the reviewer said these coincidental meetings spanned many many pages before people eventually ran into each other so perhaps it's just a matter of condensing the main plot points to fit six episodes for television.

Hmm, yeah, maybe. The coincidental meetings would still he happening, though. I definitely think that condensing the main plot points ruled the way this was adapted, perhaps to the detriment of the drama of those plot points.

Paul Dano was really good as Pierre; I've never heard of him before this series.

He tends to appear in arty fare, but he's always been impressive in everything I've seen - managing to stay with Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood is no mean feet.

I liked the actresses playing Sonya and Marya, too; they helped to make the characters sympathetic.

With Andrei, I felt the key thing was that he needed to forgive Natasha more than end back up with her, and surviving with health intact would have been too much and surviving disabled might have damaged the symbolism about Russia's future.

I felt bad about Petya's death.

I forgot to mention this, but I was wondering if he had got his mother's consent after all.

Dolokhov was interesting because he kind of turn out to be a decent fellow at the end of all things, and I thought he'd just be a villain through and through.

He always claimed to love his mother! Who knows if he really started treating women better, but Pierre got through to him at some level.

Sonya deserved better than what she got throughout the series.

She really did! My Fanny Price/Henry Crawford tendencies wondered if she and Dolokhov could have reunited and for him to win her back, but see above about his reformation.

do you think you'll ever read the novel now?

Ha, no. I never thought I would. What I'm a little bit curious about is Russian women novelists.