Echoes of War Add Depth to Worn Melodrama of ‘Cazalets’

The Cazalets are your typical soap opera family.

They are terribly rich, of course, and shockingly spoiled--which breeds bad behavior all around.

Yes, pretty standard soap fare.

Except that “The Cazalets” isn’t labeled as such. It’s a presentation of PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre,” and as though realizing that it should be living up to higher standards, it keeps trying to be more than it is.

But a soap it remains--and not a very sexy one at that.

So, is there any reason to tune in for its six-hour run, which begins with a two-hour premiere tonight on KCET and KVCR?

Well, perhaps one, for the Cazalets live in England in the early days of World War II, and their attempts to move ahead with life in the face of bombing runs and gas scares bears an eerie resemblance to life in the United States post-Sept. 11.

Adapted by Douglas Livingstone and directed by Suri Krishnamma, “The Cazalets” is based on the first two novels in a popular four-book cycle by British writer Elizabeth Jane Howard. Spanning summer 1937 to winter 1941, the story focuses on three generations of the Cazalets, who’ve grown rich from the lumber trade, at their sprawling, faux-rustic country estate in Sussex.

The wives are stifled by marriage; the husbands are, by turns, attentive and oblivious; and the children are caught in the middle. Chilly and self-involved, these people seem determined to be unhappy in the midst of their good fortune--a trait that proves highly annoying to those of us who don’t spend every day dressed in fancy clothes, lolling on expensive furniture and eating off of fine china.

Thank goodness, though, for the period detail of those clothes and furnishings, which gives us something to look at while awaiting the next appearance of one of the handful of interesting characters.

First among these is Stephen Dillane as the middle brother, Edward. Quietly charismatic yet utterly creepy, he goes through life with a perpetual half-smile of apology on his face--the only form of regret he can seem to muster for pawing every woman within reach, including his radiant but miserable teenage daughter Louise (Emma Griffiths Malin).

Dillane’s bad guy is countered by Paul Rhys’ good guy: youngest brother Rupert, who tries to elude the family curse by striking out on his own as an artist. He passes along his decency to his daughter Clary (Florence Hoath), who is wise beyond her years.

Tonight’s two hours are slow going and mind-numbingly sudsy, but subsequent installments contain those twinges of anxiety that now seem all too familiar: The calm, sunny days that turn abruptly tense whenever an airplane drones into earshot. The nervousness about spending any time at all in big-city London, which is ever vulnerable to attack. And the unrelenting worry--on any given day, at any given moment--about whether everyone will return safely home.

This is the drama that, sadly, has become our own.

*

The two-hour premiere of “The Cazalets” will be shown tonight at 9 on KCET and KVCR. The miniseries continues in one-hour installments Mondays at 9 p.m. through Nov. 19. The first episode has been rated TV-PG (may be unsuitable for younger children).