A Certain Slant of Light

I am beginning to worry that Code Name Verity has ruined me for all other World War II related media. I couldn’t get into Bomb Girls at all (I know, what is wrong with me?) and while I liked The Bletchley Circle, it didn’t blow me away. And I wanted it to blow me away. It is a period piece! about women! solving crimes!!!, and therefore it is like they made it for me personally!

I did enjoy it, I just...I wanted it to blow me away. And it didn’t.

I thought it would have been better if...( Spoilers for the end )

YOU GUYS YOU GUYS. How is everyone else in the world not watching Desperate Romantics? It is amazing and full of art and Victorian England and beautiful redheads and cute guys and more art and EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD I WANT IN A SHOW. It is a show about terrible people, but it knows it's a show about terrible people and it calls them on their terribleness and it is so, so funny.

So many historical shows leap at the opportunity to indulge in sexism - and the Victorian art world in general and pre-Raphaelites in particular offer so many opportunities (I'm not sure Rosetti quite saw women as people) - and this show just avoids that so effortlessly.

I have even forgiven it for its lack of Christina Rosetti, that is how much I love this show.

And did I mention it's hilarious? Seriously. And it has the most complicated and convoluted and interestingly difficult take on heterosexual romance - and on friendships - and really just relationships in general - you can tell they thought about every single relationship in this show. What makes it go? Where are its weak points? How do these two people - these two particular people - fit together?

So there are three main pairings in Desperate Romantics. John Millais/Effie Ruskin (who is now Effie Millais), who are rather effaced in this episode, though Millais is enjoying married life so much that he enjoins all his friends to the joys of matrimony with the rapturous comment that "the course of our physical intimacy takes us daily through new and enchanting landscapes" - oh, Millais, ILU. I hope here is more Effie & Millais in the next episode.

Then, Dante Gabriel Rosetti/Elizabeth Siddal, who are riding the True Love Train straight to...well, presumably an early death from consumption on her apart, although I'm holding out hope they'll ignore that inconvenient bit of history.

(In this episode, Ruskin is all, "Miss Siddal, you are so talented! You are an untutored genius! I've decided to give you a stipend so you can devote yourself to your art. And Rosetti, you're clearly a great teacher, I've found you a teaching post!" Rosetti's look of horror, barely gilded with an attempt to look delighted and supportive - he's supposed to be the untutored genius, not her! - is priceless.)

But today! Today I'm going to talk about William Holman Hunt and his disastrous relationship with his protegee Annie Miller, a prostitute/model who he has decided to raise out of the gutter and turn into a lady because...well, he's not clear why he's doing this, which contributes to the terribleness of their relationship. Hunt is forever saying things like "I admire your working class spirit, but until we change your voice and your walk and everything about you really, I can't possibly introduce you to my mother."

Annie is torn between being gratified to get a chance in life she never expected to have, and being insulted by the fact that Hunt claims he's in love with her while not seeming to actually like anything about her. "I am sick to death of being your experiment," she snaps at him, when yet again he's broken off their relationship; and he's so infuriated that he tries to convince Annie to move out of London, because he can't stand to be in the same city as her anymore, apparently, and obviously that's her problem.

He sends Fred to take the message. Fred is the only one of them who isn't based on any particular historical person, and his main role is to provide a sort of buffer so it's not all pre-Raphaelites trying to steal each other's girlfriends all the time. Mostly he's pretty dull; not in a way that detracts from the story, but in a "someone needs to be boring around here to make everyone else stand out all the more brightly" kind of way.

But Fred - Fred reaches his apotheosis in this episode. He tears Hunt a new one - and it's not even because Fred's in love with Annie; he's not, but he recognizes that she deserves better. I nearly fell out of my chair.

"I will no longer carry messages to a woman you are not worthy of, carry messages to a woman who has done everything you have asked of her, yet whom you still reject. A woman who deserves to be loved, and if not by you then by some other manm who will not demand of her that she be anything other than her loving and lovable self.

"You wronged her. It is your pride, not hers, that is the issue here."

And Hunt runs off to apologize to her - finally finds her in a tea shop - rather fails to do justice to how sorry he is (he should have just quoted Fred, but he was still too proud, perhaps) - and she tells him, gently but firmly, that's it's over. Years from now, they'll see each other, and he'll be a great artist and she'll be a matron with seven children, and they'll look back at this and laugh.

And he loses her. He acted like a complete jerk to her - and she doesn't forgive him: she half wants to, but she can't, because he's betrayed her trust too many times. They cry over the tea table, and it's sad and necessary and beautiful.

(And then the episode finishes off with Millais unveiling his sketch for Bubbles, which sends the pre-Raphaelites into hysterics. Always leave 'em laughing.)

...everyone should watch this. I plan to buy a copy just to make all my RL friends watch it. Hopefully they won't be too alarmed by the amount of sex in it.

I've been watching State of Georgia. I think there is a lesson here, and it is this: when entwashian recommends a TV show, I should watch it STAT.

It is awesome. The eponymous Georgia is an aspiring actress who is constantly pulling her best friend, Jo the physics grad student (PHYSICS GRAD STUDENT, people!) into adventures, which Jo accepts long-sufferingly but secretly thinks are awesome! And Georgia is fabulous and has enough self-confidence to sink a ship! And there are hijinks and hilarious banter!

This may be the only show I have ever seen which has enough female friendship.

And also two of the three series regulars are black women: Georgia and her aunt Honey, with whom she and Jo are living. And many of the recurring characters, or bit characters, are characters of color as well. (Jo's physics study group for the win!)

YAY I HAVE A NEW TV SHOW. Sadly its only 13 episodes long. Just like Wonderfalls! And Firefly! All the best TV shows get canceled early!