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shallownessI managed to restrain myself enough to watch these on different nights.
My Lady Jane - 1.4 Bluebird Is Dead
I was amused by their changing the title to ‘My Queen Jane’ (wonder how many republicans reflexively retorted ‘not my queen’.)
This could have been entitled Lady Jane Grey Investigates, and frankly (not that this show is aiming for believability, especially) I couldn’t quite believe that Jane would be allowed to go investigating alone so much e.g. at night in the north turret, when everyone thought the last monarch had died.
Best use of anachronistic music on this show by a mile? The blond Dudley serenading Lady Frances with ‘Nights In White Satin’ on a lute.
It turns out that Margaret is actually the most dangerous of them all. Future spymaster?
Mary continued to be a psycho and decided to take offing Jane into ‘her own hands’ i.e. she tried to outsource it to an innocent Bess at first. Fortunately, Bess listened to her instinct telling her there was something off. Bess learned that Petunia was an Ethian and had been helping Edward.
As for the big twist that Edward was still alive, it wasn’t very.
By now, I’m rooting for Jane/Guildford, so I noted the good husbanding when he caught her when she fainted. They evidently shared a moment - vulnerability/sensitivity, and are now at the snogging desperately until one of them pulls back stage. Dudley dangled a ‘try to get Jane to make you king’ at Guildford, who didn’t act on it. Apart from the moral qualms, (although I’m not convinced that undercutting her would be an issue for him, still), there’s a slight problem: Guildford turns into a horse during daylight. Seymour nearly found that out, but was too thick to make the connection, Mary nearly found out but got waylaid by choking Jane (presumably not to death) and Lady Frances found out, which can’t be good, although I don’t know that she’ll out him immediately because that would mean her death and losing her position. (Jane didn’t seem to realise that she could wield her sovereign power and banish her mother.) But I can ship a couple that investigates together and is bound by the desire to have the last word, so I was pleased to see that both Jane and Guildford seemed disappointed that he couldn’t hang around her in human form in daylight.
1.5 I’m Gonna Change the World
Jane survived, and we learned that Edward was now under the care of some nuns – we didn’t learn how he’d got from the turret window to this convent, but whatevs. And not just any nuns, they were led by his grandmother, Margaret Beaufort, AKA the grannie Petunia had been trying to get him to (which made me more suspicious of their motives.) Turned out Granny was an Ethian too (a tortoise), but some guy called Fitz (no idea what his deal is, but he turned into a cat, and we can at least say there may be various factions among the Ethians) tried to get Edward to run away with him. He was vague about why but did make warnings about the nuns that Edward (over)confidently brushed off. But they were essentially keeping him prisoner.
Granny explained that he too was an Ethian (in a bit that didn’t make sense when it came to Henry VIII) and they were going to get him to transform and be the first Ethian king.
Margaret and Seymour started hanging out – I DO NOT APPROVE! There were sword lessons, there was bitching about Lady Frances and Margaret inadvertently gave Seymour warning about Jane’s latest move to prove Mary was plotting to/had assassinated Edward. He used it to get back on Mary’s good side (and save their necks), after she’d ditched him for some other lord who could call up an army for her. Despite all the investigating, nobody at court was asking where Bess was (kidnapped by Seymour to protect Mary.) Jane continued to be allowed to roam around freely, managing to avoid her mother’s attempts to see her and tell her Guildford was an Ethian. When she did, Jane told her she didn’t care.
Jane and Guildford finally got it on. He was also impressed by her move to goad Mary into attacking her in public. It didn’t quite work, but the joke about the English hating a scene and it being social suicide worked. But there was a new source of angst for them, because Jane hadn’t told him immediately that she’d now been convinced there was no cure. (And she seemed to love him for all of who he was, as well as accepting a whole host of new ideas about Ethians.) If the ginger Ethian isn’t trying to take advantage of self-loathing Guildford by claiming he knows a cure, then I haven’t been watching telly for decades
So, given the revelation that Anne Boleyn was an Ethian and that that was why Mary hated them, Ethians are like Protestants? Except it’s all bring your own metaphor. (Also IS is hereditary, and COULD both Henry and Anne have been Ethians? What does that mean for Bess? I’m not convinced by what we’ve seen so far that this shapeshifting mythology is thought out.) For me, I’ve been thinking X-Men and thinking surely Guildford could learn to control his powers if he had a proper talk with Professor X—an Ethian. Of course, what Grannie was saying suggested that that theory might not work either.
