TWO ITV shows
Apr. 9th, 2019 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessVictoria 3.3 Et in Arcadia
Victoria basically ended up having a tantrum at dinner, no? And then compounded it and never apologies to Albert. Oops.
I want Emma to be Prime Minister, because she is the most sensible and learns from her mistakes. Certainly the one John Sessions is playing is mostly a nonentity.
Downstairs, Penge seemed to be in a bad mood solely because he’d been forced to play the drums (badly) for the kids’ fight/lesson. It also drove Francatelli to resign – but again without discussing it with his wife, which augurs so well for their future. Not. After a couple of scenes of dithering, Skerrit chose her marriage and told Victoria she was off at an inopportune time.
An ‘O NO, YOU DI’N’T’ moment came when Feodora mentioned crazy king George III, although Victoria basically seemed bad-tempered.
A nation of twenty-first viewers roared ‘he’s dyslexic’ as Albert wondered if Bertie was lazy. Victoria, when she bothered to notice, accused her husband of bullying their son, and Vickie effortlessly made it look like she’d be a better monarch.
I realised the Duchess of Monmouth is basically Princess Di, which worked as a way to make me care about her love quadrangle. ‘How is Lady Palmerson?’ INDEED, EMMA.
But I enjoyed the schadenfreude of Can We Call Him Lord P tiptoeing in to the seaview room and finding…Feodora, who could now blackmail him out of chucking her out of the country. For now. I doubt he’ll put up with it for long. And surely someone (perhaps Lord Alfred Where’s Your Wife, sir? is already wondering) must notice that she sure doesn’t want to spend any time with her children.
I found it hilarious that Prince Albert was ahead of Chanel in borrowing the Breton sailor style.
Another great moment was Victoria, literally at her lowest after the bathing debacle, being greeted by Palmerson and Prime Minister Whatshisname.
The point when Palmerston actually offered her his rationale for inviting the Hungarian potstirrer made me think, ‘and why not just tell her this before?’ But Albert’s point about Victoria sharing Palmerston’s weakness for public adulation was SPOT ON.
Interesting that the show felt the need to borrow out of Poldark’s pages for naked bathing. And shirtlessness. After all, it beat it in the ratings.
The Widow - Part 1
Sometimes you just want a gripping thriller with no weighty subtext or Things To Say About the World. And that’s not to say that the partial African setting doesn’t make you think, but this was about twists and turns, mood and giving Kate Beckinsale the kind of role she reminded us she deserved in Love and Friendship.
A-plus for the location scout, or certainly for the Welsh locations, there as a contrast to the leafy cottage Charles Dance (of course Charles Dance) lived in, and most of all to sun-drenched Africa. From a squizz at the credits, I think South Africa was doubling up for the DRC, but we had forests, slums, urban bustle, and where the white saviours live. So, there was some commentary there.
It definitely had a gripping opening, two children – was the girl the older sister? – playing in the woods. But they’re in the DRC and there was gunfire in the distance, and the boy’s anxiety was about more than her falling and breaking her neck. And then they picked up their guns and we realised they were child soldiers.
Then we met Georgia, the widow of the title, in wintry, isolated Powys. I like that Georgia, at least, is who she seems to be. Beckinsale gave great reaction shots like the moment she thought she saw Will. I liked how she didn’t seem unreasonable (to an audience attracted by the concept of the show). For me, as everyone talked down the photographs – white man in an orange cap doesn’t equal probably dead husband – the fact that she’d seen him move in the footage, and seeing her crumble in grief and doubt when alone helped.
I liked the pacing of the plot. For instance, they explained the connection of the blind man in Rotterdam hoping for a miracle with the main plot without making is wonder too long. They sketched him and his fellow potential trialee (Louise Beasley!) quickly, vividly. And Emmanuel’s new wife got a beat for what had to be an awkward time for her: her husband’s friend from when he lost his first wife, in town to investigate a sighting of the husband who died in the same crash.
Some theories: the guy who smashed up Emmanuel’s car, it was personal. At first, I thought Henni Botha had arranged Will’s fake death (although I hadn’t thought it through – downing a big plane like that is a bit much, and the accusation that it had something more to do with politics than anything still stands). But seeing him with the army raised a lot of questions.
And then the final twist of the car and the message that had Will’s involvement all over it (would he really have told someone about the way he’d put a gift in the glove in the glove compartment?) Thing is, of course, the all caps message to go home isn’t going to work. Georgia’s learned over the last three years that home is him, and this seems like an even clearer confirmation he’s alive.
