PBS Masterpiece brings a reimagined version of John Galsworthy’s ‘Forsyte’ novels from the U.K. to U.S. viewers. This costume drama about the complicated lives of an upper-class family, The Forsytes (2025-), features costumes designed by Nic Ede. Check out our recaps of season one on Mondays after new episodes drop on PBS each Sunday.
The voiceover hints at possession, and Soames delays married breakfast with his family, while the rest of the family all speculate about Irene. Welcome home! Frances and Jolyon are tense at each other. She’s going to have him spied on by a servant.
Then she busts into Irene’s room and tells her how to manage her life — which conveniently gives a great side-view of Frances’ gown, showing the cool striped swags. This is the first shot directly showing the costume contrast between the two (it’ll be repeated later). Frances in her shapely bustles, Irene in her flowing artsy dresses. The old guard and the new.
I prefer a nice big bustle skirt myself!
Next June visits Irene, and math being a Forstye is hard so they go shopping. I guess Irene really does need to shop because she only seems to have one or two outfits to wear. June has regressed to another schoolgirl look, which I thought she’d ditched especially after her engagement.
Jolyon visits Louisa again. QUELLE SURPRISE. And yep, Frances’ servant watches him.
Another office scene and still boring because they have no bite. They’re all playing it too nice, like “we’re all family and we love each other” underneath it all (which is neither a 19th- nor 21st-century way of doing business). Nobody’s really cutthroat, they’re just slightly irritated at each other.
That said, I like Stephen Moyer as Jolyon Sr. and Jack Davenport as James; they play brothers believably, and if their scenes focused more on the family drama, I think it’d be more successful. And while this screencap is a bit murky, I can see that both get some gorgeous fabrics for their waistcoats, so at least the historically inaccurate coats-off policy is used to good effect.
At home, Soames invents a story about his father having a heart condition, so he tells Irene they have to stay in London. Let’s go to cocktails with the fam, now shall we?
Except Irene wears the same dress she wore to meet Ann in episode three (must be her only evening gown), and the other ladies are wearing dark, hard-to-screencap gowns, boo. At least Ann shows up. Love the style of her outfit, though I’m not sure if satin is her friend.
The next morning, Irene wears her hair UP for the first time in daylight, so I guess she’s super depressed and/or pissed at Soames (which she should be).
She goes back to her ballet studio. And yet when dancing, again her hair is down, though the other dancers have their hair up, so, WTFrock girl?
Even though it makes no logical sense to me, this is on purpose. Hair and make-up designer Magi Vaughan said in the press pack about Irene:
“We wanted her hair to be flowing so that they could use the movement of her hair when she was dancing. Her hair was very important to the character and story, it had to seem like the hair was dancing. That’s why we chose red as her hair colour.”
Jo picnics with Louisa and the kids, still being spied on. Frances gets the full report, and I do feel sorry for her at this point. Her husband is an idiot — he needs to make up his fucking mind. He can’t have two happy families. It rarely works now, and it really didn’t work then (unless they were entirely unaware of each other perhaps).
Lovely blouse worn with a simple bustled skirt for this sad scene.
June is slumming it once again and sees Louisa return to the shop with the kids, so of course she goes to try and make nice.
I think she wore this dress before, to Soames and Irene’s wedding, but I like getting a full-length view to see the draping.
Seems random when she does manage to wear grown-up styles vs. the childish stuff. This fashion plate is similar and shows how a young lady could still show fresh youthfulness while also sticking to the latest dress shapes:
June doesn’t get a big family welcome from Louisa, but she hangs around long enough to see Louisa getting an eviction notice. Then at home, June realizes her mom is the one responsible, oof.
Irene tells Soames she’s started dancing again, and it’s not a hobby, bitch. She finally has a new evening gown, though it’s very similar to the first one, just a faintly different sleeve, and this is the best screencap I could get.
At the family dinner, everyone has pointed remarks for each other. While June takes her stepdad aside and spills everything, Ann gives her sons a stern talking to about the family business. More of this, please, less of the office stuff!
