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shallownessSanditon 2.3
A pertinent point that I didn’t discuss from the previous episode is that Augusta is 18, so no wonder she’s frustrated at being kept in the schoolroom. On the other hand, as her behaviour is more like a snotty fifteen or sixteen-year-old’s, it’s understandable not to let her loose on society yet. (Would love to see her rudeness meet Lady D/Esther/Georgiana’s, though. Preferably Lady Denham’s.)
Anyway, this episode mainly revolved around this midsummer fete that wasn’t important enough to show ‘last year’/in the previous season. Let’s pretend that Charlotte hadn’t reached Sanditon for it.
My favourite thing this episode? Esther being so rude to Clara and dragging her up the stairs as she went into TV drama labour. The moment where Esther had to turn on a dime and show her anguish at assisting a woman she despises to give birth was not the best bit of writing, but anyway. I felt for Esther seeing herself holding this baby, Esther who is capable of love in a way that Clara seems not to be. (Don’t try to make me feel sorry for Clara in that it’s post-partum depression, show, let’s just put it down to her being a calculating ‘un.)
Edward had a point, she could have slept around after him, but in all probability the kid’s his. I watched this episode on the laptop and realised he’s got a moustache now. Um. I couldn’t see which letter Forehead filched, but it’s probably for no good reason. Shame that Lady Denham’s footman, who was around to hear all about the illegitimate child scandal, wasn’t present then. Probably gossiping in the kitchen. Eshter was quite right not to trust Clara. I suppose Dr Fookes’s will be a placebo but just so that she stops taking the poison leaves.
Hero of the episode? Arthur and his ballast, as he caught the rope more by accident than design and rescued the balloon. As the soldiers failed to hold on to the rope, I rather worried about leaving the defence of the realm to this lot.
Well, Captain I Still Don’t Know What to Make of that Accent (Fraser) seems all right, even if he’s playing Cyrano de Bergerac on all fronts. Actually funny line: Captain Himbo (Carter) not understanding why poetry would help his colleague go to war. The latter was so desperate to impress Alison he lied and lied, and even if she’s still a ninny, as Fraser said, she deserves better than that. I mean, it’s only been months, if Charlotte is still grieving for Sidney, doesn’t that say something about the depth of her feelings, which is the price of the love that Alison thinks she’s feeling? I also thought Alison managed to avoid some obvious dot joining, because another way Fraser was being Cyrano was picking flowers for Lennox to bestow on Charlotte right in front of her – a salient point she didn’t mention when she gushed over Captain Lennox’s flowers.
Anyway, Charlotte was pausing over the cornflower. Admittedly, Colbourne didn’t pick it, Leonora did, but Charlotte knew as much and it was a nice moment because she’d said it was her favourite flower. I thought they played the beat after beautifully.
Colbourne obviously has a penchant for ladies who know their classics. (Even if they don’t know their French or botany so well, or the whereabouts of their pupils.) But I can see why Augusta is aggrieved at the ability of their governess, but the girl clearly needs to learn to be kind and well-meaning, even if it all stems from what she feels is rejection and a complicated family history. With Leo, who is also craving paternal attention, it seems more straightforward, give or take the gender issues.
So, we learned that Augusta’s mother was Lucy Colbourne’s twin, and there were intimations that Lucy was unhappy. Colbourne seems to be blaming himself for her death/the situation, and Lennox implied some Bad Stuff went down. On the one hand, he must be gutted because once again Colbourne is his rival for the attentions of the woman he fancies (although I don’t think Colbourne has processed his attraction to his governess) but I think I’m the injured party here, as my exact words were ‘Are you Wickhaming me?’ I thought they were before with Lennox dropping hints about Colbourne, but definitely this time. Claiming Colbourne stole Lucy is pretty strong (maybe she noticed the whole not paying your debts thing! I’m not just being pecuniary, there; it is selfish and puts others in a financial bind. Having said that, I did wonder where Colbourne’s groom or stablehands were.)
