5/5 The everyday lives of 1920s women
  by LAchick (City of Angels)
Though the three Moss sisters live in the 1920s -"Lilies" could be of any time, any place.
Each sister has issues that she must work through - a lost love, a lost Olympian and they must make their way through life with the help of older brother Billy, their father Dada and each other.
The love and warmth they have for each other and their support carries them through.
I especially like that "Lilies" used some actors who have never acted before such as Kerrie Hayes who plays Ruby Moss.
This was a delightful find for me and I hope you also enjoy it.


4/5 Lilies is Excellent
  by Shannon Sims (CT)
Well, if you're tired of watching drawn out, self-agrandizing films about the horrors of war or the injustices visited upon one class or another and want a little more warmth, compassion and fun in a period setting - welcome to Lilies.

This miniseries centers around a lower-class family in the 1920's (set in Northern Ireland, I believe). The family is comprised of one very volatile father, a rather subdued elder sister who is the main care-giver, a "wild-sided" middle sister, a bright emotional younger sister and a disturbed eldest brother just back from the war. The storyline? Basically, they get into all kinds of trouble, from the mundane sort to life's most difficult challenges in a tone that maintains a personal, "non-overbearing" quality throughout.

What I like best about the series is it's periods of humor. So many books and films about post WWII or the advance of industrialization in Europe are utterly bleak and focus on the horror of life to the exclusion of all else. Characters are wonderful, realistic and well-developed.

This miniseries makes you cry from time to time, laugh out loud and rejoice at least once in every episode. And by that, I mean not the high-art sort of emotions so often portrayed in these things, but the day-to-day, real-life kind that keeps us all going. It really touches you on that level. As for history/period elements, they are presented as background - not a cultural, social or religious "statement" movie. I found the treatment of the period made it easier digest and didn't distract from the storyline.

So, basically I'd recommend this film to anyone who has sisters, brothers or crazy relations - anyone who has ever tried to have a deep thought and wondered why it went so horribly wrong when they tried to act on it - or just plain cared about and supported someone in spite of the cost. Each episode will make you want to watch the next. Wish the BBC would take these characters to the next level - maybe we can convince them to do more.

4/5 Bloody absorbing
  by Judith Johnson (Albany, NY)
Rented this 8-part mini-series and promptly became addicted to it. It covers a neglected era, the aftershocks of WWI in England and the PTSS that abounded. It centers around a working class middle-aged Britisher widower and his 4 young adult children. It is a compelling story with wonderful actors, set design is top notch and good character arcs. It is a wonderful tribute to family life and loyalty, however, if one of the characters falls in love you can be sure it is not going anywhere. None of them are going to leave their dysfunctional family.

There is a plot twist in the second episode that I didn't see coming and found very disturbing but it probably could happen. There are several very graphic scenes involving childbirth, miscarriage, suicide and the like. Severely wounded veterans feature prominently in a couple of episodes and that is pretty graphic. Finally the father has a very violent temper and after a while you start to be afraid for any domesticated animals that might be around while he is in full temper and has a meat cleaver handy.

My biggest complaint are that none of the loose ends are really tied up at the end, so it has a television feel to it rather than the plot resolutions that have been set-up. Also, unless you are a native speaker of the King's English, parts of dialogue need subtitles and they are not available. This is the reason I gave it four stars instead of five. It is actually posted on Youtube but it will take forever to watch it.

1/5 I would NOT purchase this movie again
  by June Durkee
I thought this movie was the worst in my collection.... I got through it but it will either be pitched or on the shelf. Bad for me, I thought the whole movie was sad, and not as i thought. I definately would not purchase it again.

5/5 Great Series; CC does work if you use the TV remote
  by Bama Girl
I can't say enough good things about this series. The story lines are compelling and the acting is terrific. The series focuses on the lives of the Moss family and is set in post-WWI Liverpool. Living in the Moss household are the 3 daughters, the widowed father, and the surviving son, Billy. The father is of Irish descent (indeed, I think he's an Irish immigrant). He is hard-working, capable of great sentimentality, and wants to hide the extent of the family's financial difficulties. He is both loved and feared (with good reason) by his children. He is passionately Irish - marching in annual parades that are part commemoration of Irish/British battles and part implicit political protest. The youngest son, Walter, who lied about his age in order to go to war, died shortly after entering the war. Billy, the older son, served in the Navy during the war, but after a naval disaster, was released because he had a nervous breakdown. He has to cope with his fears, shame and the community's perception of him as a coward. (In the aftermath of the First World War, the psychological effects of battle were poorly understood.)

The Lilies are the 3 Moss daughters, Iris, May and Ruby. All 3 are intelligent and passionate young women who love their family. However, they demonstrate their passion in different ways: Ruby, Walter's twin, is hot-headed, impulsive and idealistic. Her outbursts are at times quite funny. May dreams of being a famous actress; her naivete and subsequent despair lead her into folly. Iris, who is the eldest daughter, seems buttoned-up much of the time, but she too has passion. She wants to find a purpose in life beyond taking care of the household and making chocolates on a piece rate. She has a strict sense of morals and is a devout Catholic whose strongest non-family friendship is with Father Melia.

Other recurring, important characters are Frank, Father Melia (the young priest of the parish), the Brazendales (May's employers) and the young Austrian butcher. Some characters who appear only in one or two episodes are pivotal; these include Dominic (episode 2) and Marianne Parks (episodes 6 & 7).

There are some very surprising story lines, but given the historical context and the particular characters involved, the story lines are believable. There are a couple of scenes that may be too realistic for some viewers, but you can easily fast-forward through them.

Finally, the closed captioning DOES work. It's just that you can't do it through your DVD remote. You have to set the closed captioning on your TV and use the TV remote. You also have to wait a couple of minutes for it to kick in. I didn't realize this and watched the whole series without captioning, but there were several lines of dialogue I had to listen to more than once. However, when I watched it again with my sister, she went through her TV remote & got the captioning to work. I just now tried it again on my TV. It didn't seem to work at first, but I played around with closed captioning on TV channels; once I got it to work there, I switched to the DVD and it worked just fine.