Thoughts on Reign Episodes 1-13
I've been binge-watching Reign and I'm halfway through S1. I figure better safe than sorry. I'll spoiler tag my thoughts. Please no spoilers from S1, Ep 14 on.
1. It was a little hard to get used to but I've really come around to the anachronistic style. IMO, setting court in a teen-soap really takes the piss out of the myth of the royals. A gravitas laden Oscar-buzz-worthy period piece or heck, a prestige-drama like Downton Abbey fall into the trap of so intent on being an important work that they make the royals' story more important and meaningful to entire nations. It can obsess about how royals are *stewards* with the weight of the world on their shoulders. For instance, I really like The King's Speech but I thought Inception or The Social Network should have won the Oscar partly because I rolled my eyes at The King's Speech casting one man's struggle to conquer a speech impediment as THE NOBLE BATTLE THAT WON WORLD WAR II FOR CIVILIZATION AND HUGS AND PUPPIES because only a king's self-improvement project can be cast as a noble mission that saved the world.
Thus far, I actually even think that all of the major characters are pretty well-intentioned in their own narrow, limited way (except for Henry). However basically, all of the major characters are pursuing the soap opera of their own leisurely, over-privileged lives but they attach military plans to "who beds whom" because their families are interconnected in an intricate web of "high on their own self-importance."
2. Catherine de Medici (who is by far my favorite character) underscores the faulty and self-interested "divine right of monarchs" theory to supernatural extremes. The supernatural/religion is structured around creating options that consolidates the monarch's power. With utter sincerity and zero self-awareness, Catherine wraps herself in the piety and self-righteousness of Catholicism while taking advantage of the heretic arts to get her the right answers to stay in power.
Catherine repeatedly argued that Mary can't marry Francis because if she does, Francis will die young. OK, Mary's solution to have Bash legitimized so she can marry Bash and thus, spare Francis from the prophecy should have been acceptable to Catherine, if she was solely concerned with Francis's life and not keeping power for herself and her line. I appreciate Catherine's concern that she and her children were targets for murder if Bash was legitimized and made King of France. However, at bottom, Catherine couldn't just demand action to just avert the prophecy. She had to try to kill Mary or kill Bash or try to get Mary to go back with Scotland without an ally to leave the country vulnerable to the English because all of those actions were preferable to an end where Mary just acts to avert the prophecy and the result is less power for Catherine.
It meshes with Nostradamus's function. Nostradamus is Catherine's favorite at court because Nostradamus gives Catherine power. He gives her visions of the future and mystical cachet. His function isn't for his visions to strip Catherine and her sons of their power. Catherine genuinely believes in Nostradamus's visions. However despite her long-suffering attitude, his supernatural visions mesh with her humbrum realworld concerns. His early season prophecies about Mary as a irreversible danger to Francis feeds into Catherine's insecurity about being mother-and-law to a bona fide queen that she can't control and her insecurity about how Mary's become since the age of 6. Classic in-law stuff. Nostradamus's Ep 13 recounting of his visions also serves Catherine's purpose. By that point, Catherine came to trust and appreciate Mary on a human real-world level. Alternatives for Francis like Olivia proved themselves inferior daughters-in-law to Mary. Francis marriage to Mary elevates him back to dauphin and Catherine back to "respected wife and queen" instead of "adulteress on death row". Nostradamus's new vision of Mary as a wonderful wife who will bring peace and heirs comes right when Catherine wants that in the real world.
Now, I think Catherine admirably remains Nostradamus's friend, patron, and believer even as her stock continues to fall in the first half of S1. She only threatens to kill him when he admits that his dynamite of a vision that nearly backfired on Catherine to the tune of a beheading was wrong on Clarissa's "death". Very kind and reasonable by the standards of the time and by Catherine's standards. Yet at the same time, Catherine had the optimism and will to believe that she could scheme her ideal solution to Nostradamus's visions that would entrench her's and her line's power right until Ep. 13 when her execution draws just too nigh and Mary of Guise shames her and shakes Catherine's confidence.
3. Even more than the anachronistic styles, I've struggled a little with the story because, basically, I root for England in all historical intra-European struggles. (England's imperialistic ventures beyond the UK are another story.)
