Ladies and gentlemen
Mar. 19th, 2016 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessDoctor Thorne - Episode 2
I was glad, if as surprised as her father, that nice Beatrice was going to marry Mr Oriel – he seemed nice enough for her. And as the episode went on, you could see why she’d hasten the intimacy and get away from her mother and the failing estate and snobbishness about it.
We had lots of minor reveals, such as that Doctor Thorne had kept Mary away from Sir Roger up till she insisted on turning up to help her uncle and Lady S, which is both impressive and sad, because there was a nice tenderness in her taking care of her unknown uncle.
Enter Louis, and he was horrible, the worst of Sir Roger with added entitlement. But none of the characters seemed to notice quite how awful he was!? Perhaps if he'd had a moustache to twirl...
Mr Moffat, whilst engaged to one woman (and in thrall to her cousin last episode) tried to get engaged to another woman. Fortunately Miss Dunstable dealt with him very nicely - in fact, I think he missed most of the heat of the burn - and gave us a glimpse of her heart. (I did wonder about whether Our Hero would fit her ideal, except I think he’s too much of a doctor, too caught up in his responsibilities and unlikely to meet her again.)
At least Our Hero was decent enough to give Sir Roger the knowledge he’d met their niece before he passed away.
As Miss Dunstable said, Augusta is better off without Mr Moffat. You get the feeling that Frank doesn’t know his own sister very well, but does her the kindness of ascribing what his own feelings would be towards her. Bascially, Miss D gives the best advice (apart from on buying votes). And now I wonder whether that’s it for Brie, and whether working on something in England by the writer of Downton Abbey, given Community had a swipe at it IRRC, lived up to her expectations.
More scenes between Hollander and Front's characters quarrelling, please. The business with the door was ace.
Cue Augusta lowering herself to flirting with a lawyer, who I was going to say wasn’t that good looking, but then neither was Moffat. (Liked Beatrice’s snark at her sister’s machinations more than the artificial flowers in her hair.)
Lord Gresham seems to manage to be very sensible now, but the mess the estate is in is down to him. Obviously plot and booze will do for Louis.
Has Frank really considered how he’ll survive without the money and the estate and all that comes with it? REALLY? Way fewer servants and having to count the expense of the booze he's sipping. After all, he doesn't know the plot may bestow a fortune on them.
What was decidedly missing from the time Mary came to the Sketcherds until the proposals was her feelings about anything. Martini tried her best to show Mary’s discomfort at some of Louis’s behaviour, and fine, I accept that this wasn’t written by a Bronte or a Gaskell who would be interested in the heroine’s thoughts and feelings about tipsy, boorish bullies cornering her in an inappropriate bedroom and never listening to her and being rude to his mother and then proposing to her. The main character is Doctor Thorne and the story follows several characters, but why did Doctor Thorne not talk to Mary alone? Was he stopped from doing so? Could we not have seen him try? Where was his protective side? I’m presuming that only a day or so passed and there were some reasons why she didn’t leave with her uncle – packing such a long period of time’s worth’s clothes? Helping Lady S in the bedroom? We could have done with a line or so explaining that, though.
Lady S’s joy at seeing Frank (although did he offer any sympathy to her as a widow? Er, no) and attitude towards Louis – who is her son and Sir Roger’s (huh) and doesn’t know his father was in prison for manslaughter set the scene, but it really was that Frank was the reason Mary wasn’t free that irritated Louis. Because he doesn’t love his mother.
Thing is? He’s not punishing Frank and Mary so very much. They’ll probably feel bad, but it’s Lady Augusta, who hasn’t helped her cause, who will suffer the most.
It just all feels rather slight, even the virtuous illegitimate heroine getting herboy man. (After all, with the ‘finish your degree’ advice, she still seemed to be the more mature one in the relationship.) And the big kiss after the proposal felt unearned as a big swelling music moment.
But really, compared with War and Peace, it doesn’t get into the depths of emotion or have that wide a scope – for instance, surely they must hold another election after Sir Roger’s death, but nobody mentioned it.
We pretty much know how we’re meant to feel about all the characters (and sometimes I don’t, indeed, sometimes I wished we were following Miss Dunstable or that we got more servant POV, especially the Greshons’ servants). After the pretty village, we had seen all the posh houses before – although I thought the lighting in the night scenes was effective.