The next day, Frances takes Irene to go shopping at Liberty’s, and I’m bummed that we’re not actually going into the store. Instead, Frances tells Irene how to be a Forsyte woman, and it’s not nice.
Irene’s coat could be from Liberty with the flowing lines and all that embroidery, but maybe in 30 years, like this design:
Hair up, nice hat that’s not another flower-pot shape — taking the small victories!
Jolyon takes Louisa and the kids out for a drive … to a country house he bought for her.
Then he confronts Frances, she throws down an ultimatum, and it doesn’t go her way.
Irene calls Soames on his bullshit. He basically threatens her. She walks out and runs into June and Philip (foreshadowing!).
Jolyon also walks out, and there’s some choice dialog between him and Soames on the doorstep. People moving out, people moving in…
How much did the Forsyte men fuck this one up?
Find this frock flick at:
All the women wearing their hair down for the most part is killing me. And Irene wanting to be a ballet dancer? Someone should let her know that ballet dancers get paid nothing (especially then) and it wasn’t really a thing in England until the 20th century when the Royal Ballet was created.
I’ve studied ballet for 15 odd years. Loose hair is a big no-no, as that will fly in your face whenever you turn. Locks of hair in your eyeballs isn’t attractive, no matter what the hair and makeup designer says.
Same. Years of ballet. No one wore their hair down and loose for the classes. They have some strange ideas about hair in this adaptation.
There are ballets meant to be done with hair down. The one that comes to mind first is the Romeo and Juliet bedroom pas de deux (which I’ve seen both up and down), and of course Giselle’s mad scene, but there are plenty of contemporary ballets where the hair being down is part of the choreography.
Also the two bedroom pas de deuxes and the final pas de deux in Mayerling have the hair down as well.
I’ve never seen it in a ballet class, not a serious ballet school anyway. Maybe for rehearsals and performances for a select role. And contemporary is just that – contemporary, not late 19th century.
Ballet in England at this time was something you’d see on a music hall bill or in pantomime. The decision to make Irene an aspiring ballerina is bizarre. Nothing in the novel suggests that Irene was anything more than a talented amateur pianist who made a living as a piano teacher between her two marriages. The 1967 TV version had her briefly study piano in Paris but lack the confidence to aim for a career, which was one of the reasons she eventually accepted Soames’ proposal of marriage.
That and the fact that her stepmother’s sleazebag boyfriend was putting the moves on Irene. You know. A little mum and daughter action.
Ballet fan/nerd here. Everything related to Irene and ballet here is wrong. Her pointe shoes are too modern, she is in a tutu in the class. Won’t mention the hair again, otherwise I’d go ballistic. The performance they see with Soames in Paris is contemporary (for us today) with modern leotards, tights and chiffon skirts.
The plot keeps on showing us that Irene is serious about ballet, about making it her profession. And at the same time, she never follows the ballet rules with that hair! And ballet is a discipline which is deep in the bones of every dancer who is serious about ballet.
Ann and Francis look as lovely as usual, but at this point, I just hope these dresses reappear in worthier productions someday. And I’m reading the books now, which has left me scratching my head even more, over some of the changes.
I love the books too much to watch this travesty, but I must say I am delighted by the casting of Steven Moyer and (the criminally underused) Jack Davenport as brothers. I first encountered them as cop best friends/antagonists in the slick vampire series Ultraviolet.
How is this show not featured in the “Snark Week” series?
We did a few memes, but the show didn’t premiere in the US until now. Also, PBS actually gave us screeners (a first!), so we’re able to recap more easily. Lastly, lighten up! The costumes are solidly within the historical era, & the story is a soap opera, which is not a knock. If you read my recaps, you’ll see where I critique & praise this one in equal measure, as appropriate. Of course, I’m not a big fan of the original novels, & while I enjoyed the 2000s adaption, it’s not sacrosanct either.
I can’t take Jolyon seriously. He looks like a 2020s underwear model in his mid-to-late 20s and the same age as June or Bosinney. I’m trying, I promise! Frances has more chemistry with Stephen Moyer. Since the show runners are already going with “inspired by” and not “adaptation”, can we get some Frances/Old Jolyon scandal power couple instead?