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osprey_archerI'm still watching Reign (I've gotten to episode 10), but I'm slowly losing interest as it becomes clearer the show is all flashy outsides and no soul. Aside from Queen Catherine (ably played by Megan Fellows, who was Anne in the 1985 Anne of Green Gables, a juxtaposition that I find ceaselessly amusing), most of the characters don't really have characterization, if you will. Mary's ladies-in-waiting are all but interchangeable, which I knew from the beginning but hoped would be a transitory state, and I have no idea what drives the king.
No, scratch that: the king is clearly driven by the exigencies of plot. He doesn't really have an in-story motivation.
Reign also has weird continuity problems, where characters will simply disappear without any of the characters noticing. The most egregious example being Francis's mistress Olivia, who is an enormous plot complication - until she gets dragged away into the passages in the bowels of the castle, where she is apparently not merely murdered but erased from everyone's memory, as well. Given how heavily the show leans on its plot, the fact that the plot doesn't hold water at even the most cursory inspection is a problem.
And finally, I am getting more and more irritated at the fact that they've decided that their main religious conflict should be between Christians and pagans (a sect of whom lives in the Blood Wood and offers up regular human sacrifices). I get that Catholic/Protestant differences are still a touchy subject and the show runners might not want to deal with it in what is basically a soap opera with unusually ridiculous costumes, but then maybe they shouldn't have chosen sixteenth-century France as their setting.
Yeah. Apparently their total disinterest in actual history is getting to me after all. Why would you choose a historical setting if you have no interest in any part of it, not even the costumes?
No, scratch that: the king is clearly driven by the exigencies of plot. He doesn't really have an in-story motivation.
Reign also has weird continuity problems, where characters will simply disappear without any of the characters noticing. The most egregious example being Francis's mistress Olivia, who is an enormous plot complication - until she gets dragged away into the passages in the bowels of the castle, where she is apparently not merely murdered but erased from everyone's memory, as well. Given how heavily the show leans on its plot, the fact that the plot doesn't hold water at even the most cursory inspection is a problem.
And finally, I am getting more and more irritated at the fact that they've decided that their main religious conflict should be between Christians and pagans (a sect of whom lives in the Blood Wood and offers up regular human sacrifices). I get that Catholic/Protestant differences are still a touchy subject and the show runners might not want to deal with it in what is basically a soap opera with unusually ridiculous costumes, but then maybe they shouldn't have chosen sixteenth-century France as their setting.
Yeah. Apparently their total disinterest in actual history is getting to me after all. Why would you choose a historical setting if you have no interest in any part of it, not even the costumes?
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Date: 2014-11-06 03:40 pm (UTC)I get that Catholic/Protestant differences are still a touchy subject and the show runners might not want to deal with it in what is basically a soap opera with unusually ridiculous costumes, but then maybe they shouldn't have chosen sixteenth-century France as their setting.
Laughing :D
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Date: 2014-11-06 03:57 pm (UTC)I probably could have ignored the fact that the show basically ignores the Catholic/Protestant conflict if the show-runners hadn't thrown in the Catholic/human-sacrificing pagan conflict instead. I mean REALLY, that is simply not an acceptable substitute.
I found it especially irritating when the prince starts lecturing Mary about the importance of religious tolerance right after they almost got sacrificed in the woods. Maybe if he had led off with "Actually most pagans don't sacrifice people and strongly disapprove of those who do!" but nooooo, he's all "Why are you being so judgmental, Mary?" MAYBE BECAUSE SHE JUST ALMOST DIED. I FEEL LIKE NEARLY BEING MURDERED IS A REASONABLE THING TO BE JUDGMENTAL ABOUT.
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Date: 2014-11-06 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-06 06:26 pm (UTC)And Megan Fellows is totally the best thing on the show. I mean, she is also awful and keeps trying to kill everyone, but she's the only person who has a clear and consistent agenda and also clearly has a backbone made of pure steel.
I cannot wait for the king to die, probably at her hand. She probably won't allow herself to dance on his grave (so gauche!), but I imagine that her little smirk of self-satisfaction will be a thing of beauty.
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Date: 2014-11-06 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-07 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-06 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-07 12:50 am (UTC)