selenak

Well, thought I, let's see whether they've learned something from last season's mistakes.

No dead woman, no rape or attempted rape scene, so far, so good. The obligatory thugs-menace-innocents scenes are non-sexualized. Helped, I guess, by the fact the menaced innocents are either old monks or young kids.

Swashbuckling and brotherly Musketeer reunions: are well done. I was wondering how they'd handle Aramis, given that Aramis screwed up mightily last season in many regards, and becoming a monk in atonement of that only to reconsider five seconds later would ruin pretty much the only repentance for the screwing up he'd shown. Otoh, I was pretty sure the show wasn't ready yet to let him go priest full time, because I very much doubt they're ready to even vaguely use the later books as a source. What they ended up doing was actually emotionally sound: a four years time jump, meaning Aramis has been at the monastery four years (and that's also how long the French-Spanish war has already lasted in this 'verse), and Aramis during one of those conversations where he explains why he made his promise to God lists Marguerite among the women he's wronged, which is exactly what he didn't do (nor did anyone else) in last season's finale, which was one of the reasons why I was so incensed at him. They even took care of the problem that priesthood (or monkhood, not the same) isn't something you can't shrug off if you change your mind by including the info that the Abbot didn't let Aramis take his vows yet.

Aramis taking care of the endangered kids throughout instead of falling into the trap of macho posturing and only taking up arms again to save lives also worked in his favor. And of course that the show once our heroes were all in the same scene again let Athos and D'Artagnan be glad to see him but have Porthos be hurt and feel deserted, which means we get that tried and true story trope, estranged friends having issues they overcome through shared danger, and it's well executed here.

Meanwhile, in another subplot: I had the impression that Treville essentially gave Constance his old job while he's the Minister of War, yes/no? Anyway, while Constance pranking the Red Guard (they can't call them the Cardinal's Guard anymore, after all, since Richelieu is still ahistorically dead and Mazarin is nowhere in sight) to avenge her beaten up cadets was amusing enough, the larger issue points to a general problem the show has. On the one hand, it wants the Musketeers to be the underdogs, eternally on the defensive, because everyone loves the underdogs. On the other, they ended both seasons having won people in power to their side, so there has to be a reset button pushed every time, and last season having ended with Treville in a key cabinet post, the show set itself a trap because that would make the ever popular "our guys versus the mean ~~Cardinal's~~ Red Guard" trope impossible. Consequently, we get the paradoxical situation that Treville might be the Minister of War, but he's still incapable of doing something legal (as opposed to aiding Constance in her prank) about the Red Guards menacing Paris... because of our latest villain. Who as the new Commander of the Red Guards (and Paris, it seems) nominally is outranked by Treville, but never mind.

To its credit, the show tries to give him a higher status than Treville has in a semi plausible way by making him one of Louis' illegitimate half brothers. (In reality, Louis had several of these. Henri IV. wasn't called Le vieux gallant for nothing. Some of said half brothers even were schemers, but insert my usual complaint directed not just at this show but all Musketeer versions here about how Louis also had a full brother, Gaston, who schemed non stop to get the throne and would be ideal to use because as opposed to all the other candidates, he actually WOULD have been Louis' heir if not for Anne's late born boys, which was why he was pretty much unkillable until the future Louis XIV was born, but nooooo, no one ever uses Gaston as a villain, do they.)

They also let him be played by a near unrecognizable (to me) Rupert Everett, which, so far, so promising, and give him a bad leg, a cane and a opiate addiction in addition to the main villain sneer/sharp tongue, which didn't just make

jesuswasbatman wonder whether he's inspired by Gregory House. Or maybe just by Shakespeare's version of Richard III; he might as well have said, "but I, who am not made for sportive tricks" etc. at one point. Now I would give the show credit for trying to present him as three dimensional via his handicaps causing him pain instead of just letting him be evilly evil, but I do remember that Rochefort was introduced as a tortured prisoner of war and ended up as a one note sadist and rapist anyway. Whether or not Philippe de Fréron (not sure about the spelling, I'm guessing here; he's fictional, none of Louis' actual illegitimate brothers fits the label) will be a complex or a one note villain remains to be seen. In addition to him, we get his sinister sidekick, Lucien (provider of the opiate), and if that was a hint of a more than sidekick relationship I saw, what with the "never leave me again", I really hope for more dimensional villainy, because what this show definitely does not need are evil McEvil gay villains.

Prediction: they'll kill off Louis before the season is over, especially since they don't seem to know do to anything than "listens to the wrong people, rinse, repeat" with him, Philippe the Bastard will make a play for either the Regency or the Crown (if the later, he'll also try to murder little future Louis Quatorze), and we'll finish the s3 finale with Anne as Regent but also the Fronde breaking out as a cliffhanger.

In conclusion: I'm entertained, so will keep watching.