I Didn't Love The Great But I Respected It

Last night I gritted my teeth and made it through the final episode of The Great on Hulu.

The shameful reality is that I am a pearl-clutching prude and have a very low threshold for stories that are stressful and violent. The Great was too vulgar, too gory, and too intense for me. But I also recognize that it was witty, well written, and beautifully filmed. There was a lot of it that was good and I hope those parts have a positive impact on future period movies and TV.

With the tagline "an occasionally true story," The Great makes clear that this will be a very loose interpretation of the Catherine the Great story. This, I felt, was one of its biggest strengths. Every historical movie or TV show involves some degree of interpretation. Being honest about that provided a lot of freedom to play around and be creative.

Which brings me to a little thesis I've been working on. Whenever there is a "fresh take" period drama, it usually falls into one of two categories:

Category 1: The filmmakers believe history (or the historical novel they are adapting) is inherently boring and so thankfully they are here to spice it up. They don't trust the material and they don't trust the audience. They think their revisions are necessary to make the story palatable.

Category 2: The filmmakers believe that history (or the historical novel) is inherently interesting and speaks to our time, and so they want to infuse some modern elements and have fun with it. They genuinely love the material and want to share it in a new way.

Even though I have a fondness for it, The Tudors is an example of Category 1. The King Henry VIII story is already a wild ride. It doesn't need to be sexed up and have added plotlines about Henry's horny friends or Thomas Tallis being haunted by his dead girlfriend. It makes for a very uneven show that doesn't really know what it wants to be. I also think the 2005 Pride & Prejudice falls under this category too. To me, it feels like the filmmakers looked through the book and were like "yikes we need to fix all these boring parts."

The musical Hamilton is a perfect example of Category 2. Lin-Manuel Miranda didn't add rap to the show because he thought it was dull without it, he wrote a musical in his own style about a historical narrative that genuinely thrilled him.

I would argue that every good period movie, TV show, or play falls under Category 2--as there is always some degree of a modern perspective infused into the storytelling. Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensiblity may seem like a standard period film, but Thompson used very little of Jane Austen's original dialog, cut some important scenes, and invented others. It was also directed by Ang Lee, which had some xenophobes worried about how this Chinese director would handle an English classic. The movie is phenomenal because both Thompson and Lee cared about the source material but were also willing to try new things with it.

Which is all to say that The Great is Category 2, which is why I respect it, even though it wasn't to my personal taste.

One of the best aspects of The Great's modern take is that the cast has some racial diversity. There are a fair number non-white courtiers even though we know that wasn't the case historically. It is interesting that while many period movies are happy to play fast and loose with other aspects of history, diverse casting still feels like a taboo. Maybe it is because the general public doesn't know that an 18th century gown shouldn't have metal grommets, but they do have a sense that there weren't a lot of Black aristocrats in 18th century Europe. But a dumb anachronism like a metal grommet or a corset worn without a chemise doesn't actually add much to a story. Actors though add a lot, as they can have an exciting take on a character that someone else wouldn't have. If you are relaxing your historical accuracy, diverse casting is more likely to make a show good than throwing in some cheesy, sexy costumes.

BAD

Atrocious dress in War & Peace (2016)

GOOD

Black court ladies in fabulous dresses in The Great

So this is how I hope The Great will influence period pieces that come after it. If you are working with exciting material set in a historical period, it is OK to be playful and take a risk. You can have anachronisms just make them intentional and smart. 

But if you think history is boring, maybe just step away. 

Cranford Is Fantastic And Infuriating

On my rampage through period movies I rewatched Cranford (just the 2007 series) this week. I've had a long-simmering beef with this adaptation and so now is the time to get it off my chest. 

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell is a remarkable book. It is a series of stories about a small town, where all of the lead characters are older, unmarried women. It is not a story driven by romance, shocking secrets, or political intrigue. The woman of Cranford live very quiet, unremarkable lives by most metrics. But for them, their town is their whole world, and so the book is a treasure trove of funny, sweet, and heartbreaking stories about everyday lives.

For the screen adaptation, the filmmakers enlisted some of the best older British actresses in the game, the standouts being Imelda Staunton, Eileen Atkins, and Judi Dench.