Things look bad WRT Lennox not paying the tradespeople of Sanditon. But Tom was so busy seeing him and his soldiers as saviours that he didn’t want to hear it and then Lennox was encouraging him to gamble again (uh-oh) and predictably lose, so Tom could hardly raise other people’s demands. Should have taken Mary along, well, realistically, Arthur. (I don’t blame Lady D and Eliza for keeping the purse strings tight.)
As for Mary, I cheered when she made the obvious Artist = Impecunious point. I had a bit of a kneejerk ‘no, you shouldn’t be drawing people without their consent’ response, which is more to do with recent news stories of using women’s images without their consent than anything. I suppose it is improper for Georgiana to go to the Artist’s place or to sit for him unchaperoned, but Sanditon forgets those social rules so often it was a bit rich for the ladies to react as if the portrait were a nude or something. Anyway, Georgiana over-reacted and he took the way she did so as a sign that she had Feelings for him. Poke me when I should care about what’s going on between them.
Back to Charlotte, I liked that there was an echoing of Charlotte breakfasting with the Parkers (a real family) in her getting the Colbourne-Markhams to picnic together. She got to do her heroine thing: obviously, she would be the first to volunteer to go up in the balloon, and coped with it better than Lennox. But Colbourne got to see her horse-whispering skills too and be impressed by them. He really does find it easier to show affection to that horse than his girls. Can Charlotte be a people-whisperer in the same vein? (Rhetorical question.) She also got to ask two people about their (dead) mothers.
I imagine the soldiers boxing just made some fans miss Sidney again. I’ve learned that some shippers are verklempt at killing off ‘one of Jane Austen’s heroes’, but I think I worked through my strong feelings when they had ‘one of Jane’ Austen’s heroes as written in Andrew Davies’s filmed fanfiction’ marry someone else at the end of the first series.
[Edited for typos 29/1/25.]
A pertinent point that I didn’t discuss from the previous episode is that Augusta is 18, so no wonder she’s frustrated at being kept in the schoolroom. On the other hand, as her behaviour is more like a snotty fifteen or sixteen-year-old’s, it’s understandable not to let her loose on society yet. (Would love to see her rudeness meet Lady D/Esther/Georgiana’s, though. Preferably Lady Denham’s.)
Anyway, this episode mainly revolved around this midsummer fete that wasn’t important enough to show ‘last year’/in the previous season. Let’s pretend that Charlotte hadn’t reached Sanditon for it.
My favourite thing this episode? Esther being so rude to Clara and dragging her up the stairs as she went into TV drama labour. The moment where Esther had to turn on a dime and show her anguish at assisting a woman she despises to give birth was not the best bit of writing, but anyway. I felt for Esther seeing herself holding this baby, Esther who is capable of love in a way that Clara seems not to be. (Don’t try to make me feel sorry for Clara in that it’s post-partum depression, show, let’s just put it down to her being a calculating ‘un.)
Edward had a point, she could have slept around after him, but in all probability the kid’s his. I watched this episode on the laptop and realised he’s got a moustache now. Um. I couldn’t see which letter Forehead filched, but it’s probably for no good reason. Shame that Lady Denham’s footman, who was around to hear all about the illegitimate child scandal, wasn’t present then. Probably gossiping in the kitchen. Eshter was quite right not to trust Clara. I suppose Dr Fookes’s will be a placebo but just so that she stops taking the poison leaves.
Hero of the episode? Arthur and his ballast, as he caught the rope more by accident than design and rescued the balloon. As the soldiers failed to hold on to the rope, I rather worried about leaving the defence of the realm to this lot.
Well, Captain I Still Don’t Know What to Make of that Accent (Fraser) seems all right, even if he’s playing Cyrano de Bergerac on all fronts. Actually funny line: Captain Himbo (Carter) not understanding why poetry would help his colleague go to war. The latter was so desperate to impress Alison he lied and lied, and even if she’s still a ninny, as Fraser said, she deserves better than that. I mean, it’s only been months, if Charlotte is still grieving for Sidney, doesn’t that say something about the depth of her feelings, which is the price of the love that Alison thinks she’s feeling? I also thought Alison managed to avoid some obvious dot joining, because another way Fraser was being Cyrano was picking flowers for Lennox to bestow on Charlotte right in front of her – a salient point she didn’t mention when she gushed over Captain Lennox’s flowers.
