PERIOD DRAMA APPRECIATION WEEK 2023

Day 2: Favourite Period Drama TV: Anne with an E (2017-19) cre. by Moira Walley-Beckett

"It's not what we get out of life but what we put into it."

NOTES ON TELEVISION P.2

in chicken pox isolation, despite a long distance from t.v. shows in general and a will to read/watch films, i did end up consuming a lot of television. so here we go - this is from the last week or so, dating between 27th november to 4th december 2022. there are spoilers below. 

house of the dragon finale (repeat watch, hotstar) 

i rewatched the entire season and was very satisfied with spending more time in the GRRM universe, though here i’ll talk only about the finale. for an ending, it’s a pretty standard and solid delivery that, on my first watch, really kept the tension building towards the latter half very well -- on my second watch, though i knew what Vhaghar was going to do, just the visual of her overhead was enough to make me tense again. couldn’t quite connect with rhaenyra and daemon as a unit this time, especially when he does what he does. it seems a little out of line - was it just for the sake of unpredictability? or was this a development of his characterization? i don’t know. i think one more extra thing i love about HoTD was the music, the world building and production/costuming...just absolutely excellent. it’s still not quite as lived in a world as game of thrones but it could reach there. i think they need to stop hurrying so much? GODDAMN EMAA D’ARCY IS SO HOT. i’m very happy to see non-binary folks on screen. cannot wait for season 2, i’m a bit obsessed with the GRRM universe. ugh. 

the crown season 5 (netflix)

let’s be honest, this was a pretty shitty/average season. nobody except the actor playing diana was the least bit convincing - the camilla actor looked shockingly like her so really well done there. but the queen, the king, charles etc etc very average. i also found the narrative building/construction incredibly weak, loose and disconnected - what were the episodes moving towards? there was no direction to what i was watching and mostly, i skipped through the season only pausing to see diana. the season also seemed very pro charles-camilla, which was very odd and unsettling. definitely a waste of time, even someone as fucking brilliant as lesley manville seemed wasted in the show!!!! who cares to be honest, we could put this money into more interesting historical / period dramas now, really. awfully done. 

interview with the vampire (downloaded)

well well well, what a sexy little romp this was. there are some incredibly compelling things about it  - um, jacob fkn andersen for a start??? wow. also the beauty of being able to say a queer black man in a historical-supernatural setting, dealing with so many things, it was really fucking wonderful. sam reid is also incredible charismatic, would find myself wondering - ugh, why am i rooting so much for him??? the costuming was off the fucking charts. their child-sister was alright, improved later but not convinced by the actor tbh. i was also unconvinced by the lack of sexual intimacy/queer sex (hello???), it was always only ever suggested types, i thought the whole dubai set-up was too weirdly done, i didn’t find the actor playing Rashid/Armand very convincing or compelling (props for muslim representation but couldn’t we have picked another actor??) and the journalist also felt a little one note, not very COMPELLING.....especially for a show with so much promise!!!!!! music was lovely, the sexy vibes were almost perfect - but we could have seen more lore, more world building? idk. lots of fantastic queer, race and class politics!!! a mixed bag of being horny, happy and confused!!!

dead to me season 3 (netflix) 

this one started out okay, a little too on the nose with the hit and runs and overlaps to be honest but now it’s really dragging itself. it’s also like too much put together without much thought? jen is pregnant, judy has cancer, they’re making all kinds of claims to the fbi and the police? it’s getting harder and harder to take this universe seriously. before all the orchestrated chaos that seems to have little impact on the viewer, i was actually laughing. the dialogues were great first half, despite the hit and run gag etc, and i was living for this amazing female best-friendship on screen (YOU ARE MY FUCKING HEART! is something i want to scream at my best friend one day too!!!! its such a great moment) - but ya halfway through it seems to lose its steam, purpose and earlier energy?? why does jen’s house start looking like an ad shoot??? why is the fbi made up of only one agent who lives in a motel?? it’s like the show wants to create a number of different rules for its universe - campy? dark comedy? telenovela-esque?- idk, something’s off this time round -- or maybe i’m projecting too much realism? let’s see, two episodes left now. 

wednesday (netflix) 

ah! wheuew! after hearing so much from my flatmate, being shown that incredible dance sequence and the praise from my cousin as well as constant tumblr trending, i watched this in the span of a day or so. shouldn’t be so proud of super fast consumption but this was really very good!!! nearly excellent!!!! the music is absolutely exceptional, i will be hearing jenna ortega’s cello solo in my head for a while. she’s also absolutely PHENONEMAL. i love her and enid’s friendship, i was crying at that hug bitches. other characters are also great, though not given a lot of time to develop/gather depth. do agree that the black characters felt very detached from their racial identites even as racial politics is part of the show??? it was a lil weird. gwendolyn christie is a gorgeous one, though she stood often in only one pose. was this deliberate? catherine zeta jones did not fully convince me - but the 1990s casting was too good. that bee friend of hers was ok ok, some of the twists were expected, some were wildcards which i enjoyed. i really enjoyed this so much, surprisingly - i don’t really see the CW ties that many critics have pointed out, the tone is very much its own/certain/great. jenna ortega holds the whole damn thing together so perfectly. i would contest that the CGI/production is sometimes a little off and the narrative is weak in places, even the dialogue falls short at moments...but damn it, i enjoyed it so much. now im going to go back to my typewriter too!!!!!! 

Hey Tumblr, there's a new historical/period comedy series on Netflix which you will love! It's called 1670! It's about Polish nobility and their peasant-thralls. However, Netflix is not promoting it to international audiences, bc it's Polish, even though there are subtitles available in so many languages!

It has:

Great Humour

Amazing Polish Folk Music

Historical Costumes that are not Western!

CANON LESBIANS

One of the said lesbians is a repressed lesbian w religious trauma & the subplot lasts longer than one episode

Priest Jakub

A really good combination of making historical and ahistorical jokes

And much more!

Seriously, give it a watch bc I'd hate to see only my Polish mutuals watch it, it's new, it's fresh, it's witty, not another remake, and it shows another culture & history! (aren't you tired of watching yet another show on the English monarchy, then 1670 is there for ya)

Blackthorne x Mariko

SHŌGUN (2024)

Holliday Grainger as Lucrezia Borgia | 1.02 "The Assassin" THE BORGIAS (2011–2013)

“Now, tell me, Jack, does that new furrow in your brow have anything to do with kissing me the other night?”

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012-2015) ↳ 1x07 Murder In Montparnasse // 1x08 Away With The Fairies

Helen Burns, Jane Eyre, Fantine, Les Miserables, Satine, Moulin Rouge, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, Finding Neverland, Isabel Neville, The White Queen, Mrs. Hale and Bessy Higgins, North and South, Frances Hindley, Wuthering Heights, Mrs. Alma Wheatley, The Queen's Gambit, Queen Anne, The White Queen

Masters of the Air Part Nine✈️

NATALIE DORMER as ANNE BOLEYN (2 - ∞) in THE TUDORS | 1X02 'Simply Henry'

EWAN MCGREGOR as Count Alexander Rostov

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW | 2024

Morgan Pendragon's orange robe in Camelot

Mariya Andreeva as Sophia Palaiologina  Sophia (2016) Episode 2

MISS SCARLET AND THE DUKE eliza & william + hands

Lex Shrapnel as Leonard Lord & Marcelo Converti as César Cabrol 2023 • A Town Called Malice • S1·E07 • Musical • Crime Family

Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn THE TUDORS (2007–2010)