Linear, obvious plot lines are lazy storytelling.
Q.E.D.
However, since you seem offended by my speculation let’s just drop it.
Lack of subtlety isn’t necessarily synonymous with lazy storytelling.
Please don’t passive aggressively ascribe imaginary offense on my part just because I find your speculation completely unconvincing.
OK, I will buy that lack of subtlety <> lazy storytelling. Lack of subtlety = shitty unimaginative writing.
A good end to the season, all in all. We’ll definitely tune in to S2. Tom wasn’t a total shit, but neither did he treat Marian nearly as well as she deserved. At least she found out before saying “I do.”
Ha! I had the same thought.
As Henry Kissinger said of faculty politics, “The fighting is so fierce because the stakes are so small.”
Yes, I’m a big T.R. fan and really hope we’ll see him in S2 (it would’ve been nice for him and his wife - they married in 1880 - just to be announced and briefly appear at the Russells’ big shindig).
Absolutely. And BTW Jeremy Swift, the actor who played Spratt, plays a very different part, but just as well, in Ted Lasso.
Three episodes into season 2, anyone else watching?
We;ve watched the first two episodes so far, and we’re enjoying it a lot. There hasn’t been much plot to talk about yet.
Yep. Things could get ugly soon, with Mr. Russell and the strikers, and Peggy’s trip to Alabama. Historic realities that Julian Fellows can’t fix with his usual noblesse oblige as a Deus ex machina.
I did appreciate choosing an early Oscar Wilde misfire.
I was wondering what the boring play was. And I was looking for a sign of recognition among John Adams, Oscar van Rhijn and Oscar Wilde but didn’t see anything.
Vera.
It was there, all right. Wilde made some pointed comments and when Mrs. Fane said she didnt understand, Wilde said, I wouldn’t expect you to, or words to that effect.
IIRC is was “you’re too well brought up”. I wonder is the Oscars will hook up. And Peggy in the South will be interesting to say the least; for all her experiences with racism she’s still quite sheltered for a woman of color.
I look forward to it every week. I’m not very knowledgeable about the time period and find myself googling events to see which ones are real. I always enjoy historical fiction. But the best thing to me is the dresses. I just love them. Especially the ones Marian wears - very art deco looking, though this is well before that period. I have to rewind sometimes to see what’s happening because I get distracted by what everyone is wearing.
Doesn’t mean he won’t try.
Something I noticed this episode that was curiously absent last season: horse poop in the street. When Mrs. Russell had her ball, with all the carriages arriving, the Van Rijn women marched across the street with no course corrections as expected.
Maybe they hired a dedicated gong-farmer to keep the streets clean. Too bad he doesn’t get his own story line.
My wife often comments on the unrealistic cleanliness of streets (i.e., lack of horse shit) in period movies and shows. So I was calling out “Horse shit!” as we watched these eps.
I hate to quote myself, but me commenting on that scene in post 73 from last season
It wasn’t really narrowly missing, but if you rewatch that scene, there’s a pile of horse shit to their left and a pile of horse shit to their right so they go right down the middle in between.
It definitely seemed like there were more piles of horse shit than normal in this episode at least. Maybe it’s supposed to be an example of how New York is growing.
We enjoy this show a lot but felt episode 3 was a little weak compared to the others this season and the ending seemed really abrupt and with no hook for the next episode.
I just watched this video that someone put out about Caroline Astor. I thought it would be a direct primer explaining how Mrs. Astor’s life is intertwined with the show but it’s just a straight-up biography of her. HOWEVER, if you’re familiar with the show (which you are!) you will be able to see how her life is intertwined in the show. I definitely learned some things I didn’t know and got some insight into the characters of the show.
And in case you’re not aware, the Russells (George and Bertha) are stand-ins for the real-life Vanderbilt family, the nouveau riche trying to break into Gilded Age society, where Mrs Astor (and her famous guest list of 400) was the gatekeeper.
The Vanderbilts are of course the ancestors of the CNN journalist Anderson Cooper. Coincidentally, Anderson Cooper recently published a biography of the Astors.
That was very interesting. Thanks!
“Years from now, when you speak of this, and you will, be kind.”
If you’re going to lift material from Tea and Sympathy, might as well do it verbatim.
I wonder what Mrs. Winterton will do for revenge? Mrs. Russell’s husband was a no-go, but her son has proven mommy-issues and is vulnerable.
Also, the Redditors beat me by years recognizing Mrs. Bruce as Lizzie Borden’s missing twin.
Who was the Duke of Buckingham supposed to be? Generic British nobility? All I could find was a 65 year-old peer who died the year the episode takes place, after which the title went extinct.