Featherhat

So because The Bible was such a big hit, every cable channel is now scrabbling around for "Biblically Based" mini series. Lifetime secured the rights to one of my favourite books of all time The Red Tent and its coming out next week. I was a complete mess by the end of this book when I read it as a teen and I still think the story is vey powerful. I'm very leery of Rebecca Ferguson as Dinah, but the rest of the cast seem solid. Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn7slM-72ls

The AE link is clearly to remind some SQ fans she has said nice, pro SQ things in the past. Those tweets were hopeful to be all things to all people, which in general is impossible but Lana has found it easier than most with this fandom until very recently. I don't hate Lana and she should certainly not receive abuse for supporting her canon ship, but linking to an AE interview is basically worthless these days. It's the most mainstream Lesbian pop culture site but it's on the PR radar for coverage of shows and interviews with actresses who's characters ever eye fucked another woman briefly mean that that interview doesn't mean anything by and of itself if you try to use it as a shield. I don't think she should have to do so, but she seems to be finding out that trying to appease everyone doesn't work long term.

Well the adding in of ethnic characters was the direct result of the old (basically "forcibly retired" IIRC) producer saying a few years ago they deliberately didn't have non whites because this was essentially a middle England series, which got him in all sorts of trouble as you can imagine. I have no problem with adding in minority characters, I have lived near a couple of places they've filmed in the Chilterns and whilst they're very much mostly white English its not totally (and it is silly to think that Causton at least had no minorities) I do miss the more eccentric dark fantasy of "English Village Life" plots...bell ringing....orchids....village school closure...watercolour societies...local charity evenings...WI.......historical societies and many more that aren't as insane in recent series.

There was a quote from an author I read saying something to the effect of "sometimes the WTF? Highschool! tone of the proceedings becomes more understandable when you realise that these people really were teens and college age." I always think of that when I watch Reign. That might have been better. Married off as an early teen and widowed and so not obligated to be a virgin might have had more potential than the petulant (psychotic) party girl. I will say though that that virginity test scene was pretty brutal This whole Bash thing with her is just weird. I could buy that if Bash had been raised separately and then come to court as an 18 year old that he could get bowled over by a beautiful 16 year old before he realised she was his sister and then she convinced him briefly that Henri wasn't his father. But a brother who only had his acknowledged status to survive on, who had grown up with his very young at the time sister? WTF? I really have no idea why they included it or where they're going with it. I think Margot has probably been amalgamated with Claude at this point, but if the shows ratings were better and 5 seasons looked likely to be on the cards then she might have popped up as needed.

Well it didn't go great work Sleepy Hollow this season and that "short season but quick renewal" was announced as a very positive thing, this is more of a "well we hope it might still be renewed..." It works well on cable but not as often on network TV. It definitely has a chance but at the moment they aren't even pretending it might be for artistic/quality control reasons.

A lot of those were ordered to series before a pilot was even shot. It’s supposed to save costs on high concept shows money but recently it’s meant networks order expensive concepts before seeing how any footage actually comes across. Members Only sounded a fairly generic show of the kind that ABC hasn't exactly had too much success without the years.

There was no consideration that Francis could be a doting father if it was his only chance because a) a lot of people would not see it as being a "real" father aka producing a "real heir" and there was no expectation that he and Lola could be a cosy Henri and Diane alternative family. I think her good reasons really were good reasons. 1) being that Mary is her Queen. She's not a French subject her actual Sovereign is extremely hurt by this, is a good friend and agrees to find alternative solutions at first. I think "probably dying" absolves most letters written in that time, even if I do agree that you then have to deal with the consequences. It wouldn't be the first time that a King as dismissed a former shag away with a bag of gold and manor for the baby, never to be seen again. It's to Francis's credit that he isn't doing that, but Lola's not entirely wrong for thinking she should move away or there's another solution that "everyone stays at court in what everyone is assuming is another Diane/Henri/Catherine" ménage of insanity. Actually it would also have benefitted her friend and Queen Mary, who is now baring the humiliation of all of Europe thinking she is the reason there is no heir to France yet. It protects the Baby from the real stigma of Bastardy. Yes Kings got more leeway with this than anyone else, but even with a title its not an easy life compared to "heir to a minor noble's estate with the patronage of the King and Queen." Especially if Mary and Francis don't have a son he's a target for rebellion even if it doesn't want it. In the end neither she nor Francis were prepared for this. Lola tried almost everything but telling Francis and giving up "freedom" and it didn't work partly. It Francis's fault that he wanted to acknowledge the baby after he became "real" to him. I don't think either of them want to "get away with anything at others expense". It's a shitty situation and so far they are 75% being really pro active and trying to make this work with each other despite the awkwardness and understandable feelings. Kenna's good at talking the talk, but if she'd been left with Henri's bastard at the end of last season I dread to think what storylines they'd have had between her Catherine and Francis. Fatherly involvement was nothing like it was today anyway. Children were lucky to see some of their courtier fathers *and* mothers a few times a year.

