‘Poldark’ premiere: Why PBS viewers should watch Aidan Turner series

If there is one thing that PBS has excelled at so far in 2015, it is continuing to bring quality British content over. We have already seen new seasons of “Downton Abbey” and “Call the Midwife” air under their Masterpiece banner, and come Sunday night they will have another one in “Poldark.”

This series, however, is a tad different than the others. It has already been on the air once in the form of a series in the mid-seventies, and there may be some out there familiar with the story already. Aidan Turner stars as Ross Poldark, a man return to Cornwall after three years away in the army, only to discover that the world he left behind has suddenly become very difficult. He finds his romantic life shaken up, the tin mines changed significantly, and there are problems bubbling underneath the surface at every turn.

We know that there are some articles out there bellowing such things like “is this show the next ‘Downton Abbey’?,” but the reality here is that the two are very different. Other than that they are both period dramas airing on PBS, they have many stark differences. Ross Poldark is not exactly like anyone living at Downton; he’s tenacious, determined, but also a little bit of a romantic in some ways. He’s a complicated man, and it is a fairly gritty world surrounding him.

We have not seen the original, but the success of the 2015 version is that it bends together a variety of different genres. There are moments of heavy drama, but there are also some action sequences and some underlying notes of a political thriller. While we know competition is high across multiple networks, there is a lot to enjoy here, provided that you enjoy British television and are willing to give something old-but-still-new a chance.