‘War and Peace’ episode 2 preview: Everything escalates

Through one episode of its six parts, BBC One’s “War and Peace” has effectively done what we would call a proof-of-concept. It has shown that it can be a thoroughly entertaining TV series, one that takes the most relevant parts of the classic Tolstoy novel and turns it into something that works for a television audience. Visually, it’s arresting, and the performances have been pretty strong.

Based on the new preview below via the network, though, we feel pretty confident that some of the best work is still to come, especially when you are speaking of Paul Dano. He’s had quite a year already in terms of TV and film, but here he is as Pierre Bezukhov, one of the most fascinating characters of the entire book. Expect to see quite a bit of him in the second episode, in particular as uncertainty rises courtesy of the battles between Russia and France.

We don’t expect too many major changes from the source coming, but episode 2 is probably going to have to cover a lot of ground. Unfortunately, this preview video really does not give you too great of a sense as to what is going to be coming up beyond just a few tiny snippets. That’s somewhat unfortunate, but we understand the network feeling a little bit precious about the material given that there is so little of it out there that they can give when you only have six episodes. We’ll be back with a review tomorrow, so it’s not like you will be waiting for too long.

If you want to get some other news when it comes to “War and Peace,” head over here to see the full synopsis for the upcoming new episode!

Also, you can sign up over here to get some other TV news and exclusive details on everything we cover, including some exclusive teasers, via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: BBC.)

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