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"Marie Antoinette"
It's looking as if[†] they are going to go through Marie Antoinette's entire life, rather than just creating a 'teen couple try to make arranged marriage work' drama... which means that this could get a good deal darker than I was expecting :-( The show was up to the stated year 1780 already at the start of this episode, and we have to be then at least a year or two later by the end of it, which is getting into 'dangerous' territory. We already had ironic hints this week about how "you too will grow old and ill, Sire"; as we know, he very notoriously won't...!
† One of the things about watching 'live' television as opposed to a boxed set is that, as when watching live cinema, you genuinely have no idea how long it is going to go on for. I've lost track of how many episodes we're on, but it is already more than the usual BBC drama serial, which clock in between three ("Sherlock", "Vienna Blood") and half a dozen ("The Outlaws", "Chloe"), and you never know whether the next one is going to be the finale (as I honestly thought last week's episode was) or not! I've never forgotten the astonished experience of watching "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid" and discovering that the doom-laden climax of the chase actually isn't the end -- and not even the actual eventual ending could take away from the miracle of that :-p
As I mentioned previously, I have deliberately avoided looking up the bits of history with which I'm unfamiliar (which is quite a lot of it, with the exception of the Chevalier de St-Georges). So while I knew that the French supported the American revolt (hence the involvement of Lafayette, Talleyrand, etc.), I had absolutely no idea that they were actually at war with England in the 1780s, nor that they fought an apparently (although doubt is cast on this at the end of the episode) successful naval action in the Channel!
My instinctive sympathies remain with the 'Boy King', Louis, although the device of having him write down his thoughts in his diary for the benefit of the audience rather grates... but of course, this is done because he tends not to helpfully confide them to anyone. As one doesn't :-)
† One of the things about watching 'live' television as opposed to a boxed set is that, as when watching live cinema, you genuinely have no idea how long it is going to go on for. I've lost track of how many episodes we're on, but it is already more than the usual BBC drama serial, which clock in between three ("Sherlock", "Vienna Blood") and half a dozen ("The Outlaws", "Chloe"), and you never know whether the next one is going to be the finale (as I honestly thought last week's episode was) or not! I've never forgotten the astonished experience of watching "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid" and discovering that the doom-laden climax of the chase actually isn't the end -- and not even the actual eventual ending could take away from the miracle of that :-p
As I mentioned previously, I have deliberately avoided looking up the bits of history with which I'm unfamiliar (which is quite a lot of it, with the exception of the Chevalier de St-Georges). So while I knew that the French supported the American revolt (hence the involvement of Lafayette, Talleyrand, etc.), I had absolutely no idea that they were actually at war with England in the 1780s, nor that they fought an apparently (although doubt is cast on this at the end of the episode) successful naval action in the Channel!
My instinctive sympathies remain with the 'Boy King', Louis, although the device of having him write down his thoughts in his diary for the benefit of the audience rather grates... but of course, this is done because he tends not to helpfully confide them to anyone. As one doesn't :-)
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And then again (and I say this with respect :P), I don't like most British/American attempts at picturing French history/literature apart from a few exceptions, so maybe I would get annoyed either way :P
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I very nearly avoided the series altogether for similar reasons (did you see my original post on it, linked above? https://igenlode.dreamwidth.org/298106.html ) but in fact it's not all that much "21st-century" -- less so now, I think, because they're not trying to present the actress as a teenager any more since her character is well into adulthood -- and I felt that what little they did do in that line generally worked. I did cringe at having the latest episode introduced by a Times-Square-type New Year countdown and fireworks in order to establish the date :-P
I never saw the Sofia Coppola film, as the advertising was more than enough to convince me that it wasn't aimed at me (and the screenshots that come up on a cursory Web search emphasise that all over again!) I didn't watch "Moulin Rouge" or "Titanic" either ;-p
Well, given what the Americans have a tendency to do to *English* history, I'm not surprised ;-D