abound in this sea tale about which the English should know better.A southbound ship "canting to the right" in a westerly? That is the windward side (the ship would "cant" to the lee). This exemplifies the lack of detail attended-to by the producers and director. Narrowly escaping a lee shore in the nick of time? Not with the visuals with which we were provided. The "false keel" coming away from the ship?Navigation so poor that the ship is so far south that it entirely evades the notoriously dangerous South American cape? A singer asking for and receiving a musical cue of a fifth instead of a tonic?There is plenty more in this "romantic" bildungsroman to yank the nautically and musically astute out of their suspension of disbelief.Moreover, the entire second episode or "nite" (out of three) is a goofy soap opera. The last five minutes make me wish that they had all found their end on the lee shore ice. Yecchhh! I wonder how closely it followed the Golding novel upon which it is supposedly based? C.S. Forrester and Patrick O'Brian are U.K. writers who DID get the nauticals right to the nth detail.However, it wasn't a total loss. Victoria Hamilton's tears are just as effective here as they were in Ian Holm's King Lear in which she was a formidable and heart-rending Cordelia. Hers is one of the strongest characterisations in this film. Jared Harris was a splendid Captain Anderson, and Benedict Cumberbatch acquitted himself well in the role of the "main character."Half-heartedly recommended.

Am I the only one to notice that the "realism" of the 19th century ship is erroneous. Actually it's a 15th century, right around 1620 if memory serves me, because the "realistic" ship in the movie is the Mayflower, now as far as I know the Mayflower NEVER went to Australia or even attempted a voyage to Australia. I don't know who handled R&D for this film, but using the Mayflower and hoping that no one will notice is a poor job indeed.They even printed it on the cover art and the DVD. I wonder how may other people noticed this little blunder? Not to mention that the movie itself was just plain awful, I would have expected better from Sam Neill.

This drama gives one a great feeling for early 19th century sailing ships, and shipboard life which was very harsh especially for seamen and the immigrant passengers enroute to Australia. What was surprising to me was the relative comfort of the "upperclass" passengers and the enormous social rift between them and the common seamen and immigrants. Talk about class consciousness, but I guess that was commonplace in that era. Mr. Talbot puzzled me. At times he seemed so worldly, (ie his quick seduction of a married passenger) and his boyish and sudden infatuation with Marion. There was little consistency in his personality. He could be feckless, commanding, arrogant, and sensitive. As a consequence I really could not relate to him or care much about him. Give me the Captain anytime; you knew where you stood with him. Perhaps it's my American ear but I had a lot of difficulty understanding the seamen and the other "common" folks. The photography, the sets, and the dialogue that was comprehensible were first rate and enabled me to give the film a 7. Mr. Talbot (the character, not the actor) rates a 3!