TV Review of Rosemary's Baby

Despite the efforts of a good cast, inflating "Rosemary's Baby" into a miniseries doesn't give the classic 1968 movie the kind of fresh life its producers no doubt envisioned.

On the contrary, turning a taut two-hour film into a four-hour series, which starts Sunday and finishes next Thursday, too often only dilutes the tension and suspense.

For those who don't know this dark story, Rosemary (Zoe Saldana) is a blissful young bride excited to start a family with her husband Guy (Patrick J. Adams).

They move to Paris. His writing career seems on the brink of blooming. She becomes pregnant. And they spend a lot of quality time with their new best friends, a sophisticated and supportive couple named Roman and Margaux Castevel (Jason Isaacs and Carole Bouquet), who seem to provide just the support Rosemary and Guy need when Rosemary's pregnancy takes unexplained and disturbing turns.

The darkness gets deeper as Rosemary begins to suspect there's some big secret here that she's not in on.

She, and we, don't know who she can trust, and whether she will find out if her suspicions are correct.

This is the same story line laid out in the original film and the 1967 Ira Levin novel on which it was based. The problem for the miniseries is that what it adds to fill the extra time feels like padding.

So while it's never really fair to compare one production to another, the fact we have the 1968 movie means we know that in this case, shorter scenes can make the story more gripping.

That said, much of today's audience never saw the original production and can enjoy this new series without any burden of comparison.

But if you only have time for one, choose 1968.

Culled from NEWS TODAY