Staunton plays town busybody Miss Pole. She is Cranford's own 24-hour news cycle, dramatically running here and there to breathlessly relay the latest gossip. She seems to always be in a state of agitation and can turn even the smallest bit of news into the scandal of the century.

Atkins and Dench play sisters Deborah and Matilda "Matty" Jenkyns. Deborah is the arbiter of decorum and propriety in the town and has extremely high standards.  In the first episode there is this very funny scene about consuming oranges (which were a rare treat in Victorian England). Deborah is worried about eating something with so much messy juice and finds the word "suck" to be vulgar. So she decides that each of them will retire to their own rooms to eat their fruit alone so that any indecent behavior can be done in private.

Judi Dench is glorious as younger sister Miss Matty. She is the heart of the story and the kind of character that makes Cranford so remarkable. Her life and experiences have been very limited, and she isn't particularly clever or quick-witted. She hasn't "done" anything with her life (no husband, no children, no great accomplishments) but has made an impact on Cranford by being exceptionally kind and compassionate to those around her.

It has been more than 150 years since Elizabeth Gaskell's day and we still have very little media that puts older women at the center of a story. Whenever this adaptation follows the book and lets its exceptional cast of actresses do their thing, it is absolutely sublime. Very funny at times and deeply moving at others. I laughed out loud and cried multiple times.

BUT

The filmmakers didn't trust that modern audiences could handle a story focused on a bunch of old biddies. So they added what they thought the story desperately needed: more men and more young romance. To be fair, these added stories are based on other Gaskell writings. But that is the last fair thing I will say about this. Now I will rant. Strap in.

I'm bringing a lot of Miss Pole energy to this post

The FIRST added story is about Lady Ludlow, a rich woman who thinks poor people shouldn't be educated. Her backwards views are emphasized by her costuming and hair. It is a common (and very annoying) trope in period films to dress older ladies in decades-old fashions. A few years outdated is possible for women who are older and more set in their ways and certainly more likely for women of limited means. But a super-wealthy woman dressed like it is the 1790s when it is actually the 1840s is absolutely ridiculous.

particularly THE HAIR

She clashes with her land manager (a man) who tries to get her to embrace more modern ideas. Whereas the other older Cranford ladies feel like fully realized characters, Lady Ludlow is one dimensional. She is set her her ways. That is her entire deal. She is really just background dressing to a bigger story about her land manager educating a young impoverished boy. Sure. Fine. Whatever.

Lady Ludlow also speaks and moves very slowly. Maybe it is because her feeble lady brain can't process information quickly? Or is it because the character is supposed to be 90 even though the actress is only in her 60s? I mean, once a lady is past 50 it is all the same, right? 

MUCH WORSE is the story of Dr. Harrison. A young man who comes to town to fall in love with the blandest woman he can find. He is dopey and earnest and the object of his affection is Sophie Hutton, a cherubic looking blonde whose mother has died and who thinks she will never marry because she is too busy selflessly raising her siblings and running her father's house. She is sweet and perfect and says very little. I realize I just praised Judi Dench's character for being sweet and kind but Miss Matty seems like an actual human woman. Sophie Hutton feels like a male fantasy.

She probably has a hairless body and never farts

Through various hijinks, two other women in town believe that Dr. Harrison is romantically interested in them. It is misinterpretations and in one case a cruel prank that causes them to think so. They are both older than him (one substantially) and we are supposed to chuckle and how delusional they are.

The unfortunate ladies who think dull Dr. Harrison is worth their time

Everything comes to a head at a May Day festival when all three women say they are being courted by Dr. Harrison. Everyone is shocked, Dr. Harrison is shunned by the town, and the women are all devastated. Well, we are told that the older women are devastated but they work it out behind closed doors. Clearly, they are side characters and their feelings matter less. The focus, of course, is on Sophie Hutton who nearly dies of a broken heart (and also a fever) and Dr. Harrison has to swoop in to save her. The series ends with everyone in town attending their wedding.

Congrats to Dr. and Mrs. Blandy McBlanderson!

In summary:

Actual Cranford story: Here is a fascinating, hilarious, and powerful story about older women.

Added Cranford stories: LOL JK women over 30 are dried up, old fashioned, and it is hilarious when they think men are attracted to them. Anyway here are some male characters and younger women who are clearly more important.

