The Forsytes Series-Premiere Recap: Marry, Bang, Financially Ruin

The Forsytes
Episode 1
Season 1 Episode 1
Editor’s Rating ★★★★

Here’s the thing: We all need to reset our expectations. This is not a 2026 high-budget period drama. What you are about to witness is airing on your local PBS station in the year of our Lord 1997 and it will be interrupted by a pledge drive. The Forsytes is filmed like the director just watched a bunch of ’90s BBC miniseries and got some big ideas, like “Why make the leading man change his everyday hairstyle even though the show is set in 1887?” and “What if every scene were underscored for drama?” But they also add in new elements, like a weird filter that smooths everyone out. When I started watching, I was expecting PBS’s The Gilded Age, but once I realized this was spiritually a 1990s BBC soap opera, it became my favorite thing. This is what I actually want from The Gilded Age. I need melodramatic goings-on at all times. The evil cousin falls in love with an aspiring ballerina whose family he has ruined? YES. Oh Lord, yes. If All Creatures Great and Small is our cozy and comforting show in this unending hellscape, The Forsytes can be our escapist junk food. The period-drama equivalent of a Slurpee from 7-11. Is it great? No. But also yes.

The Forsytes are a prominent family in 1880s London who have successfully married their way into society. The culmination of this work is the wedding of Jolyon Forsyte and Frances Lastname (it will not matter, at least in this episode). Frances is the queen of London high society and elevates the Forsyte name. This elevation will be tested as almost every member of the family tries their best to besmirch that name through DRAMA. Yesssss, my puppets, threaten the family’s standing with your  antics! 

Ten years into his marriage to Frances, Jolyon is working for his father (Bill from True Blood! What a weird show this is!) and competing with his evil cousin Soames at their brokerage firm. Jolyon’s hair and beard are very “I walked off the set of a Gillette commercial,” but that’s okay. I have come to terms with it. Jolyon’s wife, Frances, has a daughter from a previous marriage named June. June is not important, except as a link between the more interesting characters. She shuffles them around on the board through the power of her 18-year-old whimsy.

Other important players include Irene Heron the Aspiring Ballerina; Louisa the Dressmaker (it’s Demelza from Poldark!); Soames’s dad, played by Jack Davenport from Coupling and Pirates of the Caribbean (also famous for being Michelle Gomez’s husband); and Jolyon’s aunt, Ann, who speaks like Angela Lansbury in Anastasia.

Frances wants to marry June off and has arranged her coming-out ball. June wants to run off and be an artist or something. When Frances brings her to the dressmaker to prepare her gown, June is very “Wow, I love your simple life.” Stop talking, June. Oh, also, Louisa the Dressmaker immediately looks overcome by Frances’s appearance in her shop, so you’re like, Okay, either this is somehow gay (unlikely) or Louisa had an affair with Jolyon (accurate). Also her hair is down, and that is bananas for the time period. Does Eleanor Tomlinson have something in her contract about getting to have Demelza hair in all her shows? If so, good for her. Louisa has two kids and I have a guess about their father. Soap operas: They don’t have to be shocking, but they do have to take some big swings. Which this will!

“How have you barely mentioned Soames?” I hear you asking. Yeah, I know. Soames is the Loki of The Forsytes, if Loki had a dad other than Odin who was constantly telling him how much Thor sucks. I guess that was that Frost Giant king. Regardless! Soames is the “I shall never marry” guy who only cares about money and ambition but then he passes a red-headed ballerina in the park and it’s all over for him. Yessssss. Meanwhile, though, he is being evil at the stock brokerage and causing a big mining company to collapse by selling all the firm’s shares. Jolyon is so mad. Soames thinks Jolyon is weak. He probably is! He keeps sketching things like he doesn’t have a family to support. Get a haircut and bankrupt some widows, Jolyon.

By the way, was anyone else confused about the sexy energy between Frances and Bill from True Blood? I was like, Wait, are you two into each other? Is that gonna happen? I don’t think I want to see it, but I do like when two evil people are really into each other. But also, sleeping with your father-in-law should only result in these kind of feelings.

Okay, so Soames sees Ballerina Irene at the park and is thunderstruck. Her professor father immediately has some kind of heart issue, and Soames is able to render assistance. Wow, a rich, handsome young man coming to her aid. Does Irene even have a choice in this story? I mean, maybe. But mostly no. Also, don’t tell me what happens, but I’m immediately on Team “Let’s Reform Soames.” Irene’s dad dies, and Soames shows up at the funeral. Her stepmother flirts with him, and when he offers to help, she asks him to look at their finances. Well guess whose money was all wrapped up in the big mining company. That’s right, that comment about bankrupting widows was foreshadowing! Soames has ruined Irene’s family and her chances of going to Paris to study ballet. I can’t tell if he’s happy about this or not, because now Irene has no real options but him. Reform faster, Soames!

Jolyon boxes shirtless because this show is not to be taken seriously. Also, what else is Jolyon gonna do? Draw something? Put more product in his hair? Look pained by the actions of the people making actual decisions? Jolyon is giving real Stefan energy. Later, Jolyon’s dad and Frances talk about how to make Jolyon step up and do literally anything. They create a dramatic plan for the ball. Why can’t The Gilded Age do shit like this? More manipulative plots at the ball and fewer conversations about mining rights!

The day of the ball, June acts like a real June and runs to hug Frances while Frances is holding a glass of wine. The wine gets all over June’s dress. June, WTF. They summon Louisa the Dressmaker to the house, even though she really doesn’t want to go. She fixes the dress, and once the ball has begun she starts to leave, but June introduces her to Jolyon. They have an amazing exchange, full of things like “After I left Venice, you promised to write,” and “Nothing could have come of it; I was a lady’s maid, you were the heir to a dynasty.” YEEEEEESSS. This is what I want. I can watch rich people squabble on the news literally all the time. I want to watch two relatively attractive people talk about how their love cannot be and they must forget that moment in Venice all those years ago. The squabbling thing was another Gilded Age burn, if that wasn’t clear. Julian Fellowes won’t give me what I want and I am mad at him.

Frances sees Jolyon reach for Louisa’s hand, and because she is super on top of things, she immediately knows everything. This is an annoying thing for her to deal with, as Bill just announced he is stepping down from the firm and handing it over to Jolyon. So her husband will run things, but now she has to take care of him making cow eyes at the dressmaker. Frances puts up with so much. Later that night, she brings up his grand tour of Europe and tells him, “We all deserve our moments of madness and then we grow up.” YEAH. (I understand we are not supposed to side with Frances here, but I am as God made me.) 

Frances shows up at Louisa’s shop and casually asks about her travel history. “Oh, Ireland, interesting, and maybe ITALY, PERHAPS?” she basically says. Then Louisa’s two kids barge in and the boy says his name is Jos, but his proper name is Jolyon. Stop talking, Jos. But also Frances’s face — I love this, I love it. I grew up on Days of Our Lives and nothing can match that, but The Forsytes is going to try.