However, Reign underlies my cynicism about France and Scotland relative to England. Mary left Scotland when she was baby. She's never been raised to study Scotland from afar. But yet, she claims domain and total power over Scotland and its people. Mary doesn't even particularly want England and as far as I know, she's never been to England or talked to an English person besides ambassadors. She's only claiming it to get French support and a prince husband to satisfy Henry's lust for power and vengeance against the English. However according to her claim, she believes that she's entitled to rule England. Of course, the history books remember Elizabeth I as SO AWESOMELY ENGLISH because she won and thus, got to solidify England as her own Protestant faith and favor her own favorite artists and knights who became storied parts of English culture. If Elizabeth was assassinated or Mary I followed through on her threat to sentence her to death or a proper and fully-carried-through Spanish and French alliance took over England, it would be Elizabeth Who? or Elizabeth, that heretic. Even still, one could argue that Elizabeth's failure to bring an heir ensured that on her death, a Scottish King actually did get to rule England and unify England and Scotland.
However, the history is that Mary overreached and lost her head, first metaphorically and and then literally. Meanwhile, Elizabeth I was AWESOMELY ENGLAND. It does make sense. A young Elizabeth I may have only consorted with her jailers and England's Movers and Shakers- but at least, she consorted with *English* One Percenters to have English backing to her claim and Elizabeth had some idea of how England functioned.
4. I had a weird thought that TPTB designed Catherine de Medici to be an Older Elizabeth I to give their show this famous feud even though the real Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I do not interact directly in their youth. Here, Mary has a complicated antagonistic but symbiotic, familial relationship with a red-headed queen who is ruthless, a generous patron of the arts, logical and intelligent but superstitious, who supports modern intellectuals and scientists along with soothsayers and astrologists. Catherine, like Elizabeth I, is open-minded in one sense but very taken with particular court favorites at the expense of others or fairness. Catherine and Elizabeth lived their childhood under threat of death/rape and carry serious trauma. They are sensitive and compassionate to be self-aware about what that means to someone but ruthless that they'll still be someone else's torturer and executioner, including Mary's, to hold onto her power. However, despite their ruthless, they torture and kill in a much more targeted way to just extract what they need as opposed some of their family's OTT, indiscriminate violence (see Mary I and Henry VIII and the visiting Medicis in Ep. 11). Some of these traits belong to the real Catherine de Medici but others were played up for the show and IMO, to give Mary her famous Elizabeth I foil in another more intimate, immediate historical figure.
1. It was a little hard to get used to but I've really come around to the anachronistic style. IMO, setting court in a teen-soap really takes the piss out of the myth of the royals. A gravitas laden Oscar-buzz-worthy period piece or heck, a prestige-drama like Downton Abbey fall into the trap of so intent on being an important work that they make the royals' story more important and meaningful to entire nations. It can obsess about how royals are *stewards* with the weight of the world on their shoulders. For instance, I really like The King's Speech but I thought Inception or The Social Network should have won the Oscar partly because I rolled my eyes at The King's Speech casting one man's struggle to conquer a speech impediment as THE NOBLE BATTLE THAT WON WORLD WAR II FOR CIVILIZATION AND HUGS AND PUPPIES because only a king's self-improvement project can be cast as a noble mission that saved the world.
Thus far, I actually even think that all of the major characters are pretty well-intentioned in their own narrow, limited way (except for Henry). However basically, all of the major characters are pursuing the soap opera of their own leisurely, over-privileged lives but they attach military plans to "who beds whom" because their families are interconnected in an intricate web of "high on their own self-importance."
2. Catherine de Medici (who is by far my favorite character) underscores the faulty and self-interested "divine right of monarchs" theory to supernatural extremes. The supernatural/religion is structured around creating options that consolidates the monarch's power. With utter sincerity and zero self-awareness, Catherine wraps herself in the piety and self-righteousness of Catholicism while taking advantage of the heretic arts to get her the right answers to stay in power.
Catherine repeatedly argued that Mary can't marry Francis because if she does, Francis will die young. OK, Mary's solution to have Bash legitimized so she can marry Bash and thus, spare Francis from the prophecy should have been acceptable to Catherine, if she was solely concerned with Francis's life and not keeping power for herself and her line. I appreciate Catherine's concern that she and her children were targets for murder if Bash was legitimized and made King of France. However, at bottom, Catherine couldn't just demand action to just avert the prophecy. She had to try to kill Mary or kill Bash or try to get Mary to go back with Scotland without an ally to leave the country vulnerable to the English because all of those actions were preferable to an end where Mary just acts to avert the prophecy and the result is less power for Catherine.