I liked it, though, as always, I wait to see if the whole thing will hold together.
Victoria basically ended up having a tantrum at dinner, no? And then compounded it and never apologies to Albert. Oops.
I want Emma to be Prime Minister, because she is the most sensible and learns from her mistakes. Certainly the one John Sessions is playing is mostly a nonentity.
Downstairs, Penge seemed to be in a bad mood solely because he’d been forced to play the drums (badly) for the kids’ fight/lesson. It also drove Francatelli to resign – but again without discussing it with his wife, which augurs so well for their future. Not. After a couple of scenes of dithering, Skerrit chose her marriage and told Victoria she was off at an inopportune time.
An ‘O NO, YOU DI’N’T’ moment came when Feodora mentioned crazy king George III, although Victoria basically seemed bad-tempered.
A nation of twenty-first viewers roared ‘he’s dyslexic’ as Albert wondered if Bertie was lazy. Victoria, when she bothered to notice, accused her husband of bullying their son, and Vickie effortlessly made it look like she’d be a better monarch.
I realised the Duchess of Monmouth is basically Princess Di, which worked as a way to make me care about her love quadrangle. ‘How is Lady Palmerson?’ INDEED, EMMA.
But I enjoyed the schadenfreude of Can We Call Him Lord P tiptoeing in to the seaview room and finding…Feodora, who could now blackmail him out of chucking her out of the country. For now. I doubt he’ll put up with it for long. And surely someone (perhaps Lord Alfred Where’s Your Wife, sir? is already wondering) must notice that she sure doesn’t want to spend any time with her children.
I found it hilarious that Prince Albert was ahead of Chanel in borrowing the Breton sailor style.
Another great moment was Victoria, literally at her lowest after the bathing debacle, being greeted by Palmerson and Prime Minister Whatshisname.
The point when Palmerston actually offered her his rationale for inviting the Hungarian potstirrer made me think, ‘and why not just tell her this before?’ But Albert’s point about Victoria sharing Palmerston’s weakness for public adulation was SPOT ON.
Interesting that the show felt the need to borrow out of Poldark’s pages for naked bathing. And shirtlessness. After all, it beat it in the ratings.
The Widow - Part 1
Sometimes you just want a gripping thriller with no weighty subtext or Things To Say About the World. And that’s not to say that the partial African setting doesn’t make you think, but this was about twists and turns, mood and giving Kate Beckinsale the kind of role she reminded us she deserved in Love and Friendship.
A-plus for the location scout, or certainly for the Welsh locations, there as a contrast to the leafy cottage Charles Dance (of course Charles Dance) lived in, and most of all to sun-drenched Africa. From a squizz at the credits, I think South Africa was doubling up for the DRC, but we had forests, slums, urban bustle, and where the white saviours live. So, there was some commentary there.
It definitely had a gripping opening, two children – was the girl the older sister? – playing in the woods. But they’re in the DRC and there was gunfire in the distance, and the boy’s anxiety was about more than her falling and breaking her neck. And then they picked up their guns and we realised they were child soldiers.
Then we met Georgia, the widow of the title, in wintry, isolated Powys. I like that Georgia, at least, is who she seems to be. Beckinsale gave great reaction shots like the moment she thought she saw Will. I liked how she didn’t seem unreasonable (to an audience attracted by the concept of the show). For me, as everyone talked down the photographs – white man in an orange cap doesn’t equal probably dead husband – the fact that she’d seen him move in the footage, and seeing her crumble in grief and doubt when alone helped.
I liked the pacing of the plot. For instance, they explained the connection of the blind man in Rotterdam hoping for a miracle with the main plot without making is wonder too long. They sketched him and his fellow potential trialee (Louise Beasley!) quickly, vividly. And Emmanuel’s new wife got a beat for what had to be an awkward time for her: her husband’s friend from when he lost his first wife, in town to investigate a sighting of the husband who died in the same crash.
Some theories: the guy who smashed up Emmanuel’s car, it was personal. At first, I thought Henni Botha had arranged Will’s fake death (although I hadn’t thought it through – downing a big plane like that is a bit much, and the accusation that it had something more to do with politics than anything still stands). But seeing him with the army raised a lot of questions.
And then the final twist of the car and the message that had Will’s involvement all over it (would he really have told someone about the way he’d put a gift in the glove in the glove compartment?) Thing is, of course, the all caps message to go home isn’t going to work. Georgia’s learned over the last three years that home is him, and this seems like an even clearer confirmation he’s alive.
I liked it, though, as always, I wait to see if the whole thing will hold together.
