With apologies to Truro
Jul. 4th, 2017 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessPoldark 3.3
I was impressed by Ross’s restraint in France – not so much over the insinuating landlady/spy as not responding to all the violent injustices around him much. Obviously, one wanted to reassure him that the Scarlet Pimpernel had it covered, although I don’t know that Sir Percy ever went to Rosco (WHAT? Blakeney’s as fictional as Ross Poldark.) And he got to do the mad diving into the sea, returning to the inn and getting into a fight. I presume he returned on the English ship he was always meant to, and I have no idea what he’s going to do about rescuing Dwight.
I couldn’t work out what time of the year this was meant to be, and as there were scenes where you could see the actors’ breath and Demelza was wearing a shawl and showing off cleavage, I was confused. Not to mention all the visits to the beach. At least it’s now clear that Morwenna likes Drake back, but although he’s learning to write for her (aww), what kind of future do the silly kids have?
The big takeout was Elizabeth starting on a downward drugs spiral – that was how they were playing it, and I presume her drops were opiates – laudanum, amirite?.
Things were not right with her, as Valentine looked like Ross (or her, she could have argued, but babies don’t take after their mother in Poldark?), pregnant Demelza still had the moral high ground over her and Geoffrey Charles, Morwenna and Auntie No Portent of the Week were having more fun than her and without her. And then she got even more riled over the ‘Methodists’ and blamed Ross WHEN HE WASN’T EVEN IN THE COUNTRY, which shows yet again how little she understands him, and started doing what George wanted, and then realised as he didn’t even twitch and carried out a gross miscarriage of justice against that poor girl for his own advancement with some man with power…Again, I don’t sympathise much with Elizabeth because there were plenty of clues about George’s nature, and how she left Geoffrey Charles was cold and self-spiting (but better for him, as George can’t get any ideas about whipping the impudent pup in Truro).
And the incipient drugs spiral is just funny, with the potential to be hilarious.
Otherwise, Sam has NO TACT. Demelza gifting the ‘Methodists’ that building really wasn’t the worst thing she could have done as Ross was away having adventures in France. More seriously, you could tell she was indeed preparing never to see him again, and I can’t mind that she was, as referenced, chopping wood when he came back. Ross observing she’s not his chattel was hot, will not tell a lie, and what he saw in Revolutionary France deeply influenced him (poor Dwight and his Beard of Hardship). Can’t wait until Ross sees the results of George, Injustice of the Peace, a monster he created out of his own rashness, because the show is building up to all of that, with its heavyhanded parallelism of George at work and Revolutionary France. If anything, the brief flicker of George wanting to do something for the vulgars (sic) to become a burgher seemed most OOC.
I was quite touched by Demelza teaching young Jeremy in the ways of Poldarks staring out to sea, possibly on the Julia Poldark memorial cliff.
3.4
I enjoyed Ross’s grumpiness at the return of Lady Demelza of Staying Abed, and how she beamed at how clever she’d been giving birth without the useless doctor. Too right she’d been clever.
‘Clowence’ makes me think of Clarence, but if they’re seeding Geoffrey Charles/Clowence, I can live with that because I am in dread of Valentine/Clowence. Also, Demelza and Ross’s daughter could bring Geoffrey Charles down the required peg or two.
Moving on from planning a baby’s future lovelife. Demelza and Caroline fleecing the rich old men of Cornwall with smiles and appeals to their vanity was a delight. I knew those two would be magnificent if they teamed up, and the contrast between that and George bartering Morwenna’s bridal price was one of the better juxtapositions of the episode.
Her officially sanctioned suitor Reverend Eww Coxcomb made me LONG for a Heyer adaptation, because she does that type even better. But yes, a man who was wife-hunting just after his wife had been buried, obsessed with his waistcoats and generally gross (particularly odious with the whole ‘your reticence/refusal is so cute’). Eww. I was shocked that George grasped some of his repugnance – looking down at him because he was a poor negotiator, yes, but some moral objections to character? When George does something like that, it flummoxes me, given what he’s like the rest of the time.