The Way We Live Now Was Worth The Re-Watch

After I finished Little Dorrit I decided the antidote was The Way We Live Now, a 2001 miniseries based on the book by Anthony Trollope. One of the plotlines in Little Dorrit is that a man named Mr. Murdle is "the man of the age" who can make anyone rich if they invest with him. It turns out to be one big scam. That is basically the central plot of The Way We Live Now. I also watched because I found Matthew Macfayden to be dull and uncharismatic in Little Dorrit but remember him being good in The Way We Live Now. So it was time to see if my memory was correct.

It was.

First to my point about Matthew Macfadyen. Admittedly, I have a bias against him because I don't like his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. In Little Dorrit he had the challenging task of playing one of those deadly dull "good" characters that Dickens writes. But even so, he didn't seem to bring much charm to the role. He was just sort of...there. Claire Foy played a character who was impossibly sweet and selfless and yet still managed to make her compelling.

Well, after rewatching The Way We Live Now I think Macfadyen is miscast as good guys because he is fantastic as profligate hot mess Sir Felix Carbury. He makes all the worst life choices yet still swaggers around like he owns the place. Macfadyen gleefully embraces all Sir Felix's awfulness, yet still manages to be charming and have just a tinge of humanity.

The best parts are his scenes with Marie Melmotte (the excellent Shirley Henderson). Marie is the wealthy daughter of the main financier and every unmarried man in London is trying to win her hand (and therefore her money). At first Marie seems shy and awkward, and Sir Felix's suave confidence easily sweeps her off her feet. But she turns out to be much more than he bargained for-- she can't keep her hands off him and is ready to run away together even if it means being disinherited (not the plan at all). The power dynamic between them is constantly shifting and they have great comedic chemistry.

Henderson as Marie is one of the overall highlights of this adaptation. She starts as a comical character but proves she has a strong will, and by the end you are rooting for her to come out on top.

The story is biting social satire without the sweetness of Austen or Dickens. That means that most of the characters aren't exactly good people, but they are complex and interesting. This adaptation works because the acting is really fantastic throughout.

David Suchet is a standout as Augustus Melmotte, the shady financier who has all of London high society clamoring to invest with him. He is clearly a bad guy, but most of the pompous, old-money Englishmen he is fleecing aren't great people either. It is fun to see him push them around and not give them the fawning reverence that they expect.

A few other reasons to watch:

Cillian Murphy is in this and is very attractive and has an excellent hair situation.

This character is named Dolly Longestaffe and his hair, on the other hand, is delightfully atrocious. 

Miranda Otto plays an American with a bizarre Texas accent and a history of shooting men who cross her. One of the main plots is about building a railway through the American southwest and clearly everyone in England at this time thinks the US is a lawless nightmare place.

BUSTLE GOWNS

Can't resist a good bustle. 

Some Big Opinions About Little Dorrit

I needed a break from my Wolf Hall obsession so decided to revisit another Claire Foy vehicle Little Dorrit (2008). I saw it about a decade ago and remember it being enjoyable but not anything for my list of favorites.

After rewatching I found it...surprisingly tiresome. It is one of those Dickens stories where the good characters are perfect to the point of being dull, the bad characters are dastardly evil, and the funny characters are goofy beyond belief. In order to make it "fresh" and "exciting" Andrew Davies makes everything more quirky and more dramatic. It is also seven hours.

This character is literally named Mr. Tite Barnacle

But I certainly have the time and can usually put up with a lot of nonsense and still enjoy the journey.  But by the end of Little Dorrit I felt there were a few too many sour notes I just couldn't get over.

First of all, there is the character of Tattycoram. She is a servant who works for a wealthy family, primarily as companion for their vapid daughter. In this adaptation she is played by a Black actress (Freema Agyeman). Period movies should have more diversity and during the early episodes it seems like the casting choice adds an interesting layer to her story. The people she works for act like she is "family" while ordering her around and imagining that she enjoys fetching shawls and parasols. When she bristles at their requests she is told she is "wicked" and needs to control her temper. Wow some important commentary there about white people expecting cheerful docility from Black people and then being shocked when they seem angry all the time.

