Bleak House 2-12

I confess that this installment left me uninspired.  The pacing was awkward and the "join" between the original half-hour episodes was more obvious this time.  Still, it was nice to finally hear about the Ghost Walk, even if there was some overdone plot explication to go along with it, and Lady Dedlock's fateful encounters with both Esther and Tulkinghorn were handled well.  Charles Dance has somehow managed to become nastier with each passing episode; this time, Tulkinghorn even horrified his apparently unflappable clerk.  (As it looks like Tulkinghorn will finally get himself murdered next week, there's not much more room for, er, improvement.)   But Mr. Vholes is nowhere near deathly enough, and lacks daughters to boot.   The miniseries' handling of Esther and Jarndyce also looks a little puzzling: she still has no understanding of the true state of affairs, whereas the novel's Esther isn't all that surprised when Jarndyce proposes. 

Comments

[JBJ]

I rather thought that Esther in this episode was trying to forestall the inevitable. Jarndyce begins to speak, and she firmly speaks of the comfort all her friends will bring her.