War of the Worlds (BBC1)

Phelpsing

My fear is that someone will remake It's a Wonderful Life 

I agree with all of that. It wasn't at all clear how Amy had managed to give birth in those conditions to a healthy baby and how they'd survived for quite a number of years (Woody Norman who plays George Jr is 10, not sure how old the character is meant to be). The anti-colonial outburst came from left field – not surprising that George would hold those views but as you say, an odd time to choose to stand on a soapbox. I suppose he knew the game was up and he had to say his piece before they all died. I also don't know if Mr and Mrs Thing was a nickname Ogilvy used for some unexplained reason – not in the novel as Amy doesn't appear there. 

The ray of hope at the end was like an afterthought – too little, too late, with everyone starving to death all around them and too weak or incredulous to follow it through.

Ah, well, at least it was only three episodes!

I have no problem with the idea of looking at a story from another point of view, which is what this claimed to be; in fact, I find it interesting. However, what they came up with was, in the end, a nonsense. They give us the conceit of using the life of the author to plant in George and Amy, but don't know what to do with it. They insert the false narrative of pompous fools trying to appropriate the meteorites, only to be proven fools by the heroes who really know what is going on -- if only these fools had listened to us. In the book, we get a very clear understanding of who the Martians are, and how they are not invulnerable to the military's weapons , it is just that they have weapons that give them a significant advantage. And it goes on. As for the fate of George, I was thinking that, to be more consistent with the the author as George (and his second wife as Amy), they could have had him going after yet another woman, Wells was a serial adulterer who, even after marrying Amy, fathered at least on child, a daughter in one of his relationships.

The very end was cringeworthy, more suitable for the ending of a film made during the Second World War, reminding us that, even as we face the terrible challenge of teh Third Reich, we have to have hope. I didn't mind it in these films, it was entirely appropriate for the time; but it was stupid and unbelievable here.