My Lady Jane - 1.4 Bluebird Is Dead
I was amused by their changing the title to ‘My Queen Jane’ (wonder how many republicans reflexively retorted ‘not my queen’.)
This could have been entitled Lady Jane Grey Investigates, and frankly (not that this show is aiming for believability, especially) I couldn’t quite believe that Jane would be allowed to go investigating alone so much e.g. at night in the north turret, when everyone thought the last monarch had died.
Best use of anachronistic music on this show by a mile? The blond Dudley serenading Lady Frances with ‘Nights In White Satin’ on a lute.
It turns out that Margaret is actually the most dangerous of them all. Future spymaster?
Mary continued to be a psycho and decided to take offing Jane into ‘her own hands’ i.e. she tried to outsource it to an innocent Bess at first. Fortunately, Bess listened to her instinct telling her there was something off. Bess learned that Petunia was an Ethian and had been helping Edward.
As for the big twist that Edward was still alive, it wasn’t very.
By now, I’m rooting for Jane/Guildford, so I noted the good husbanding when he caught her when she fainted. They evidently shared a moment - vulnerability/sensitivity, and are now at the snogging desperately until one of them pulls back stage. Dudley dangled a ‘try to get Jane to make you king’ at Guildford, who didn’t act on it. Apart from the moral qualms, (although I’m not convinced that undercutting her would be an issue for him, still), there’s a slight problem: Guildford turns into a horse during daylight. Seymour nearly found that out, but was too thick to make the connection, Mary nearly found out but got waylaid by choking Jane (presumably not to death) and Lady Frances found out, which can’t be good, although I don’t know that she’ll out him immediately because that would mean her death and losing her position. (Jane didn’t seem to realise that she could wield her sovereign power and banish her mother.) But I can ship a couple that investigates together and is bound by the desire to have the last word, so I was pleased to see that both Jane and Guildford seemed disappointed that he couldn’t hang around her in human form in daylight.
1.5 I’m Gonna Change the World
Jane survived, and we learned that Edward was now under the care of some nuns – we didn’t learn how he’d got from the turret window to this convent, but whatevs. And not just any nuns, they were led by his grandmother, Margaret Beaufort, AKA the grannie Petunia had been trying to get him to (which made me more suspicious of their motives.) Turned out Granny was an Ethian too (a tortoise), but some guy called Fitz (no idea what his deal is, but he turned into a cat, and we can at least say there may be various factions among the Ethians) tried to get Edward to run away with him. He was vague about why but did make warnings about the nuns that Edward (over)confidently brushed off. But they were essentially keeping him prisoner.
Granny explained that he too was an Ethian (in a bit that didn’t make sense when it came to Henry VIII) and they were going to get him to transform and be the first Ethian king.
Margaret and Seymour started hanging out – I DO NOT APPROVE! There were sword lessons, there was bitching about Lady Frances and Margaret inadvertently gave Seymour warning about Jane’s latest move to prove Mary was plotting to/had assassinated Edward. He used it to get back on Mary’s good side (and save their necks), after she’d ditched him for some other lord who could call up an army for her. Despite all the investigating, nobody at court was asking where Bess was (kidnapped by Seymour to protect Mary.) Jane continued to be allowed to roam around freely, managing to avoid her mother’s attempts to see her and tell her Guildford was an Ethian. When she did, Jane told her she didn’t care.
Jane and Guildford finally got it on. He was also impressed by her move to goad Mary into attacking her in public. It didn’t quite work, but the joke about the English hating a scene and it being social suicide worked. But there was a new source of angst for them, because Jane hadn’t told him immediately that she’d now been convinced there was no cure. (And she seemed to love him for all of who he was, as well as accepting a whole host of new ideas about Ethians.) If the ginger Ethian isn’t trying to take advantage of self-loathing Guildford by claiming he knows a cure, then I haven’t been watching telly for decades
So, given the revelation that Anne Boleyn was an Ethian and that that was why Mary hated them, Ethians are like Protestants? Except it’s all bring your own metaphor. (Also IS is hereditary, and COULD both Henry and Anne have been Ethians? What does that mean for Bess? I’m not convinced by what we’ve seen so far that this shapeshifting mythology is thought out.) For me, I’ve been thinking X-Men and thinking surely Guildford could learn to control his powers if he had a proper talk with Professor X—an Ethian. Of course, what Grannie was saying suggested that that theory might not work either.
