Sanditon 3.4
Sep. 14th, 2023 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessEvent of the episode: Tom and Mary’s party for Georgiana (as designed by Georgiana so…there were fire eaters.) Properly good Austen adaptation I was reminded of: Emma Thompson’s of Sense and Sensibility, as Samuel and Leo decided to reprise Edward and Margaret’s mock fights to entertain Augusta/themselves. It was all very cute until he went ‘cut’ at the end, and I don’t know if it was in the script or the author’s improvisation, but this is meant to be happening several decades before films started being shot. Oops. I know this show is full of anachronisms and they write characters’ dilemmas with a twenty-first century perspective, but that one jumped out at me. Also, it is always this show’s fate to reprise something seen elsewhere, but less well…
At the start of the ep, we were reminded how many characters were not in harmony. Charlotte was still avoiding going home, although she was meant to be getting married in a fortnight. Tom was still angry with Mary and likewise, Arthur seemed unhappy with the Duke after last week’s revelation, Charlotte was worried that Georgiana’s response to the case was to drink lots of champagne with the Duke’s Bath friends and make scenes. Oh, and Augusta was fancying herself Juliet like the teenager she is, and Edward…was still around. Huh.
The writers decided that Arthur decided he was gay and that the Duke was his type too. Okay, then. I muttered feebly about ‘But you went to an all-boys boarding school’ in response to this self-discovery. I also think Arthur could find a better person, but the actors were good in this scene.
And then there was a whole bit where the Duke was not as discreet as he thinks he his (Arthur was notably terrible at hiding his mood; it’s just that most people were so caught up in their own drama that they never noticed.) So his mother Lady Under My Thumb had a word. I only claim to have a better grasp of history than the Sanditon writers, but I don’t think they ever executed a Duke for homosexuality in England. (Maybe the writers should have stuck to the classes Austen wrote about.) Anyway, she blackmailed him into doing what she wanted and, for maximum drama, he couldn’t even warn Arthur that their trip was off. Georgiana, despite Charlotte’s pointed questions about whether this would make her happy, had decided that getting married and titled would solve all her issues, what with Samuel telling her that no, he wasn’t going to drag the papers into the court. This made me rather worry that Arthur would have killed himself by the end of the episode/series.
One of the most moving parts of the episode came when Miss Simpkins refused to dance with Dr Fuchs, making it pretty clear that she hated doing it, but had to because of her brother. (Oh, honey, I hope that after his comeuppance due to Edward not having changed at all, he will get over himself and let you have your belated happiness with a scientist. In German.) Fuchs having been clueless enough to mention their correspondence in front of her brother, because he didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.
Samuel and Lady Susan seem to be on the verge of being too knowing and worldly-wise for their own good. Which is to say I loved the carriage racing, and they would be a lovely couple.
I loved Lady D refusing Mr Price out of hand. As he’d stood her up, it probably did him good to be informed that she didn’t see his companionship and fun as enough to make her give up her fortune, title and position. He asked again, and they were having fun (in fact, if she’d been less distracted, she might have noticed Edward was up to something) so she said yes.
Tom continued to be a petty little prideful bully in the wrong, making it very easy to cheer Mary on as she fought against his plans and stood up to him to his face.
Xander had a lot to put up with. This is not to say I endorse most of his handling of Augusta (it was terrible, and I am disappointed in Samuel who could tell that it was terrible and did nothing about it.) But Charlotte had rejected him again but was still hanging around.
At least she finally admitted to Georgiana what the state of her feelings were. Despite all the champagne in her system, Georgiana was clear eyed enough to challenge Charlotte. I still don’t buy the reluctance to break her engagement, but I’d have respected Charlotte more if she’d stopped moping and using other people’s crises as an excuse. Serve her right that Ralph turned up, and seemed to have such a terrible EQ.
