Doesn't seem to be a single thread on this-what's up with that? There were about a gazillion on This Is England 86. Not trendy enough?

I really liked the novel by William Boyd- the first episode of this was pretty good, but didn't quite match up to the novel, for me. it's about this guy who has this extraordinary life spanning several decades in the 20th century, having all these incredible and diverse experiences and meeting all these characters.
His life interweaves with all these landmark events and characters, like Hemingway and Greenwich Village in the 60's. It's funny, sad and compelling.

The series is in four parts, about 1 and a half hours long each. It looks good visually for TV, solid actors (I like Macfayden as an actor especially) and a decent attempt at the source novel. Sometimes it feels like it doesn't have the same weight as the book, such as his dalliances with the various lovers, and things have to move pretty fast. I think this is the strongest flaw in the adaptation.

Anyway, did ANYBODY watch this? What did you think?