As God commanded the Israelites to remember their status as slaves in Egypt as a reason to house the foreigner, the Durrells are a family who remembers their place as ex-patriots seeking a new life abroad, leading them to host others in search of respite generously.
Masterpiece PBS’s series, The Durrells, portrays the life of an English family who moved to the Greek island of Corfu based on real books written by their youngest member, Gerald (Milo Parker). Following the father’s death, the mother, Louisa (Keeley Hawes), initiates the exodus, feeling she has no future in Bournemouth, a city on the United Kingdom’s southern coast. Corfu is chosen for its low cost of living and its exotic nature, especially compared to the dreary and homogenous Pudding Island (their name for England), making it the perfect place to resurrect the disconnected family.
The plot centers around the family’s assimilation with the Greeks; the humor rests in their inability to do so. They quickly become a favorite of a few locals who help them make the beautiful island feel like home. The events of each episode are driven by each family member’s love interests and, on a greater scale, the guests they welcome into their home.
Relationship is the lesson to be learned from this enjoyable show. As Christians, we know this is vital to winning people to Christ. There is truth to the quip, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt; it yields trust. To show hospitality to those who aren’t like us allows us to learn from others and see God work in ways we wouldn’t have known He could if we only studied our testimony.
God commands us to be generous with our time, finances, and possessions. The Durrells are never wealthy but inexplicably manage to feed themselves, frequent guests, and a literal zoo of animals. Many episodes end as the camera zooms out from their homely seaside house as a beacon of togetherness despite its outward ugliness. In the same way, we steward our resources knowing they are fading treasures in light of the glory of God’s promises. We use them to bring others to a knowledge of God’s general revelation and grace to all people.
The eponymous family’s hospitality errs on people-pleasing, wanting to be seen in a good light by the native Greeks while staying in favor of a wealthy relative and accommodating the needs of their guests, who range from a novice yogi to two attempted murderers. In contrast, members of God’s family are committed to pleasing and honoring God alone. We know we cannot serve two masters. In situations when the Durrells attempt to do just that, an appeal to today’s sensibilities persuades the more stubborn master to relent.
The Durrells teaches viewers to see beyond nationality or occupation into the humanity of others. The sole daughter, Margo (Daisy Waterstone), has multiple love interests, including a Greek Orthodox monk (until she realizes his position means celibacy) and an ego-centric Turk. In the latter relationship, we learn the Turks and Greeks have their own Hatfield and McCoy feud. With a dash of eurocentrism, Margo simplistically settles this Mediterranean strife by encouraging her boyfriend, the “superb” Zoltan (Merch Husey), and family friend Spiro (Alexis Georgoulis) to say one thing they like about each other. Flings and love interests elsewhere in the show reinforce to Christian viewers that God’s establishment of one man/one woman in marriage is the only life-giving and healthy form of relationship - anything else either fails or reaps dissatisfaction.
Set in the 1930s, there are anachronistic points made in the show that may have today’s conservatives rolling their eyes. Margo, usually the family clown, has moments of 21st-century lucidity. In her growing awareness of female inequality, she shares her thoughts but is quickly abated by her two older brothers. The family befriends a gay foreigner and later hosts two black gay Americans. Their progressive attitude towards these characters is seen as noble among the family but is unmentionable in the public sphere. Though these characters are necessities of the plot, the asides and allying rants stick out like a sore thumb, synonymizing conservative Greeks as backward Christians today. Christians may also have discomfort in seeing the sliding slope of emotional affairs, which are unfortunately encouraged throughout the show.
Though Hawes is only 14 and 27 years older than her eldest and youngest on-screen children, the five appear as a real family. Committed fans grow to love each character for their specific interests, funny tendencies, and growth until the final season. Disappointingly, the script seemed to run out of new material in the fourth season, and humor was largely based on the caricatures of the characters’ formal selves, though all had developed positively over the first three seasons.
The overarching saga of the Durrell family and the not-quite-larger-than-life events that transpire in their home outshine the attempts to modern political correctness. The Durrells provides humor and valuable lessons of love and hospitality.
The Durrells’ final season aired in 2019 and is now available on Amazon Prime.
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