Anyway, Charlotte was pausing over the cornflower. Admittedly, Colbourne didn’t pick it, Leonora did, but Charlotte knew as much and it was a nice moment because she’d said it was her favourite flower. I thought they played the beat after beautifully.
Colbourne obviously has a penchant for ladies who know their classics. (Even if they don’t know their French or botany so well, or the whereabouts of their pupils.) But I can see why Augusta is aggrieved at the ability of their governess, but the girl clearly needs to learn to be kind and well-meaning, even if it all stems from what she feels is rejection and a complicated family history. With Leo, who is also craving paternal attention, it seems more straightforward, give or take the gender issues.
So, we learned that Augusta’s mother was Lucy Colbourne’s twin, and there were intimations that Lucy was unhappy. Colbourne seems to be blaming himself for her death/the situation, and Lennox implied some Bad Stuff went down. On the one hand, he must be gutted because once again Colbourne is his rival for the attentions of the woman he fancies (although I don’t think Colbourne has processed his attraction to his governess) but I think I’m the injured party here, as my exact words were ‘Are you Wickhaming me?’ I thought they were before with Lennox dropping hints about Colbourne, but definitely this time. Claiming Colbourne stole Lucy is pretty strong (maybe she noticed the whole not paying your debts thing! I’m not just being pecuniary, there; it is selfish and puts others in a financial bind. Having said that, I did wonder where Colbourne’s groom or stablehands were.)
Things look bad WRT Lennox not paying the tradespeople of Sanditon. But Tom was so busy seeing him and his soldiers as saviours that he didn’t want to hear it and then Lennox was encouraging him to gamble again (uh-oh) and predictably lose, so Tom could hardly raise other people’s demands. Should have taken Mary along, well, realistically, Arthur. (I don’t blame Lady D and Eliza for keeping the purse strings tight.)
As for Mary, I cheered when she made the obvious Artist = Impecunious point. I had a bit of a kneejerk ‘no, you shouldn’t be drawing people without their consent’ response, which is more to do with recent news stories of using women’s images without their consent than anything. I suppose it is improper for Georgiana to go to the Artist’s place or to sit for him unchaperoned, but Sanditon forgets those social rules so often it was a bit rich for the ladies to react as if the portrait were a nude or something. Anyway, Georgiana over-reacted and he took the way she did so as a sign that she had Feelings for him. Poke me when I should care about what’s going on between them.
Back to Charlotte, I liked that there was an echoing of Charlotte breakfasting with the Parkers (a real family) in her getting the Colbourne-Markhams to picnic together. She got to do her heroine thing: obviously, she would be the first to volunteer to go up in the balloon, and coped with it better than Lennox. But Colbourne got to see her horse-whispering skills too and be impressed by them. He really does find it easier to show affection to that horse than his girls. Can Charlotte be a people-whisperer in the same vein? (Rhetorical question.) She also got to ask two people about their (dead) mothers.
I imagine the soldiers boxing just made some fans miss Sidney again. I’ve learned that some shippers are verklempt at killing off ‘one of Jane Austen’s heroes’, but I think I worked through my strong feelings when they had ‘one of Jane’ Austen’s heroes as written in Andrew Davies’s filmed fanfiction’ marry someone else at the end of the first series.
[Edited for typos 29/1/25.]
no subject
Date: 2022-08-09 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-10 09:35 am (UTC)That's fair enough.
which, from your reviews, has very little to do with Jane Austen.
Increasinly less, apart from nicking some character touches or plotlines.
My fic has always been more sympathetic towards Sidney than I was as a viewer. It's...enlightenng to get feedback from more hardcore Sidlotte shippers to my fic responding to what happened atthe start of the second series.