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Je n'aime pas dans les vieux films américains quand les conducteurs ne regardent pas la route. Et de ratage en ratage, on s'habitue à ne jamais dépasser le stade du brouillon. La vie n'est que l'interminable répétition d'une représentation qui n'aura jamais lieu.

Rebecca: Episode 1.4 (1979)

Well, the show rallies for the final episode with the best episode since the first one.  This one owes a lot to Julian Holloway who absolutely slays it as the slimy Jack Favell, Rebecca’s cousin/lover.  He’s really distasteful, but also really funny at times in his desperate attempts to prove that Rebecca’s death wasn’t suicide.  Brett is really good here as well; he’s a man holding everything together by sheer force of will – you expect it to be compelling to see him starting to break around the edges as his lies start to be challenged, but it’s somehow even more compelling to see him not crack at all, revealing a will (and perhaps a heart) of absolute stone.  And kudos for that climax, which resists the urge to play up the melodrama by showing us Manderlay and/or Mrs. Danvers, but letting us see only what our main characters see.  This miniseries was passable, as a whole; there was some good added material thinks to the longer running time (around 3 and a quarter hours), especially in the first episode and in this one.  I didn’t like their take on the second Mrs. De Winter; Joanna David is good in the technical sense, but also really annoying.  And it whiffed the central scene which came in episode 3.  But Brett was a pleasure as Max, really fantastic.  Probably not worth your time ultimately, unless you’re just a Rebecca completest or something.  3 stars. 

tl;dr – miniseries rallies for a solid final episode with good direction and even better acting; not a particularly good series on the whole, but watchable.  3 stars. 

Rebecca Review!