Thanks to Mary’s nerves and his determination, they ended up interrupting the Colbournes’ teaparty and making it very awkward. (It seemed like Xander had invited Mary and forgot he’d invited Lady Lydia at the same time, so for all his talk about facing the future, she still hasn’t made much of a dent on him. As ever, I wonder where her self-respect is? She claimed to her brother she took small victories over her mother, but apart from a few barbs and rolled eyes, I can’t see any.) Lydia’s mother was pretty ghastly, I count her as ‘future mother-in-law’ as one of the things Xander had to suffer this episode. There was also Ralph trying to get him to commiserate with Ralph’s chip on the shoulder about him and Charlotte being out of place in Sanditon. That’s Ralph the fiancée who was trying to dictate how Charlotte should feel.
Ooh, that’s bitchy. I do recognise that among the EQ terribleness, Ralph has realised that Charlotte is miserable, even if he won’t face why (like, he was acting like he hadn’t heard Georgiana say pretty plainly she was in love with someone else. But he must have.)
Charlotte and Xander had a very, very stiff dance, and their last encounter was about the other big plotline.
Like I said, I was surprised that Edward was still around, disgusted by the content of his letters (but I’m not Augusta) and then super disgusted that he used Leo as a messenger. At that point, he called her Colonel Colbourne, and I’m not sure if the writers meant that as a shoutout to her birth father or not. But it was fairly clear that we weren’t going for a redemption arc for him, especially when Edward basically seduced Augusta with touch when he started proposing elopement.
And she badly needed some feminine advice and turned to Charlotte, who was coming from A Certain Emotional Place. On the one hand, she respected Colbourne’s judgement and never knew who Augusta was claiming to be in love with. As far as Charlotte was concerned, he could have been an extra! (When she found out it was Forehead, it was pretty clear she’d have said something different.) And the second time, when Augusta realised Edward meant eloping that night, with no goodbyes to Leo or anyone, nothing like the honourable courtship, engagement and marriage she’d been expecting, Charlotte was too consumed in her own feelings to recognise where Augusta was coming from. What strikes me is that if she had said yes to Colbourne last episode and been in their lives, she’d have known it was Edward and been better able to advise Colbourne on how to handle Augusta and put her off the match. As it is, she’s made exactly the same mistakes with Augusta as she did with Georgiana in season 1.
We’re left somewhere slightly different to where I thought initially, because after some reflection, I realised that Charlotte doesn’t know all that much, although her instinct is going to be to use this mess to put off going all for her marriage.
At the start of the ep, we were reminded how many characters were not in harmony. Charlotte was still avoiding going home, although she was meant to be getting married in a fortnight. Tom was still angry with Mary and likewise, Arthur seemed unhappy with the Duke after last week’s revelation, Charlotte was worried that Georgiana’s response to the case was to drink lots of champagne with the Duke’s Bath friends and make scenes. Oh, and Augusta was fancying herself Juliet like the teenager she is, and Edward…was still around. Huh.
The writers decided that Arthur decided he was gay and that the Duke was his type too. Okay, then. I muttered feebly about ‘But you went to an all-boys boarding school’ in response to this self-discovery. I also think Arthur could find a better person, but the actors were good in this scene.
And then there was a whole bit where the Duke was not as discreet as he thinks he his (Arthur was notably terrible at hiding his mood; it’s just that most people were so caught up in their own drama that they never noticed.) So his mother Lady Under My Thumb had a word. I only claim to have a better grasp of history than the Sanditon writers, but I don’t think they ever executed a Duke for homosexuality in England. (Maybe the writers should have stuck to the classes Austen wrote about.) Anyway, she blackmailed him into doing what she wanted and, for maximum drama, he couldn’t even warn Arthur that their trip was off. Georgiana, despite Charlotte’s pointed questions about whether this would make her happy, had decided that getting married and titled would solve all her issues, what with Samuel telling her that no, he wasn’t going to drag the papers into the court. This made me rather worry that Arthur would have killed himself by the end of the episode/series.
