The Musketeers 1.05
Feb. 25th, 2014 01:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the show does a trip into Victor Hugo territory as we get more Porthos backstory.
Mind you, that fake out with Flea getting shot had me groaning again "is every woman doomed if she's not protected by history?", but then it turned out it was only a minor wound and Flea survived, making her the second female guest star to do so. May this trend long continue.
The Court of Miracles existed, of course, but I think it became a popular trope for historical fiction set in Paris after Victor Hugo devoted part of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame to to it; Angelique spends a lot of time in her first novel La Marquise des Anges there was well. I hardly claim to have read all of Dumas, and it's been years since the Musketeers novels, but I don't think he included it. Anyway, it was nice to get more background on this show's version of Porthos (and a last name which happens to be from the books, with the judge kindly expositioning that since this Porthos isn't a noble, it's an assumed one); I could see the whole Charon-as-the-mole/traitor thing coming, though I appreciate they complicated it by letting not only the framing but also the rescueing of Porthos on Charon's part be sincere. As for Flea, see above: re: relief that the show didn't kill her off but let her continue as the Queen of Thieves (surely).
Also unexpected from a swashbuckling fun show: the fact that at least part of the Musketeers was halfway convinced Porthos could have been guilty, while Porthos, as opposed to what Treville and Athos assumed, did somewhat believe they abandoned him, and that they all acknowledged it.
Episode nod to history: this is the first episode which brings up the Hugenots/Catholics clash. Considering the siege of (Protestant) La Rochelle is a major, major plot point in the original novel, I was wondering whether we'd ever get to that or whether fantasy France doesn't have religious strife. Was amused by Aramis complaining about the austerity of the Protestant church and pointing out Catholic churches offer some joy for the eyes. This being the baroque age of the counter reformation, they went rather overboard in this.
Emile de Mauvoisin's scheme to become rich again owes a lot more to 20th century thrillers than to swashbuckling novels, and he went out in noir style, too; deliberate suicide (and Treville lending him the pistol for it) rather than the convenient villain fall from some high place reminds me the series may be the post-Merlin show for me but that it's broadcast after 21:00 and thus can do such things.
Mind you, that fake out with Flea getting shot had me groaning again "is every woman doomed if she's not protected by history?", but then it turned out it was only a minor wound and Flea survived, making her the second female guest star to do so. May this trend long continue.
The Court of Miracles existed, of course, but I think it became a popular trope for historical fiction set in Paris after Victor Hugo devoted part of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame to to it; Angelique spends a lot of time in her first novel La Marquise des Anges there was well. I hardly claim to have read all of Dumas, and it's been years since the Musketeers novels, but I don't think he included it. Anyway, it was nice to get more background on this show's version of Porthos (and a last name which happens to be from the books, with the judge kindly expositioning that since this Porthos isn't a noble, it's an assumed one); I could see the whole Charon-as-the-mole/traitor thing coming, though I appreciate they complicated it by letting not only the framing but also the rescueing of Porthos on Charon's part be sincere. As for Flea, see above: re: relief that the show didn't kill her off but let her continue as the Queen of Thieves (surely).
Also unexpected from a swashbuckling fun show: the fact that at least part of the Musketeers was halfway convinced Porthos could have been guilty, while Porthos, as opposed to what Treville and Athos assumed, did somewhat believe they abandoned him, and that they all acknowledged it.
Episode nod to history: this is the first episode which brings up the Hugenots/Catholics clash. Considering the siege of (Protestant) La Rochelle is a major, major plot point in the original novel, I was wondering whether we'd ever get to that or whether fantasy France doesn't have religious strife. Was amused by Aramis complaining about the austerity of the Protestant church and pointing out Catholic churches offer some joy for the eyes. This being the baroque age of the counter reformation, they went rather overboard in this.
Emile de Mauvoisin's scheme to become rich again owes a lot more to 20th century thrillers than to swashbuckling novels, and he went out in noir style, too; deliberate suicide (and Treville lending him the pistol for it) rather than the convenient villain fall from some high place reminds me the series may be the post-Merlin show for me but that it's broadcast after 21:00 and thus can do such things.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-26 04:50 am (UTC)I actually shouted "God dammit!" at the screen when Flea got shot, but then she seemed to be okay, and we get Marie de Medici next ep, and she doesn't die until the 1640s, so I'm well content.
I don't remember the Court of Miracles in T3M either, though my memory of the later books is hazy. I'm amused by the name drift. Porthos and Athos have gone to variations on peoples actual family names, to an pseudonym or agnomen in Dumas, to their first names in this. Which I must admit it a little jarring.
Nenya was wondering where in the Huguenot/Catholic progress we were, and if the Huguenots would have been allowed a church at the time, but it seems to be a period where the king somewhat tolerated them (possibly because he was allied with England and the Netherlands at the time).
no subject
Date: 2014-02-26 09:09 am (UTC)re: Huguenot/Catholic progress: well, historically at that point the Edict of Nantes would be still valid, and won't be revoked until Louis XIV., so Huguenots having a church works for me, though it probably would not have been in super Catholic (worth a mass, as Henri IV told us) Paris irl. (I mean, the successful siege of Huguenot La Rochelle itself wasn't followed up by the Protestants being denied following their faith; it was about La Rochelle's complete submission under the worldly authority of the king, not the authority of the Catholic church.)