The Musketeers 1.03

[selenak]

In which Gaius Baltar's ancestor or descendant guest stars, this show's version of the Athos and Milady backstory is revealed and Porthos gets both backstory and dimension.



Seriously, though, when James Callis came into sight I blinked and thought, can it be...? And sure enough, they cast him as a fast talking survivalist and hedonist causer of a big scale human calamity who has a tough and competent beautiful woman in love with him and saving his butt all the time. I guess one of the casting people was a BSG fan. (What I don't appreciate is that the tough and competent woman then is killed off, which makes it three for three as far as this series' score with female guest stars per episode is concerned.)

More importantly, though, it turns out they didn't just cast Porthos with a black actor for nothing but actually used that in a script. His mother having been a slave who died when he was young is not dissimilar from Dumas' grandmother. Early on when Emile Bonheur said "labour is cheap" in the West Indies I thought, guys, I know you're doing a swashbuckling ahistorical show for the fun of it, but isn't that an awful euphemism, even so? But then it turns out the episode actually adresses the slavery subject head-on and makes it a central theme. Well, I'll never. Porthos taking it very personal indeed when it turns out slave trade is how Bonheur makes his money is the kind of character detail which makes the actor being black more than "why not?" casting or a nod to the original Musketeer author, but something specific to this version of his character, and that surprised me very pleasantly. (Never mind using a British slaveship diagram from more than a century later, or the fact that the overseas schemes France had going on were Canadian at that point; a swashbuckling show actually dealing with slavery is still way more of a nod to history than I expected.)

Meanwhile, Athos turns out to have been the Comte de la Férè in this version of the tale as well, though the end of his marriage is somewhat altered. Instead of finding out about his wife's past and hanging her for it himself, here he had a brother who found out, Milady then killed the brother and Athos upon discovering it all then had Milady hung. The dead brother, courtesy of Milady, actually is Dumasian of sorts in that this conflates Athos' backstory with the one of the executioner of Lille, and I can live with the alteration of circumstances re: Athos' motives for hanging his wife, because it's almost impossible to have sympathy for "she was a branded criminal and I loved her and married her before finding that out! That bitch, she needed to die!". This way, he still as far as he knew had her killed but with the dead brother and the law-upholding actually has a more sympathetic motive. The series also plays it as mutal love/hate which I tend to like if it's plausibly done.

Since Milady identifies herself as Lady de Winter to Constance, I assume her second marriage exists/existed in this version as well, by the way, which makes me wonder whether the show will get around to Buckingham later on after all.

Lastly: I really liked this episode, show, but can we please stop with the killing of female guest stars in every episode?

Comments

[muccamukk]

Yeah, I was side eyeing that slave ship diagram myself (not that slave ships weren't awful in the 1630s, but they hadn't hit that level of awful yet, let alone when Porthos was hearing about them when he was a kid). HOWEVER, as you say, it's really nice that they dealt with the racial politics at the time, instead of just putting their hands over their ears and humming. I liked the exchange between Porthos and Athos about slavery not being a crime. I notice that the Beeb recently republished their article about black people in Tudor England. For no reason especially. They just thought we should know.

I figured that's where they were going with Milady/Athos. Their choices were to make him a bastard, which they didn't want to do, or to make her an actual criminal. I liked the scene in the burning house when she found the flower. I expect hate sex or something over the rest of the series.

Seriously about the female guest stars! They've been killing a fair number of the male ones too, but guys! Let the odd woman live, will you! Milady interacting with Constance is making me twitch. I hope they don't follow canon on that one.

Also, LOL, Baltar in a ridiculous moustache.

[selenak]

Yeah, I was side eyeing that slave ship diagram myself (not that slave ships weren't awful in the 1630s, but they hadn't hit that level of awful yet, let alone when Porthos was hearing about them when he was a kid). HOWEVER, as you say, it's really nice that they dealt with the racial politics at the time, instead of just putting their hands over their ears and humming.

Yes. Basically, what it comes down to is: I'd rather have an ahistorical 18th century diagram and acknowledgment of slavery existing and seen as not a crime by the general population, than the usual ignoring of the issue entirely. Especially once you've made the choice of casting a black actor for one of the main characters.

I expect hate sex or something over the rest of the series

Definitely, me too.

Moustache: I suppose James Callis recalled the full bearded look of s3 and decided this was still better than the beard of depression and imprisonment.:)

[nenya_kanadka]

I quite enjoyed this as well. Not that contemplating the horrors of slavery is fun ever, but I thought it was important and that they did it well. I absolutely believed Porthos being pissed off, and it never once came off as preachy. It just seemed honest and was revealed naturally with the flow of the episode. Not!Baltar's wife seemed far too good for him, though I guess she was directly profiting off the slave trade as well. :( Still I want to headcanon that she survived to learn better (or not), because body count for female guest stars *is* getting high.

Milady as the Cardinal's protege-slash-minion was pretty excellent as well. I don't usually go for villains but I'm actually finding her more interesting than Athos (whose drama has at least been upgraded to dead brother + murderous ex from just nebulous emo pining over woman). I begin to see why fans I have known speak the name of Milady with awe. :)

Porthos was brilliant, the show continues to do well with laying out the world (including the French-Spanish stuff), and I was glad they got some sort of mangled justice at the end. It won't stop the slave trade but by god they can stop Baltar. And show substantive support for their brother Porthos at the same time. I liked that. And D'Artagnan! Makes the very best faces. <3 I want to know what his status re: Musketeering is atm, by the way. Can random farmboys just ride with elite troops now, or what? (Interesting also that the Musketeers are a new thing this generation--I guess muskets are new-ish too. Huh.)

[selenak]

If she was with him as a scout in Brazil, she definitely was actively helping and profitting from the slave trade. Doesn't mean she should have been killed off!

re: D'Artagnan, in the novel, the whole reason why he comes to Paris in the first place is to become a Musketeer, which he does post haste, but in this series they gave him the father revenge plot instead, so maybe there should have been a scene where Treville enlists him officially. :) I swear the actor didn't get to make this many faces when he was Lucrezia Borgia's love interest, that was a pleasant surprise.

Musketeers being relatively new: another amazing nod to actual history.

I absolutely believed Porthos, too, and it came as a natural character thing, as you say, not as This Week's Moral Lesson; the episode also showcased Our Heroes' friendship. If the show continues to please me, I'm going to get myself a Porthos icon.