One of the most moving parts of the episode came when Miss Simpkins refused to dance with Dr Fuchs, making it pretty clear that she hated doing it, but had to because of her brother. (Oh, honey, I hope that after his comeuppance due to Edward not having changed at all, he will get over himself and let you have your belated happiness with a scientist. In German.) Fuchs having been clueless enough to mention their correspondence in front of her brother, because he didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.
Samuel and Lady Susan seem to be on the verge of being too knowing and worldly-wise for their own good. Which is to say I loved the carriage racing, and they would be a lovely couple.
I loved Lady D refusing Mr Price out of hand. As he’d stood her up, it probably did him good to be informed that she didn’t see his companionship and fun as enough to make her give up her fortune, title and position. He asked again, and they were having fun (in fact, if she’d been less distracted, she might have noticed Edward was up to something) so she said yes.
Tom continued to be a petty little prideful bully in the wrong, making it very easy to cheer Mary on as she fought against his plans and stood up to him to his face.
Xander had a lot to put up with. This is not to say I endorse most of his handling of Augusta (it was terrible, and I am disappointed in Samuel who could tell that it was terrible and did nothing about it.) But Charlotte had rejected him again but was still hanging around.
At least she finally admitted to Georgiana what the state of her feelings were. Despite all the champagne in her system, Georgiana was clear eyed enough to challenge Charlotte. I still don’t buy the reluctance to break her engagement, but I’d have respected Charlotte more if she’d stopped moping and using other people’s crises as an excuse. Serve her right that Ralph turned up, and seemed to have such a terrible EQ.
Thanks to Mary’s nerves and his determination, they ended up interrupting the Colbournes’ teaparty and making it very awkward. (It seemed like Xander had invited Mary and forgot he’d invited Lady Lydia at the same time, so for all his talk about facing the future, she still hasn’t made much of a dent on him. As ever, I wonder where her self-respect is? She claimed to her brother she took small victories over her mother, but apart from a few barbs and rolled eyes, I can’t see any.) Lydia’s mother was pretty ghastly, I count her as ‘future mother-in-law’ as one of the things Xander had to suffer this episode. There was also Ralph trying to get him to commiserate with Ralph’s chip on the shoulder about him and Charlotte being out of place in Sanditon. That’s Ralph the fiancée who was trying to dictate how Charlotte should feel.
Ooh, that’s bitchy. I do recognise that among the EQ terribleness, Ralph has realised that Charlotte is miserable, even if he won’t face why (like, he was acting like he hadn’t heard Georgiana say pretty plainly she was in love with someone else. But he must have.)
Charlotte and Xander had a very, very stiff dance, and their last encounter was about the other big plotline.
Like I said, I was surprised that Edward was still around, disgusted by the content of his letters (but I’m not Augusta) and then super disgusted that he used Leo as a messenger. At that point, he called her Colonel Colbourne, and I’m not sure if the writers meant that as a shoutout to her birth father or not. But it was fairly clear that we weren’t going for a redemption arc for him, especially when Edward basically seduced Augusta with touch when he started proposing elopement.
And she badly needed some feminine advice and turned to Charlotte, who was coming from A Certain Emotional Place. On the one hand, she respected Colbourne’s judgement and never knew who Augusta was claiming to be in love with. As far as Charlotte was concerned, he could have been an extra! (When she found out it was Forehead, it was pretty clear she’d have said something different.) And the second time, when Augusta realised Edward meant eloping that night, with no goodbyes to Leo or anyone, nothing like the honourable courtship, engagement and marriage she’d been expecting, Charlotte was too consumed in her own feelings to recognise where Augusta was coming from. What strikes me is that if she had said yes to Colbourne last episode and been in their lives, she’d have known it was Edward and been better able to advise Colbourne on how to handle Augusta and put her off the match. As it is, she’s made exactly the same mistakes with Augusta as she did with Georgiana in season 1.
We’re left somewhere slightly different to where I thought initially, because after some reflection, I realised that Charlotte doesn’t know all that much, although her instinct is going to be to use this mess to put off going all for her marriage.
