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shallownessMy Lady Jane - 1.1 Who’ll Be the Next In Line?
Entertaining, but I have some quibbles. So, it’s like Catherine, Called Birdy (only swearier) and Six (only without the musical numbers), possibly on steroids, and the Lady Jane is Lady Jane Grey who was briefly on the English throne. Let’s call it a feminist alt-history romp with shapeshifters. (They could have leaned in more to the shapeshifters of it all for me, but there’s time.) The shapeshifters are called the Ethians, humans the Verities, and they treat the Ethians a bit like those suspected of witchcraft around then (less gendered, tho). It may be a commentary on the Protestant v. Catholic tensions of the day which are not mentioned at all.
There is not quite race-blind casting. Totally race-blind casting nearly always distracts me into creating elaborate backstories as to why X, Y and Z are related. As it was, my thought process was ‘Jane and Edward are cousins, huh? Huh? Oh, well, shapeshifters.’ And then Elizabeth was black or mixed race, which mollified me a bit, except honestly? I associate Elizabeth I with red hair, so… But, you know, shapeshifters!
Subtle it is not. The blunt putdowns smart, naïve, spirited Jane constantly gets because she is a young woman do have the effect of making her sympathetic. The court plotting was not the most interesting bit. The cast is pretty good – the actress playing Jane is likeable. Sadly for me, the actor playing Guildford reminds me just a bit of someone I know, which is going to be a mental obstacle. But Rob Brydon shows them all up, because his timing is impeccable and he steals all his scenes, yes, even those involving the mighty Anna Chancellor playing an Evil Scheming Mum with relish. I’m not entirely convinced that Dominic Cooper can do comedy.
But I did not warm to the voice-over. Why is it a bloke given the strong feminist POV? WHY? And having a female act cover ‘Rebel, Rebel’ feels a bit cliché, not to mention old hat for the target audience. Not that I’m quite in that demographic. I could have done with fewer night-time scenes, but it’s not taking itself too seriously (good, because it certainly highlights the gaps in my knowledge of this era, and I thought the Tudor kings and queens were one of my stronger points.)
Entertaining, but I have some quibbles. So, it’s like Catherine, Called Birdy (only swearier) and Six (only without the musical numbers), possibly on steroids, and the Lady Jane is Lady Jane Grey who was briefly on the English throne. Let’s call it a feminist alt-history romp with shapeshifters. (They could have leaned in more to the shapeshifters of it all for me, but there’s time.) The shapeshifters are called the Ethians, humans the Verities, and they treat the Ethians a bit like those suspected of witchcraft around then (less gendered, tho). It may be a commentary on the Protestant v. Catholic tensions of the day which are not mentioned at all.
There is not quite race-blind casting. Totally race-blind casting nearly always distracts me into creating elaborate backstories as to why X, Y and Z are related. As it was, my thought process was ‘Jane and Edward are cousins, huh? Huh? Oh, well, shapeshifters.’ And then Elizabeth was black or mixed race, which mollified me a bit, except honestly? I associate Elizabeth I with red hair, so… But, you know, shapeshifters!
Subtle it is not. The blunt putdowns smart, naïve, spirited Jane constantly gets because she is a young woman do have the effect of making her sympathetic. The court plotting was not the most interesting bit. The cast is pretty good – the actress playing Jane is likeable. Sadly for me, the actor playing Guildford reminds me just a bit of someone I know, which is going to be a mental obstacle. But Rob Brydon shows them all up, because his timing is impeccable and he steals all his scenes, yes, even those involving the mighty Anna Chancellor playing an Evil Scheming Mum with relish. I’m not entirely convinced that Dominic Cooper can do comedy.
But I did not warm to the voice-over. Why is it a bloke given the strong feminist POV? WHY? And having a female act cover ‘Rebel, Rebel’ feels a bit cliché, not to mention old hat for the target audience. Not that I’m quite in that demographic. I could have done with fewer night-time scenes, but it’s not taking itself too seriously (good, because it certainly highlights the gaps in my knowledge of this era, and I thought the Tudor kings and queens were one of my stronger points.)
