I just finished the full three-season “North and South” show with Kirstie Allie as Virgilia. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire show.
I thought the three books (seasons) did a great job covering the pre-Civil War years, the war years, and the post-war reconstruction / westward expansion / Indian wars years. You just had to get into different moods for the theme of each of the three seasons. The Heaven & Hell third season started off awkwardly, with Bent just popping up again to exact his revenge on the Hazards and the Mains. He just shows up out of nowhere again and becomes a murderous psychopath.
There was too long of a gap in production between the second season and the third season and you could see all the actors and actresses had aged eight years, not one year.
The entire show brought home for me the real-life tragedies of so many of our people during those 25 years. It made me think a lot more about the human dimension of the Civil War than just the strategy, battles, dates and key officers of the war.
Virgilia and Ashton were certainly tragic figures in the show for entirely different reasons. They were very interesting female characters.
Thanks for bringing the show to my attention!
Thanks for replying. I’m glad you were able to find the series, and watch it. I think I still have the North and South 3-part series on VHS tapes. I had forgotten how long it had been between the 2nd and 3rd season until you mentioned it. I now recall thinking at the time, that a Part III wouldn’t be produced because so much time had passed. I read the trilogy before the series came to TV. Watched Part I and Part II, then re-read the trilogy again afterwards. That was many years ago now, but it’s always been one of my favorite TV series. It’s a shame that Patrick Swayze passed so young. The last TV series I saw him in was A&E’s “The Beast.” He was diagnosed with cancer during its production. His co-star Travis Flimmel went on to star in the History Channel’s long-running series “Vikings,” another favorite of mine.