Damian Lewis as Soames Forsyte and people's hypocrisy

It's hard to sympathized with a woman who enters into a marriage and doesn't try at all to make the marriage work. At least if the series had showed her trying at the beginning of their marriage, we'd be more sympathetic.

Why is it that some people, even women, apologize for Soames?

I have no idea. It's a mystery.

I think part of the problem is people don't realize the characters are not neatly split into heroes and villains, as they are in so many other shows and films. They expect Irene to be perfect, and she isn't. (All of the characters are flawed.) Therefore she must be bad, so they side with Soames. That's the best I can come up with.

Objectively speaking, Damian Lewis did an amazing job as Soames. He gave Soames so much depth. Everyone was excellent in it, but Lewis hit it out of the ballpark. I'd never seen him before The Forsyte Saga. Watching Life now for the first time.

Everyone in that story behaves selfishly, so I really don't like any of them. I'm not a fan of adultery under any circumstances.

Irene entered into a marriage knowing she did not even LIKE Soames and could not stand to be touched by him, so it's hard to find sympathy for her when she discovers later on that she really can't stand him. Granted, Irene probably knew nothing about sex; not many "high born" Victorian women did, so that was probably a traumatic experience for her. And she really was between a rock and a hard place, in either deciding to be penniless or marrying someone she did not like. (Wasn't becoming a governess an option for her? And she didn't want to do it? Pride, in other words, overruled her heart.)

Soames' actions are unforgivable. I won't try to excuse them. Though I will admit that I feel a bit sorry for him, since he really did try at first in his own amateurish way to make her happy, and she would have none of it. He's one of the more fascinating individuals in film and literature, because he is so emotionally repressed and unstable.

In an odd sense, Soames was not that far off from Dan Akroyd's character in Trading Places at the beginning. Change a few circumstances and pretty much everyone is capable of anything. Loved how his mom said that she should have severely beaten him when he was young. When I look at those characters from the viewpoint of 21st century eyes, all I see is generations of institutionalized child neglect and abuse. I'm amazed that some of them are as normal as they are.

I think my percentage of Chimp DNA is higher than others. Cleaver Greene

I've only watched parts of the older Forsyte Saga and all of the 2002 version, but I read comments where people thought Soames and Irene were miscast. Not only were they physically miscast, but they were also spiritually, emotionally, and charismatically miscast.

While Gina is a beautiful woman, Irene was supposed to be a jaw-dropping blonde ingenue. Gina's portrayal made Irene seem cold at times. It was perplexing how Irene's beauty was constantly mentioned even when it was not relevant to the dialogue or the plot.

Soames was supposed to be this dour, soul-sucking guy, and in the older version of FS, Soames was not charming or likeable. The relationships in FS supposedly mirrored John Galsworthy's real relationships, and Soames was based on someone who was his antithesis - patriarchal, business-oriented, unlike his bohemian self. Damian Lewis' good looks, charisma, and intensity inadvertently won fans.

I think it all boils down to Damian Lewis' looks and charisma made his character sympathetic.