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The Last Czars part 2
Sep. 22nd, 2019 08:08 amI wrapped up The Last Czars, which either got better in the last few episodes or else I had gotten used to its flaws. Certainly it helps that Nicky and Alix (a.k.a. Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra) become much more sympathetic the moment that they’re out of power. As soon as they lose the power to make disastrously poor decisions but instead are placed in the power of others, their more sympathetic characteristics come to the fore: their stoicism in the face of adversity, their love for their children, their desire to protect the family.
Of course, there’s a sort of dramatic irony about this, because the whole family is going to die and we all know it. Perhaps the show’s greatest success, despite its flaws, is the fact that it makes the viewer really hope that the Romanovs will escape this time, even though we went into it knowing that they won’t. The frame story makes much more sense as the story goes on: I began to hope that Anna Anderson really was Anastasia, just because it seemed so cruel that every single one of the children died.
And the creative team seems to have been much more comfortable on the level of intimate family drama (albeit a family in desperate circumstances) than it was with the grand politics of the earlier episodes. The writing sharpens once the Romanovs have lost their power and are all imprisoned - imprisoned in a palace at first, but nonetheless imprisoned.
I particularly liked the part where the first round of guards become so fond of the Romanovs (and, you remember, their four beautiful teenage daughters) that they actually had to be replaced by newer, tougher guards who have been specially warned against fraternizing. Of course this only ratchets up the “If only…” feeling.
Still totally baffled by the fact that the showrunners tried to wed a historical drama with a documentary by suddenly having historians pop up to give us background about this or that, though. All of the relevant information could have been woven into the episodes, and the viewing experience would have been so much smoother.
Of course, there’s a sort of dramatic irony about this, because the whole family is going to die and we all know it. Perhaps the show’s greatest success, despite its flaws, is the fact that it makes the viewer really hope that the Romanovs will escape this time, even though we went into it knowing that they won’t. The frame story makes much more sense as the story goes on: I began to hope that Anna Anderson really was Anastasia, just because it seemed so cruel that every single one of the children died.
And the creative team seems to have been much more comfortable on the level of intimate family drama (albeit a family in desperate circumstances) than it was with the grand politics of the earlier episodes. The writing sharpens once the Romanovs have lost their power and are all imprisoned - imprisoned in a palace at first, but nonetheless imprisoned.
I particularly liked the part where the first round of guards become so fond of the Romanovs (and, you remember, their four beautiful teenage daughters) that they actually had to be replaced by newer, tougher guards who have been specially warned against fraternizing. Of course this only ratchets up the “If only…” feeling.
Still totally baffled by the fact that the showrunners tried to wed a historical drama with a documentary by suddenly having historians pop up to give us background about this or that, though. All of the relevant information could have been woven into the episodes, and the viewing experience would have been so much smoother.