Tattycoram is befriended by Miss Wade, who tells her that she isn't wicked and her anger and frustration are valid. She offers shelter and protection if she ever wants to leave her employers. She eventually does...and then her story sort of fizzles out.

Dickens didn't intend Tattycoram to be black and also had no concept of writing a story about a woman of color. Let's be honest, he can barely write interesting women. The series was then adapted by Andrew Davies, who is also a white man. What starts as a potentially illuminating storyline about a black Victorian woman ends up going nowhere.

Miss Wade turns out to be sort of sketchy and it is hinted that she and Tattycoram have a romantic relationshiop -- not in a fun way but more predatory which is its own problematic can of worms. We see Tattycoram in the background of scenes looking unhappy, slowly realizing that Miss Wade is bad news, and eventually she leaves. In the final scene we see her...back with her original employers.

I DID WHAT?!

Nothing is said about how or why. We are left to wonder whether her absence helped her employers realize they need to treat her better, whether nothing has changed and her story reflects a cruel reality for Black women during this period, or whether we are supposed to think she "learned her lesson" and now is happy to be ordered around. Keep in mind, in other storylines, Little Dorrit is anything but ambiguous. It is full of lessons and moral messages. So it feels like the the filmmakers wanted a gold star for having a more diverse cast but didn't want to actually follow through with having the story go anywhere.

Similarly upsetting is the treatment of Flora Finching. Lead character Arthur Clennam (Matthew Macfadyen) is back from living in China for about 20 years, and he goes to visit his childhood sweetheart Flora (Ruth Jones). When they were young they wanted to marry but their families cruelly kept them apart. She is now a widow and so he is eager to rekindle the connection. When she sweeps into the room the music stops and HORROR...she got fat!

Arthur recoils and we are supposed to as well. Flora is an incessant chatterbox and her costuming is overly-youthful and fussy -- to make her seem as silly as possible. She is annoying and seems to have little self-awareness. But the main joke is clearly that she is unattractive and past her prime and so it is comical that she still imagines a man her own age may be interested in her. Arthur ends up with (spoiler) the titular "Little Dorrit" who is half his age and so petite that she is often mistaken for a child.

Dickens had some fun opinions about ideal women

Rather than finding Flora's scenes funny, I found them grating. To the minor credit of Macfadyen and the director, they don't make it worse by having Arthur gagging and rolling his eyes every time she flirted with him. Instead he was polite and kind. But Arthur gets two romantic interests who are in their early 20s and many business opportunities and life experiences in front of him. Flora, a woman his same age, is past her usefulness to society. No amount of bad makeup, silly clothing, and awkward chatter will hide the fact that a patriarchal system royally screwed this woman.

This is what actress Ruth Jones looks like irl

So while there were some fun moments, Little Dorrit didn't win me over. It just felt like an over-dramatized version of a story which wasn't that great in the first place.

Time Is Meaningless So I Made Some Wolf Hall Memes

I am incredibly privileged in this this coronavirus era. I am not sick. I am not high-risk. I am able to work from home and receive a paycheck. I am not raising children or have any dependent family members to care for. I have a safe, comfortable place to self-isolate. But if you are in a similar situation you know, that even having things "good" right now, is still not...great. I miss people, I miss doing things, I cry sometimes, I get anxiety-induced stomach aches, and time stretches out as a big, nebulous blob.

sometimes fast, sometimes slow, who knows?!

Occasionally though I get really excited about doing something meaningless. I suddenly have an urge to organize a photo album, watch a TV show I have seen many times before (and sometimes "before" is "last week"), look at the pictures in a favorite fashion history book, or search Ebay for old Seattle-made brands. And sometimes a little voice in my brain tries to tell me no: that is not a good use of time. It is not "productive." And then the other part of my brain chimes in to say "If you found joy in something, by all means DO THE THING."

And honestly, I have so much time these days, is it even possible for me to waste it?

Which is all a fancy preamble to the fact that, inspired by the excellent Jane Austen + Onion Headlines meme from a couple years ago (click here) I spent a substantial amount of time this week making Wolf Hall + Onion Headline memes. Apparently other people are using this time to get abs but this was what I picked instead.

I should mention that there is already a series of these that I found on Tumblr and they came up with some really good ones that I couldn't re-use. See them here, here, and here.

But like, mine are also pretty great.