It meshes with Nostradamus's function. Nostradamus is Catherine's favorite at court because Nostradamus gives Catherine power. He gives her visions of the future and mystical cachet. His function isn't for his visions to strip Catherine and her sons of their power. Catherine genuinely believes in Nostradamus's visions. However despite her long-suffering attitude, his supernatural visions mesh with her humbrum realworld concerns. His early season prophecies about Mary as a irreversible danger to Francis feeds into Catherine's insecurity about being mother-and-law to a bona fide queen that she can't control and her insecurity about how Mary's become since the age of 6. Classic in-law stuff. Nostradamus's Ep 13 recounting of his visions also serves Catherine's purpose. By that point, Catherine came to trust and appreciate Mary on a human real-world level. Alternatives for Francis like Olivia proved themselves inferior daughters-in-law to Mary. Francis marriage to Mary elevates him back to dauphin and Catherine back to "respected wife and queen" instead of "adulteress on death row". Nostradamus's new vision of Mary as a wonderful wife who will bring peace and heirs comes right when Catherine wants that in the real world.
Now, I think Catherine admirably remains Nostradamus's friend, patron, and believer even as her stock continues to fall in the first half of S1. She only threatens to kill him when he admits that his dynamite of a vision that nearly backfired on Catherine to the tune of a beheading was wrong on Clarissa's "death". Very kind and reasonable by the standards of the time and by Catherine's standards. Yet at the same time, Catherine had the optimism and will to believe that she could scheme her ideal solution to Nostradamus's visions that would entrench her's and her line's power right until Ep. 13 when her execution draws just too nigh and Mary of Guise shames her and shakes Catherine's confidence.
3. Even more than the anachronistic styles, I've struggled a little with the story because, basically, I root for England in all historical intra-European struggles. (England's imperialistic ventures beyond the UK are another story.)
However, Reign underlies my cynicism about France and Scotland relative to England. Mary left Scotland when she was baby. She's never been raised to study Scotland from afar. But yet, she claims domain and total power over Scotland and its people. Mary doesn't even particularly want England and as far as I know, she's never been to England or talked to an English person besides ambassadors. She's only claiming it to get French support and a prince husband to satisfy Henry's lust for power and vengeance against the English. However according to her claim, she believes that she's entitled to rule England. Of course, the history books remember Elizabeth I as SO AWESOMELY ENGLISH because she won and thus, got to solidify England as her own Protestant faith and favor her own favorite artists and knights who became storied parts of English culture. If Elizabeth was assassinated or Mary I followed through on her threat to sentence her to death or a proper and fully-carried-through Spanish and French alliance took over England, it would be Elizabeth Who? or Elizabeth, that heretic. Even still, one could argue that Elizabeth's failure to bring an heir ensured that on her death, a Scottish King actually did get to rule England and unify England and Scotland.
However, the history is that Mary overreached and lost her head, first metaphorically and and then literally. Meanwhile, Elizabeth I was AWESOMELY ENGLAND. It does make sense. A young Elizabeth I may have only consorted with her jailers and England's Movers and Shakers- but at least, she consorted with *English* One Percenters to have English backing to her claim and Elizabeth had some idea of how England functioned.
4. I had a weird thought that TPTB designed Catherine de Medici to be an Older Elizabeth I to give their show this famous feud even though the real Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I do not interact directly in their youth. Here, Mary has a complicated antagonistic but symbiotic, familial relationship with a red-headed queen who is ruthless, a generous patron of the arts, logical and intelligent but superstitious, who supports modern intellectuals and scientists along with soothsayers and astrologists. Catherine, like Elizabeth I, is open-minded in one sense but very taken with particular court favorites at the expense of others or fairness. Catherine and Elizabeth lived their childhood under threat of death/rape and carry serious trauma. They are sensitive and compassionate to be self-aware about what that means to someone but ruthless that they'll still be someone else's torturer and executioner, including Mary's, to hold onto her power. However, despite their ruthless, they torture and kill in a much more targeted way to just extract what they need as opposed some of their family's OTT, indiscriminate violence (see Mary I and Henry VIII and the visiting Medicis in Ep. 11). Some of these traits belong to the real Catherine de Medici but others were played up for the show and IMO, to give Mary her famous Elizabeth I foil in another more intimate, immediate historical figure.