I see Demelza’s point very much re Drake and Morwenna AKA the stupid kids. Nobody bluntly asked her if she could live as a miner’s wife, but she’s clearly too far gone over Drake and only vengeful money-grubbers like George and Elizabeth could try to foist her off on a man she couldn’t respect like Whitworth.
Elizabeth’s drug spiral continues. There was one point where she gave Morwenna an A-grade bitch face, one point where she managed George (usually she can’t be bothered). I should have mentioned this last episode, but Valentine’s blue ribbon really irks me. Shouldn’t it have been pink or was that a Victorian thing?
Anyway, sociopolitics – no, wait! Ross interacted repeatedly with Jeremy! Yay! He was so delighted at Clowence that it was a balm to see him also pay attention to his son. We’ll put it down to Jeremy becoming more interesting the older he gets and less like Julia?
I can’t mock Dwight’s beard any more, although his storyline was ‘doctoring in grim circumstances, getting grimmer’, and the breaking point of seeing a patient he’d thought he’d saved be summarily executed was the poignant and horrid. As Caroline put her hope in official channels rescuing him, Ross and Demelza exchanged dubious glances (their partnership was so delightfully solid this episode).
And it was the worst winter after the worst harvest (the fake snow scenes aside, Morwenna, at least, seemed to be in quite a light dress and half the time Demelza wasn’t bothering with the shawl, and I suppose primroses in December is a Cornwall thing?), and George the Unjust continued to believe that rich people were ‘betters’ and forget the lessons of Revolutionary France. He got over-excited about being able to send Ross to Australia.
Contrast that with Ross and his plan (I’d have kept Sam well out of it, but it worked out for the best), which was a better plan that we thought – so much with-holding - and involved everyone bar the kids, even smugglers. All they didn’t plan for was George’s pettiness at being bested. Lots of ‘my land, gerroff’ between Ross and George. And the expansion of the mine seems a bit reckless (Ross, reckless, never!) and desperate, but from good intentions, and most importantly, Demelza (and her brothers) were onside, because some people not based in Truro have got moral compasses.
I was impressed by Ross’s restraint in France – not so much over the insinuating landlady/spy as not responding to all the violent injustices around him much. Obviously, one wanted to reassure him that the Scarlet Pimpernel had it covered, although I don’t know that Sir Percy ever went to Rosco (WHAT? Blakeney’s as fictional as Ross Poldark.) And he got to do the mad diving into the sea, returning to the inn and getting into a fight. I presume he returned on the English ship he was always meant to, and I have no idea what he’s going to do about rescuing Dwight.
I couldn’t work out what time of the year this was meant to be, and as there were scenes where you could see the actors’ breath and Demelza was wearing a shawl and showing off cleavage, I was confused. Not to mention all the visits to the beach. At least it’s now clear that Morwenna likes Drake back, but although he’s learning to write for her (aww), what kind of future do the silly kids have?
The big takeout was Elizabeth starting on a downward drugs spiral – that was how they were playing it, and I presume her drops were opiates – laudanum, amirite?.
Things were not right with her, as Valentine looked like Ross (or her, she could have argued, but babies don’t take after their mother in Poldark?), pregnant Demelza still had the moral high ground over her and Geoffrey Charles, Morwenna and Auntie No Portent of the Week were having more fun than her and without her. And then she got even more riled over the ‘Methodists’ and blamed Ross WHEN HE WASN’T EVEN IN THE COUNTRY, which shows yet again how little she understands him, and started doing what George wanted, and then realised as he didn’t even twitch and carried out a gross miscarriage of justice against that poor girl for his own advancement with some man with power…Again, I don’t sympathise much with Elizabeth because there were plenty of clues about George’s nature, and how she left Geoffrey Charles was cold and self-spiting (but better for him, as George can’t get any ideas about whipping the impudent pup in Truro).
And the incipient drugs spiral is just funny, with the potential to be hilarious.
