A: Ever seen Poldark? It's a "Masterpiece"-that brand of miniseries on PBS. It may be an actual masterpiece too, but I wouldn't know. I've never seen a single second of it. That said, let me tell you what I do know: We are in England, sometime shortly after the American Revolution. Ross Poldark, a hunky, brooding redcoat, returns from the war to find his family's mine-coal, probably?-in disrepair. One day he saves a penniless lady's dog while the lady is dressed like a boy (I didn't catch why she was dressed like a boy) and winds up hiring her as his maid. Her name is Demelza. She is "fiery," according to the PBS website, which I looked at to make sure I was spelling her name correctly. They get married. Their partnership is beautiful and respectful and modern. But eventually, a vertiginous distance is cleaved between them. Here's some of what happens, as I understand it. Poldark gets sad. He comes to blame himself for the imprisonment of one of his mine workers-a good-hearted, sickly guy whom the magistrate tosses into some ffsewerlike jail, where he gets gangrene-and withdraws into solip-sism and alcohol. Demelza, meanwhile, begins operating behind Poldark's back to reunite his cousin with a disgraced sea captain. There's a confrontation in a courtroom! A big fight at a ball! A duel! But the most heartrending drama is subtle and domestic. Because, you see, Poldark and Demelza stop communicating; the trust between them corrodes. There are scenes of them lying in bed together, talking but not really talking, cloistered behind their sorrow and secrecy. Or at least there's one scene like that, which my wife said was very important though she couldn't remember the dialog exactly.
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