Why Watch North and South

As you all know by now, at the very least from my memorial post on Tuesday morning, Patrick Swayze passed away. To honour his memory, this is my first "Why Watch" post, and it is about the miniseries which launched his career.

North and South is about the American Civil War. It follows two families; that of George Hazard (played by James Read) in the North, and Orry Main (Swayze) in the South. About 20 years before the Civil War breaks out, George and Orry become friends while training together at West Point. There families are close, despite George's crazy abolitionist sister and Orry's father owning of slaves.

Yes, the characters are cliches. All of the characters. Every single character is a representative of every single stereotype you could create for the era. It's why the series works so well together.

Besides, stereotypes are great teaching tools. You get all the extremes of the times, but you also see how well or badly they played off of each other.

Of course, George and Orry are the good guys. Ashton and Brett, Orry's sisters, are polar opposites - one manipulative, the other sweet and genuine. His neighbour Justin is a Simon Legris. Madeleine (Orry's love interest) is a sweet and educated woman who speaks her mind. The badguy is aptly named Bent. George's family is rife with it as well. Virgilia, the abolitionist; Stanley, his incompetent older brother; Isabel, Stanley's power-hungry wife; Constance, his beautiful Irish bride. These are characters you grow to love despite their faults, or love to hate because of them.

Watching this series taught me to understand the perspective of the South. Yes, they were wrong to have slaves, but they didn't know that. They didn't see that so clearly as we can now, and even if they did, they had no idea what to do about it. They also point out that the way the North treated their immigrants was not much better. Sure, technically they were free to go where they wanted, but they were so poor they had no choice but to stay where they were and live in conditions that were no better (if not worse) than slave quarters.

Also, this cast is more star-studded than Ocean's 11.

Kristie Alley, David Carradine, Genie Frances, Jonathan Frakes, Forrest Whitaker, Jean Simmons, and David Ogden Stiers are the now famous regulars (well Jean Simmons was famous then too).

The guest stars are even more impressive, with Hal Holbrook, Gene Kelly, Robert Mitchum, Elizabeth Taylor, Johnny Cash, Lloyd Bridges, Olivia de Havilland, and James Stewart.

So go and get a hold of North and South, Books I and II (There is a Book III, but it's terrible. You do not need to see it. Book II's ending is perfect. You do not want to see it; it ruins everything)