Starz's New Mini-Series THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH is Ambitious and Delicious

Starz's new historical fiction mini-series, The Pillars of the Earth, about medieval England sets the desires of good men and women against the desires of bad ones.

The characters constantly struggle with the question of when it is better to acquiesce or stake their life on things that they want the most.

They are forced to pick their battles wisely as each fight could mean the death of their life and legacy. For some that legacy is the thrown of England. For others it is building a masterpiece cathedral.

The internal and external nature of these struggles add a certain amount of grandeur to the show's scope of storytelling and accentuates the central historical conflicts of the time.

Pillars starts as King Henry I loses his only legitimate son, and heir to the thrown, to a shipwreck. Without an heir, those around him start angling to fill the power vacuum that would be created if the King should die.

Battle lines are drawn between the King's daughter, the young Princess Maude, and his nephew Stephen. When King Henry meets his end, Stephen is handed the crown with the backing of the church.

But Princess Maude, a new mother to a son and potential heir, resists. She raises an army with the help of those loyal to the late King. What follows is a time in England's history referred to as “The Anarchy,” in which the two sides fight for power over nineteen years.

At the heart of this series, however, is the story of Tom the Builder and his quest to build a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge. The building is not only a means to feed his starving family, but also something greater than himself. His plans are beautiful and architecturally revolutionary.

Yet Tom's goal, supported by the local religious authority Prior Phillip, is caught in the middle of the political strife. Tom and Phillip are the underdogs. They struggle to find out if it is possible to make a beautiful piece of work in a time of complete upheaval. They find out that there will be costs in both blood and treasure.

While the building of the cathedral is certainly the emotional center of Pillars, the struggle for power is given just as much weight. This forces the show to handle a variety of important story lines in quick succession, all while jumping years in time from episode to episode – there are only eight.

Those, however, are not the only story lines. Several other important and enjoyable subplots drift through the series, but it would be too encumbering to list them all here.

Pulling all those story lines together in an eight episode mini-series takes precise writing and memorable acting. And for the most part the writers and cast of Pillars exceed in crafting scenes and characters that are endearing, devious and fierce.

Alison Pill (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is especially brilliant as the scorned and underestimated Princess Maude. Rufus Sewel's (A Night's Tale) turn as Tom the Builder is as handsome and as strong as he as ever been; while Ian McShane (Deadwood) as the corruptible Bishop Waleran Bigod, continuously makes me desirous for more episodes of the short-lived NBC's drama Kings.

Pillars may not be as slick as Showtime's The Tudors or as genius as HBO's Rome – two notable fictionalized, but historically-conceived shows from recent years – but it is just as ambitious.

Its hefty and surprising cast propel this mini-series to succeed more than it fails. The Pillars of the Earth, based on the 1989 novel by Ken Follet, is available streaming online through Netflix.