War and Peace BBC - Ep 6
SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY
So…this is the Everyone Dies episode. A few comments:
I liked how they did Andrei’s death scene. It was touching with the flashbacks and well-paced (for once something was well-paced in this show).
Platon Karataev’s death was kind of sudden. You could see it a mile away in the book and there was a lot more of him.
(Aside: Sonya in her letter: “I release you from out engagement.” Nikolai: “Oh thank God.” Fuck you, Nikolai, you are such a fucking dick.)
French camp espionage! I liked that they put in Petya’s raisons and that they included this bit in general. But so much of the partisan camp is seen through Petya’s POV in canon and he goes through a range of fascinating emotions over that night, none of which we really get here: neither the incredible tension at the French camp nor Petya’s dreamy, almost feverish, romanticism during the night. I’m kind of disappointed that they didn’t put in Denisov’s and Dolokhov’s argument over what to do with the prisoners. (Also, seriously, come one. Why can Dolokhov and Pierre kiss but not Dolokhov and Petya? “You’re such a hero! I love you!” - like, come on :p)
Speaking of Pierre. I think I’ve figured out what keeps bugging me in his interactions with Dolokhov. The show seems to be going for the “these guys are such great buddies who had a falling out because Dolokhov was a dick!” It’s funny because it was Pierre and Anatole who were the friends whose friendship soured. Dolokhov was always kind of…contemptuous of Pierre. And Pierre was always kind of intimidated by him. They shared a friendship group, so to speak, but that’s about it. This goes hand-in-hand with how the show doesn’t seem to realize that “Petrushka” isn’t Pierre’s cutesy nickname. Dolokhov calls him this at the club (where Pierre challenges him) to be annoying and patronizing and a dick. I mean, the nickname itself has a bit of a tone of teasing at best and patronizing-contempt at worst.
What is Dolokhov doing at Count Rostov’s funeral? (Like, this is just kind of weird. Even in-universe for the show. Seriously, why is he there? Lol.)
Ok. I hate how they went all Anna Karenina with Helene. OMG she is not Anna Karenina. Seriously. Helene was actually at the peak of her social success before she died. Society was shocked by her death. The whole thing with Helene was that she was very good at manipulating popular opinion and gossip, etc. She knew how to play by society’s rules and she always did so. (Anna’s problem was that she did not, she allowed her passion to make her vulnerable. Helene never did that.) I don’t even have a lot to say about this *shrug* It’s just obviously off.
I understand what they were going for with Pierre and his potatoes but omg, I have to admit that that scene just kind of made me laugh. It just kind of pinged me as a bit ridiculous, IDK. I heard that it was effective for lots of people, though.
(Aside: I love how Nikolai’s definition of “in poverty” is that his mother has to put on her own clothes lol. But, seriously, even though the hallway of their building is really shabby, their actual apartment is actually quite nice, so, like chill Nikolai.)
Nikolai and Marya’s “getting together” scene wasn’t bad. I think the way it was done in the canon is truer to their characterizations (especially Marya’s) but I didn’t hate this version of it. I still don’t understand why they felt it necessary to completely re-write scenes they could have just lifted straight from the canon.
Pierre and Prince Vasili. I’m mildly annoyed at this scene. I understand that they probably didn’t want to leave any “loose ends” and were trying to wrap everything up or something, but… Prince Vasili apologizing to Pierre was so awkward. Just this whole scene smelled of the cliché “and all the bad guys got what’s coming to them and if they’re smart they shall repent!” (And so obviously a Pierre-is-saintly-and-all-forgiving promotion.) And it just felt very OOC for Vasili Kuragin too, lbr.
The one thing that building up Pierre/Natasha from the very beginning does do is it makes them finally getting together a big pay-off. When they kissed, there was definitely this feeling like finally. I don’t even really care about this ship and that scene felt very satisfying.
Epilogue. First of all, I hate how Sonya is just sort of ignored. Like “what, see, she’s there and smiling? What do you mean that’s not a satisfying ending for her? What do you mean you have questions? Look, no one cares, Sonya’s just the background girl.” At least in the book, her tragedy was paid some attention to. In a cruel sort of way (I’m looking at you, Natasha) but it wasn’t just shrugged off. (However, as we see by fandom’s reactions, lots of people apparently did in fact just see Sonya as the background girl.) Secondly…it’s a nice little ending. 2007 was similarly sunny in their epilogue. I don’t really have a problem with this, it’s a good way to kind of tie things up. But there is a bit of dissonance, because in canon there are all these dark-ish undertones going on. Everything is peaceful and content, but something is coming and you can just feel it. Of course, that’s probably because Tolstoy had initially wanted to write about Decembrists and this was supposed to be like his prequel.