Otherwise, Sam has NO TACT. Demelza gifting the ‘Methodists’ that building really wasn’t the worst thing she could have done as Ross was away having adventures in France. More seriously, you could tell she was indeed preparing never to see him again, and I can’t mind that she was, as referenced, chopping wood when he came back. Ross observing she’s not his chattel was hot, will not tell a lie, and what he saw in Revolutionary France deeply influenced him (poor Dwight and his Beard of Hardship). Can’t wait until Ross sees the results of George, Injustice of the Peace, a monster he created out of his own rashness, because the show is building up to all of that, with its heavyhanded parallelism of George at work and Revolutionary France. If anything, the brief flicker of George wanting to do something for the vulgars (sic) to become a burgher seemed most OOC.
I was quite touched by Demelza teaching young Jeremy in the ways of Poldarks staring out to sea, possibly on the Julia Poldark memorial cliff.
3.4
I enjoyed Ross’s grumpiness at the return of Lady Demelza of Staying Abed, and how she beamed at how clever she’d been giving birth without the useless doctor. Too right she’d been clever.
‘Clowence’ makes me think of Clarence, but if they’re seeding Geoffrey Charles/Clowence, I can live with that because I am in dread of Valentine/Clowence. Also, Demelza and Ross’s daughter could bring Geoffrey Charles down the required peg or two.
Moving on from planning a baby’s future lovelife. Demelza and Caroline fleecing the rich old men of Cornwall with smiles and appeals to their vanity was a delight. I knew those two would be magnificent if they teamed up, and the contrast between that and George bartering Morwenna’s bridal price was one of the better juxtapositions of the episode.
Her officially sanctioned suitor Reverend Eww Coxcomb made me LONG for a Heyer adaptation, because she does that type even better. But yes, a man who was wife-hunting just after his wife had been buried, obsessed with his waistcoats and generally gross (particularly odious with the whole ‘your reticence/refusal is so cute’). Eww. I was shocked that George grasped some of his repugnance – looking down at him because he was a poor negotiator, yes, but some moral objections to character? When George does something like that, it flummoxes me, given what he’s like the rest of the time.
I see Demelza’s point very much re Drake and Morwenna AKA the stupid kids. Nobody bluntly asked her if she could live as a miner’s wife, but she’s clearly too far gone over Drake and only vengeful money-grubbers like George and Elizabeth could try to foist her off on a man she couldn’t respect like Whitworth.
Elizabeth’s drug spiral continues. There was one point where she gave Morwenna an A-grade bitch face, one point where she managed George (usually she can’t be bothered). I should have mentioned this last episode, but Valentine’s blue ribbon really irks me. Shouldn’t it have been pink or was that a Victorian thing?
Anyway, sociopolitics – no, wait! Ross interacted repeatedly with Jeremy! Yay! He was so delighted at Clowence that it was a balm to see him also pay attention to his son. We’ll put it down to Jeremy becoming more interesting the older he gets and less like Julia?
I can’t mock Dwight’s beard any more, although his storyline was ‘doctoring in grim circumstances, getting grimmer’, and the breaking point of seeing a patient he’d thought he’d saved be summarily executed was the poignant and horrid. As Caroline put her hope in official channels rescuing him, Ross and Demelza exchanged dubious glances (their partnership was so delightfully solid this episode).
And it was the worst winter after the worst harvest (the fake snow scenes aside, Morwenna, at least, seemed to be in quite a light dress and half the time Demelza wasn’t bothering with the shawl, and I suppose primroses in December is a Cornwall thing?), and George the Unjust continued to believe that rich people were ‘betters’ and forget the lessons of Revolutionary France. He got over-excited about being able to send Ross to Australia.
Contrast that with Ross and his plan (I’d have kept Sam well out of it, but it worked out for the best), which was a better plan that we thought – so much with-holding - and involved everyone bar the kids, even smugglers. All they didn’t plan for was George’s pettiness at being bested. Lots of ‘my land, gerroff’ between Ross and George. And the expansion of the mine seems a bit reckless (Ross, reckless, never!) and desperate, but from good intentions, and most importantly, Demelza (and her brothers) were onside, because some people not based in Truro have got moral compasses.
