The Musketeers 1.04
Feb. 10th, 2014 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which one of the most interesting women of that era of French history guest stars and survives the episode, possibly due to being a historical character. Also, the scriptwriters pay homage to John Le Carré, which is an interesting choice to make for an Aramis episode if you know the book sequels.
Seriously, though, I was thrilled that the series used Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy as a character, and did it well. (And did I mention no female character dies in this episode? THIS IS A WELCOME CHANGE.) Brief historical footnote: she did eventually become regent of Savoy, though her brothers-in-law tried to get rid of her, which backfired badly on them since she could use her brother Louis and Richelieu against them. Even more importantly, not only did she keep the Duchy for her son, she also prevented France getting too much power in the Duchy, balancing both of her loyalties and keeping Savoy independent. With this in mind, I was delighted the episode made her a player in the spying game, but with sincere loyalties to both sides, and successful in her endeavours.
If you know your Le Carré, then "sacrifice men to protect the more important mole" is a familiar motive, as are the footsoldiers finding it out years after the fact, with one wanting vengeance, but the episode put a good Dumasian spin on it, and while this series is a fictional universe of its own, I still find it interesting that Aramis in the end can understand why Treville did what he did, given, well, what Aramis ends up doing in his later years in the books. Other than that, though, we didn't find out as much about Aramis as we did in the last episode about Porthos and Athos. Otoh Constance got more personality; I liked her asking D'Artagnan to teach her how to shoot and fence as a way to make up for lying to her, not least because that gives me hope Constance might avoid her book fate.
Anne's reaction after Christine's remark about motherhood is the first nod the show gives to the fact that Anne being childless was starting to be a serious problem for her. (Historical footnote: Anne got pregnant and miscarried several times early in her her marriage to Louis, for which he blamed he while the marriage got steadily worse. When she finally did get pregnant with the future Louis XIV. after 23 years of marriage, this was regarded as nothing short of a miracle, hence the child being called Louis Dieudonné, "God-given".)
I continue to approve of the fact that the Cardinal's schemes on this show actually are political in nature and not evil vizier type intrigues; in this case re: France needing Savoy against Spain. Also Capaldi had obviously fun with all the sarcastic lines the script gave him.
Next week, according to the trailer: another Porthos episode! I approve.
Seriously, though, I was thrilled that the series used Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy as a character, and did it well. (And did I mention no female character dies in this episode? THIS IS A WELCOME CHANGE.) Brief historical footnote: she did eventually become regent of Savoy, though her brothers-in-law tried to get rid of her, which backfired badly on them since she could use her brother Louis and Richelieu against them. Even more importantly, not only did she keep the Duchy for her son, she also prevented France getting too much power in the Duchy, balancing both of her loyalties and keeping Savoy independent. With this in mind, I was delighted the episode made her a player in the spying game, but with sincere loyalties to both sides, and successful in her endeavours.
If you know your Le Carré, then "sacrifice men to protect the more important mole" is a familiar motive, as are the footsoldiers finding it out years after the fact, with one wanting vengeance, but the episode put a good Dumasian spin on it, and while this series is a fictional universe of its own, I still find it interesting that Aramis in the end can understand why Treville did what he did, given, well, what Aramis ends up doing in his later years in the books. Other than that, though, we didn't find out as much about Aramis as we did in the last episode about Porthos and Athos. Otoh Constance got more personality; I liked her asking D'Artagnan to teach her how to shoot and fence as a way to make up for lying to her, not least because that gives me hope Constance might avoid her book fate.
Anne's reaction after Christine's remark about motherhood is the first nod the show gives to the fact that Anne being childless was starting to be a serious problem for her. (Historical footnote: Anne got pregnant and miscarried several times early in her her marriage to Louis, for which he blamed he while the marriage got steadily worse. When she finally did get pregnant with the future Louis XIV. after 23 years of marriage, this was regarded as nothing short of a miracle, hence the child being called Louis Dieudonné, "God-given".)
I continue to approve of the fact that the Cardinal's schemes on this show actually are political in nature and not evil vizier type intrigues; in this case re: France needing Savoy against Spain. Also Capaldi had obviously fun with all the sarcastic lines the script gave him.
Next week, according to the trailer: another Porthos episode! I approve.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-14 01:25 am (UTC)Capaldi is a delight to watch. I'm going to be very interested to see if he carries off the role of the Doctor as well as he's doing Richelieu. Very different characters, so hmmmm. But I agree that I like him having machinations that aren't just evil because evil. And LOL the Musketeers getting to the jail before him! The moment that the penny drops was golden.