I was glad, if as surprised as her father, that nice Beatrice was going to marry Mr Oriel – he seemed nice enough for her. And as the episode went on, you could see why she’d hasten the intimacy and get away from her mother and the failing estate and snobbishness about it.
We had lots of minor reveals, such as that Doctor Thorne had kept Mary away from Sir Roger up till she insisted on turning up to help her uncle and Lady S, which is both impressive and sad, because there was a nice tenderness in her taking care of her unknown uncle.
Enter Louis, and he was horrible, the worst of Sir Roger with added entitlement. But none of the characters seemed to notice quite how awful he was!? Perhaps if he'd had a moustache to twirl...
Mr Moffat, whilst engaged to one woman (and in thrall to her cousin last episode) tried to get engaged to another woman. Fortunately Miss Dunstable dealt with him very nicely - in fact, I think he missed most of the heat of the burn - and gave us a glimpse of her heart. (I did wonder about whether Our Hero would fit her ideal, except I think he’s too much of a doctor, too caught up in his responsibilities and unlikely to meet her again.)
At least Our Hero was decent enough to give Sir Roger the knowledge he’d met their niece before he passed away.
As Miss Dunstable said, Augusta is better off without Mr Moffat. You get the feeling that Frank doesn’t know his own sister very well, but does her the kindness of ascribing what his own feelings would be towards her. Bascially, Miss D gives the best advice (apart from on buying votes). And now I wonder whether that’s it for Brie, and whether working on something in England by the writer of Downton Abbey, given Community had a swipe at it IRRC, lived up to her expectations.
More scenes between Hollander and Front's characters quarrelling, please. The business with the door was ace.
Cue Augusta lowering herself to flirting with a lawyer, who I was going to say wasn’t that good looking, but then neither was Moffat. (Liked Beatrice’s snark at her sister’s machinations more than the artificial flowers in her hair.)
Lord Gresham seems to manage to be very sensible now, but the mess the estate is in is down to him. Obviously plot and booze will do for Louis.
Has Frank really considered how he’ll survive without the money and the estate and all that comes with it? REALLY? Way fewer servants and having to count the expense of the booze he's sipping. After all, he doesn't know the plot may bestow a fortune on them.
What was decidedly missing from the time Mary came to the Sketcherds until the proposals was her feelings about anything. Martini tried her best to show Mary’s discomfort at some of Louis’s behaviour, and fine, I accept that this wasn’t written by a Bronte or a Gaskell who would be interested in the heroine’s thoughts and feelings about tipsy, boorish bullies cornering her in an inappropriate bedroom and never listening to her and being rude to his mother and then proposing to her. The main character is Doctor Thorne and the story follows several characters, but why did Doctor Thorne not talk to Mary alone? Was he stopped from doing so? Could we not have seen him try? Where was his protective side? I’m presuming that only a day or so passed and there were some reasons why she didn’t leave with her uncle – packing such a long period of time’s worth’s clothes? Helping Lady S in the bedroom? We could have done with a line or so explaining that, though.
Lady S’s joy at seeing Frank (although did he offer any sympathy to her as a widow? Er, no) and attitude towards Louis – who is her son and Sir Roger’s (huh) and doesn’t know his father was in prison for manslaughter set the scene, but it really was that Frank was the reason Mary wasn’t free that irritated Louis. Because he doesn’t love his mother.
Thing is? He’s not punishing Frank and Mary so very much. They’ll probably feel bad, but it’s Lady Augusta, who hasn’t helped her cause, who will suffer the most.
It just all feels rather slight, even the virtuous illegitimate heroine getting her
But really, compared with War and Peace, it doesn’t get into the depths of emotion or have that wide a scope – for instance, surely they must hold another election after Sir Roger’s death, but nobody mentioned it.
We pretty much know how we’re meant to feel about all the characters (and sometimes I don’t, indeed, sometimes I wished we were following Miss Dunstable or that we got more servant POV, especially the Greshons’ servants). After the pretty village, we had seen all the posh houses before – although I thought the lighting in the night scenes was effective.
