Rocking the Pillars

In the wake of its first historical original series, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, the STARZ Network recently tried its hand at a second with Pillars of the Earth, based on a novel by Ken Follett. STARZ decided to change its European location this time around, and its era in history, as Pillars focuses on medieval England spanning over the years before and during the Crusades.


Pillars of the Earth takes place in a time when the royal crown and all that surrounds it is in a state of "Anarchy," which is the title of the first episode - as is the papacy and its battle between good and evil. The story centers around Tom Builder (Rufus Sewell, The Illusionist) and his family, and Jack Jackson (Eddie Redmayne, The Other Boleyn Girl) and his mother, Ellen, who was cast away from society due to her ties with witchcraft (she's really just the medieval version of a hippie, loving and marrying a Frenchman in a time when it was faux pas to do so). That Frenchman, Jack, condemned to die by a devious, ultra-ambitious "man of God" named Waleran (Ian McShane, Deadwood, We Are Marshall), fathers a child with Ellen who will ultimately become our the show's go-to hero - along with Prior Philip (Matthew MacFadyen, Robin Hood), the show's true man of God.

Philip is the Prior of Kingsbridge, a small town on the rise, in search of a master builder to construct a cathedral worthy of drawing pilgrimage, which will of course boost the town economy. Aliena, bred of nobility but stripped of her title after her father is executed, finds herself humbled on her way to Kingsbridge, met with open arms by the Prior and by Jack Jackson, who's already developed a blushing crush on her. Jack has a rare talent for sculpting, and his talents are discovered by Tom Builder. Jack is put to work on the carving of angels and gargoyles keeping watch over the church. But gargoyles are also found to be in human form, and Tom's son, Alfred, is one, keeping his watch over Aliena and growing more and more jealous of the blossoming romance brewing between Aliena and Jack.















Meanwhile, in Shiring, Stephen (Tony Curran, The 13th Warrior, Blade II), who saw to the poisoning of his uncle the King, has ascended to the top spot depsite the claims of the former king's daughter, Maud. While a new monarch has been crowned, all is far from peaceful, as Maude and Bartholemew (Donald Sutherland), the father of Aliena, raise an army and wage war against the forces of King Stephen. As the foundations of Stephen's crown are off to a rocky start, it transforms England into a lawless land where raids on innocent townspeople are tolerated and assassinations for poltical and papal gain are often encouraged. When Stephen grants the title Earl of Shiring to William Hamleigh, the devious son of the cloak and dagger, birth mark-scarred Regan Hamleigh, William sets out to lawlessly rid Kingsbridge of its cathedral builder, on the order of the evil Cardinal Waleran.

Sure, people die throughout the series, but in order to really reel in an audience who will tune in from week to week (like my wife and I), Ken Follett writes his interweaving stories with gusto and with enough individualized characterization for all viewers to truly care about. Jack becomes a fan favorite, as does Prior Philip, and I just couldn't wait for William Hamleigh, his harpy mother, and Waleran to get theirs. As I said earlier, the story spans a good number of years, and the show's make-up artists do their best to make the survivors look that much more aged. The show also gives a great explanation, for those who didn't have a clue, of how surnames came to be in England (Tom Builder, Jack Jackson. Philip Prior). For the sake of those who've never even heard of the show, I won't spill all the beans as to who survives and who dies, but I will say that this is a great book tranferred to a greater mini-series that truly hooks viewers in - even though this isn't at all my preferred era of history.