(no subject)

[srin]

Lot's hurr-hurr-let-me-assert-my-dominance crap: not cool! Not cool at all! Skeevy as fuck, in fact, and as a result I am really not upset at all about him being dead. Kind of a shame, he seemed the fun sort of evil in the first episode, but I really can't deal with that sort of stuff so it's just as well he won't be around any more to do it again.

Merlin's look-at-me-I'm-so-mysterious shtick: still sort of annoying, would appreciate flashbacks or something to give some indication of what his deal really is.

Guinevere wandering out of the sea onto the beach: Really show? Really? We had to have her Bond-girling up so Arthur could flirt ten minutes after burying his mother? She's pretty and I liked that her initial reaction to him was to get the knife out rather than to swoon, but I don't know, there's something about her face that looks too modern to me, so it feels like she doesn't really belong in that world and that's distracting.

Sword thing was interesting, though I spent pretty much that entire scene going 'And how exactly do you think he's going to get DOWN with a bloody big sword in his hand?' which was possibly not quite the sort of tension they were going for. Was thoroughly unsurprised when he fell and not entirely convinced that he shouldn't be dead landing on his back from that height, but meh. (These things might be less bothersome to people who haven't spent a lot of time working on ladders and being concerned with rigging safety and so forth.)

Pretty scenery is still pretty, Eva Green is still hot, gratuitous boobs were gratuitous but I, uh, can't really complain. Am not sure what season it's meant to be what with the ladies running around in those nice light shoulderless gowns while the dudes are all with the many layers and leather and fur capes and such.


So very pretty! Gorgeous costumes, gorgeous scenery & set dressing.

I kind of love Cesare and Lucrezia together - not in an incesty way, (not that I would be surprised if that happens too,) but the playfulness and affection between them was lovely, and makes me like him even though he's not really that much less evil than his father. (Although he's quite pretty, so for now I will justify my affection for him on the grounds that he's doing it for his family rather than totally selfish ambition.) Liked Lucrezia and Giulia together as well - I hope they continue to be friends and don't start plotting against each other. Although given the nature of the show plotting is probably sort of inevitable. Still, I hope the friendship persists at least until Lucrezia's old enough for me to feel like it's not creepy to ship them. /o\ Enjoyed Lucrezia in general - Holly Grainger played her youth really nicely, but I can definitely see the potential for her to grow up, too.

Gotta love the spot-the-British-actors game; took an immediate dislike to the younger Borgia son, and realized about halfway through that that's probably because it's the same actor who played Sarah Parish's skeezy horrible rapist son in Pillars of the Earth. I couldn't place the servant girl who was going to provide evidence of lechery even though her voice was incredibly familiar; IMDB reveals that it was Shaz from Ashes to Ashes, and aww, now I feel bad for not really liking her either. Cardinal The Master trying
to kill Pope Vetinari was sort of great. Pope Vetinari needs a terrier called Wuffles, though. Della Rovere was apparently on Slings & Arrows, which explains why he looked familiar, though I can't recall anything about his character in that one.

If there's a fandom, I suspect it will be writing a lot of porn about Cesare and the assassin guy, I think his name was Micheletto? Kinky dungeon sex, etc. Assassin guy was a little too creepy for me, but we'll see. I'm curious about the girl Cesare was with at the beginning, whether she was just a Random Chick or whether she'll be back.

And the comically corrupt papacy is always good fun. Especially when they're checking on the new pope's balls.

If these first episodes of each are anything to go by, I think I'm going to enjoy The Borgias more than Camelot, because a) it seems very up front about the fact that basically everyone's a bastard of one sort or another, and isn't going to expect me to root for one team of them just because it told me to, and b) the women seem more interesting and less likely to fall into the usual stereotypes.