![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Of Derry Girls and Florence Boys
Aug. 3rd, 2019 08:58 pmMarathoned Derry Girls, season 2, which was as delightful as season 1 had been (and since the episodes are half an hour and they‘re only six of them, it was easy to do). Mind you, for all that it‘s a comedy show, I never had the impression it glorified or made harmless what is going on in the setting - early 1990s Ireland - and it comes up in a lot of casual ways. (Such as Erin‘s rant that the Take That concert in Belfast will probably the last time for a long while a famous pop group comes near them „because we‘re fucking killing each other all the time“.) Otoh the irreverent black humor of course is also aimed at the Catholic/Protestant divide, and ( slight spoiler about a great gag awaits ).
Due to rl threats and circumstances, there‘s a great meta poignancy to the season‘s later half, as the peace process gets going, and then Clinton visits Derry in the finale. You know, in the time when the British government was actually invested in less bloodshed in Ireland, the US President was someone whose visit was looked forward to in a „troubled“ (to put it mildly) part of the UK, and he used his speeches to urge reconciliation and peace. (It didn‘t escape me that the very last scene of the season, the clip from Clinton‘s speech in Derry on tv, is followed by credits in absolute silence, unlike all the other episodes of the season which have songs fitting the ep running with the credits.)
But comedy - like most fiction - stands and falls whether you get invested in the characters beyond laughing, and by now, I most certainly am. And went awww at the big group hug in the finale (and the entire sequence leading up to it).
Another second season I marathoned in recent weeks was that of the Italian/British show I Medici. First season was Medici: Masters of Florence and covered Cosimo (il Veccio, in his not-so-old days), his wife Contessina, the Medici rise to the very top of Florence and the feud with the Albizzi. Season 2 is the first of two covering Lorenzo il Magnifico, is called Medici: The Magnificent and of course ends with the Pazzi Conspiracy and the big, bloody climax of same in the Duomo. (Incidentally, I figured as much when I heard there would be two Lorenzo seasons. You really can‘t top the Pazzi Conspiracy for finale drama, as Da Vinci‘s Demons also figured when making it its season 1 finale.) Now, I was looking forward to this for three reasons: I had liked the first season (without outright loving it, though I did love Contessina, who was my favourite s1 character), I‘m still waiting for a really good screen portrayal of Lorenzo de‘ Medici, who is one of the most interesting characters of the Renaissance, and Bradley James, whom I’m fond of due to his playing Arthur in Merlin, plays Lorenzo’s brother Giuliano. (This struck me as excellent casting the moment I heard of it.) Now that I‘ve watched it: Daniel Sharman isn‘t my platonic ideal of screen Lorenzo, either (not just because he‘s too good looking), but he does well with what the scripts give him (and becomes outstanding in the finale). Bradley James is indeed excellent as Guiliano. As in the first season, the second uses a lot of rl historical twists and turns with a lot of fictionalization. Was amused that Girolamo Riario, who became a main character on Da Vinci‘s Demons and whose historical counterpart was an important conspiracy member, here is a blink and you‘ve missed him guy (he shows briefly early in the season when getting married to Caterina Sforza (then a child bride of 12, but I‘m glad they had her in the one scene, because Caterina Sforza), and then again in the last but one episode), while Francesco de’ Pazzi gets the spot of tragic antagonist with intense (and somewhat homoerotic) relationship with hero. Sadly, Contessina is only present in a few flashbacks, but her now played by Sarah Parish daughter-in-law Lucrezia has matured into a splendid matriarch and power player in her own right. (Which, btw is historical canon as well. She also was a poet; Lorenzo clearly inherited a lot from her.) (Whose first name isn‘t mentioned in dialogue, though, presumably so there is no confusion because of Lorenzo‘s mistress Lucrezia Donati.) Other female characters of note: Lorenzo’s later wife, Clarice Orsini, said Lucrezia Donati, Simonetta Vespucci and Bianca de’ Medici - Lorenzo’s other sisters didn’t make the fictional cut, but I figured the show would keep the one who married a Pazzi, as indeed it did. Now this show does not win the Bechdel test in that these women while having meaningful interactions with each other usually talk about men, and their agenda is focused on men, but they‘re individuals, not just set decoration. I had no clear favourite the way I had in s1.
Speaking of decoration, though: the show makes the most of the beauty of Florence, especially the Duomo, and throws in Tuscany landscapes for good measure. The costumes are equally gorgeous (and worn well by the very pretty cast), and the while the show still didn‘t make it from „like“ to „love“ for me, I can reccommend the eye candy whole heartedly.
