The Musketeers
I feel like The Musketeers has really stepped up its game this season. Season One was mostly frothy, inconsequential fun. Much as I enjoyed it, it occasionally veered into nonsense territory and there were too many minor characters doing BBC Bit Part acting (see, many gurning peasants in Merlin.) The creators knowing that the show was going to be post-watershed this time around, unlike last year when they didn't know if it was going to be shown at 8pm or 9pm, has allowed them to pitch the series so that events have more weight and consequence, and I'm really enjoying it.
The show also looks better. I would kill for someone like Hello Tailor to blog about the costumes, because everyone looks amazing. I love the detail of the costumes: the buttons; the dirt on the Musketeers' cloaks; the way that everyone has a distinct visual style, from the King's fussiness to the cleaner lines of the Red Guards. Whereas sets in season one sometimes felt too empty, this week I enjoyed the crush of people waiting to petition the King, and the fight in the crowded market place.
I also love that everything is getting emotionally crunchy. Things are terrible for the Queen. Aramis is making bad decisions, and his comrades can no longer entirely count on him. Rochefort paying a woman to pretend to be the Queen and have sex with him was intensely uncomfortable to watch. Milady is back, and things are going to kick off. (Canon geek note: I love that she is now explicitly 'Milady de Winter', and I enjoyed the sexy praying, because it's similar to the way she seduces Felton in the book.)
I assume that Athos guarded his silence about Milady's identity last episode because there was no possibility that the King, infatuated as he seems, would listen to the truth from a Musketeer. This means that this weeks episode suffered a bit from the frustrating thing where one character just isn't telling another character something important. However, now that Constance has spotted her, and from next week's trailer, it looks like the situation won't continue as it is for too long.
Porthos and Samara's conversation about identity was very moving. Porthos is so secure in his sense of belonging as a Musketeer, and it's going to be heart-breaking if that's shattered, as I feel like the season might be leading up to. Even though it's to be noted that it's the second episode in a row where a black man is dead at the end, I liked General Alaman's story. From my scanty knowledge of 17th century Spanish history (mostly gleaned from Arturo Perez-Reverte), it's correct that in the early 1600s Spain was still persecuting and driving out the descendents of Moors, even though the Reconquest was over by the end of the 15th century. Good history-ing there, show!
And now it isn't on for two weeks! Aargh!
The show also looks better. I would kill for someone like Hello Tailor to blog about the costumes, because everyone looks amazing. I love the detail of the costumes: the buttons; the dirt on the Musketeers' cloaks; the way that everyone has a distinct visual style, from the King's fussiness to the cleaner lines of the Red Guards. Whereas sets in season one sometimes felt too empty, this week I enjoyed the crush of people waiting to petition the King, and the fight in the crowded market place.
I also love that everything is getting emotionally crunchy. Things are terrible for the Queen. Aramis is making bad decisions, and his comrades can no longer entirely count on him. Rochefort paying a woman to pretend to be the Queen and have sex with him was intensely uncomfortable to watch. Milady is back, and things are going to kick off. (Canon geek note: I love that she is now explicitly 'Milady de Winter', and I enjoyed the sexy praying, because it's similar to the way she seduces Felton in the book.)
I assume that Athos guarded his silence about Milady's identity last episode because there was no possibility that the King, infatuated as he seems, would listen to the truth from a Musketeer. This means that this weeks episode suffered a bit from the frustrating thing where one character just isn't telling another character something important. However, now that Constance has spotted her, and from next week's trailer, it looks like the situation won't continue as it is for too long.
Porthos and Samara's conversation about identity was very moving. Porthos is so secure in his sense of belonging as a Musketeer, and it's going to be heart-breaking if that's shattered, as I feel like the season might be leading up to. Even though it's to be noted that it's the second episode in a row where a black man is dead at the end, I liked General Alaman's story. From my scanty knowledge of 17th century Spanish history (mostly gleaned from Arturo Perez-Reverte), it's correct that in the early 1600s Spain was still persecuting and driving out the descendents of Moors, even though the Reconquest was over by the end of the 15th century. Good history-ing there, show!
And now it isn't on for two weeks! Aargh!