( Even in the Renaissance, for some men, nothing was written... )
In conclusion: not stellar, but pushing various of my emotional buttons really well. I‘m awaiting the third serason, which presumably will feature the two years Florence was at war with the Papacy and Lorenzo‘s Neapolitan gamble.
Due to rl threats and circumstances, there‘s a great meta poignancy to the season‘s later half, as the peace process gets going, and then Clinton visits Derry in the finale. You know, in the time when the British government was actually invested in less bloodshed in Ireland, the US President was someone whose visit was looked forward to in a „troubled“ (to put it mildly) part of the UK, and he used his speeches to urge reconciliation and peace. (It didn‘t escape me that the very last scene of the season, the clip from Clinton‘s speech in Derry on tv, is followed by credits in absolute silence, unlike all the other episodes of the season which have songs fitting the ep running with the credits.)
But comedy - like most fiction - stands and falls whether you get invested in the characters beyond laughing, and by now, I most certainly am. And went awww at the big group hug in the finale (and the entire sequence leading up to it).
Another second season I marathoned in recent weeks was that of the Italian/British show I Medici. First season was Medici: Masters of Florence and covered Cosimo (il Veccio, in his not-so-old days), his wife Contessina, the Medici rise to the very top of Florence and the feud with the Albizzi. Season 2 is the first of two covering Lorenzo il Magnifico, is called Medici: The Magnificent and of course ends with the Pazzi Conspiracy and the big, bloody climax of same in the Duomo. (Incidentally, I figured as much when I heard there would be two Lorenzo seasons. You really can‘t top the Pazzi Conspiracy for finale drama, as Da Vinci‘s Demons also figured when making it its season 1 finale.) Now, I was looking forward to this for three reasons: I had liked the first season (without outright loving it, though I did love Contessina, who was my favourite s1 character), I‘m still waiting for a really good screen portrayal of Lorenzo de‘ Medici, who is one of the most interesting characters of the Renaissance, and Bradley James, whom I’m fond of due to his playing Arthur in Merlin, plays Lorenzo’s brother Giuliano. (This struck me as excellent casting the moment I heard of it.) Now that I‘ve watched it: Daniel Sharman isn‘t my platonic ideal of screen Lorenzo, either (not just because he‘s too good looking), but he does well with what the scripts give him (and becomes outstanding in the finale). Bradley James is indeed excellent as Guiliano. As in the first season, the second uses a lot of rl historical twists and turns with a lot of fictionalization. Was amused that Girolamo Riario, who became a main character on Da Vinci‘s Demons and whose historical counterpart was an important conspiracy member, here is a blink and you‘ve missed him guy (he shows briefly early in the season when getting married to Caterina Sforza (then a child bride of 12, but I‘m glad they had her in the one scene, because Caterina Sforza), and then again in the last but one episode), while Francesco de’ Pazzi gets the spot of tragic antagonist with intense (and somewhat homoerotic) relationship with hero. Sadly, Contessina is only present in a few flashbacks, but her now played by Sarah Parish daughter-in-law Lucrezia has matured into a splendid matriarch and power player in her own right. (Which, btw is historical canon as well. She also was a poet; Lorenzo clearly inherited a lot from her.) (Whose first name isn‘t mentioned in dialogue, though, presumably so there is no confusion because of Lorenzo‘s mistress Lucrezia Donati.) Other female characters of note: Lorenzo’s later wife, Clarice Orsini, said Lucrezia Donati, Simonetta Vespucci and Bianca de’ Medici - Lorenzo’s other sisters didn’t make the fictional cut, but I figured the show would keep the one who married a Pazzi, as indeed it did. Now this show does not win the Bechdel test in that these women while having meaningful interactions with each other usually talk about men, and their agenda is focused on men, but they‘re individuals, not just set decoration. I had no clear favourite the way I had in s1.
Speaking of decoration, though: the show makes the most of the beauty of Florence, especially the Duomo, and throws in Tuscany landscapes for good measure. The costumes are equally gorgeous (and worn well by the very pretty cast), and the while the show still didn‘t make it from „like“ to „love“ for me, I can reccommend the eye candy whole heartedly.
( Even in the Renaissance, for some men, nothing was written... )
In conclusion: not stellar, but pushing various of my emotional buttons really well. I‘m awaiting the third serason, which presumably will feature the two years Florence was at war with the Papacy and Lorenzo‘s Neapolitan gamble.