It really depended on the court, the country and the era. One more salacious rumour isn't going to hurt Claude anymore, and her marriage chances are still there when someone remembers that the chance to control/ally with/use France means marrying a Valois. Real life Margaret whom this Claude seems to be based on was almost certainly not a virgin on her wedding night and this was a well known "secret". Yes everyone will look the other way if that means getting what they want most out of the deal. Thomas Seymour's conduct with Elizabeth was a little part of his downfall, but the other bigger part was his ever growing arrogance and power and supposed plans to usurp his brother in name and therefore his nephew in fact although not as actual King (since Edward Seymour himself basically set himself up as King in all but name). In fact suspicious were on Elizabeth because it was thought she might have been egging him on for her own power, not necessarily because touching a Princess was automatically treason. Mary and Francis not talking to each other about anything feels very contrived, as does Mary/Conde, it's worse than with Bash except the one grace that there's no brother triangle, which is always the worst.

I guess because she does want to stay with her son, if she left like that she'd likely never see him again. And she doesn't want to leave her friends and her Queen and everything else she knows, now that she has no one else left as her family disowned her and we don't know if she has enough pull in her own right to have anyone she previously knew in Scotland be an ally. Yes she could sail away to another foreign place but she'd probably have to change her name as "Lady Lola mother of the King of France's 1st bastard" is clearly gossip over Europe and that just gets things even messier. She'd be just as vulnerable in another place (in different ways) except without those who are still on her side to protect her. And I think "independent young woman of means" is way more precarious than it might be a few centuries later. Certainly she'd bring out the Narcisses's wherever she went. She might be better off retiring quietly for a while until the height of the scandal blows over but Mary isn't letting her do that. She should certainly make some discreet investments in case she ever needs to flee with her son.

In the UK the only person I've met with the name Andre was French. In the area I work in (London) there seems to be a lot people of Indian descent (some of them 4th generation UK) who us UK nicknames for Indian names "Sam" for Sanjay or "Katie" for Kamal etc. There doesn't seem to be a huge "white name/black name" difference among the middle classes where I live. The name "Tyresha" would get flagged up as "American" before "black" in any system that was paying attention.

Hah yes. At times it seems like Mary and Francis are more pro protestant than just ecumenical and at other times it seems Mary sincerely does believe that she has a calim to the English throne (which can only be a Catholic claim). In the episode where it is revealed Castelroy is a protestant I sincerely thought one of them was going to declare France a country of religious freedom, which it.....wasn't. IRL I'm all for acceptance and tolerance of different denominations and faiths but it makes zero sense for Mary and Francis. Fair enough. I'm enjoying Reign's attempt at "semi if you drive by history" in its 2nd season as well. I do prefer it to "the pagans in the woods just outside Fontainebleau" debacle. I'm reserving judgement on Lola and Narcisse until they show where they are going with them.

I stand corrected, I thought the peak happened a couple of episodes later. It's hard to pin point what happened. There's less fluff but it was replaced with more meat, and even then its 500% less serious about real life religious wars than even The Tudors. The substituted Pagans in The Woods for Protestants in S1 and it was weird but having actual Huguenots appearing isn't making it less weird/dramatic (the pagans never contributed to the fun or whimsy). 50 Shades of Grey was a wallbanger after 50 pages for me (no to Bella redux even if it is so called "mommy porn" so I can't comment on that with Lola and Narcisse but I'm happy for Anna Popplewell and Craig Parker's sake that they are getting to be Reign's version of complex.

I keep worrying this is going to cause a reflaring of the triangle. Reign reached its peak at the height of the Bash nonsense and now that its settled its ratings have tumbled. That might be why they have Conde running around as new!Bash as well. Or maybe the novelty is simply wearing off. Yeah they seem to have applied Margot's personality onto Claude, but I agree it doesn't mean she doesn't exist per se, thought they might be doing a Marygaret again.

Geez June's right, her side of the story is coming and .........its worse. "Hey, he's not Pumpkin's father, so other paedophile is, I've let this happen to me and my girls twice and am showing absolutely no remorse whatsoever!" And that's just the guys with evidence against them strong enough to get long prison sentences, how much do you want to bet that there are more of them in June's history that didn't get caught? Pumpkin doesn't need closure on a Daddy figure she hasn't seen since she was 6 (who at least abused her by proxy since she watched her sister get raped). All you need to tell her is that he did something very bad and had to go to prison and Mommy is very angry at him (well she isn't but non terrible mothers would be). She's so clearly lying that they only met up twice. That or they started lying around on beds and letting him touch Alana on the shoulders instantly after being in prison and not seeing him for 10 years.

Yeah I wish I could say that it was a stupid outdated trope, but I don't think it is. From the "cliché" schools covering for famous/outstanding athletes in exchange for prestige and money to extremely strict Christian schools where the *victim* is in danger of and/or gets expelled for violation of the sexual conduct code if she (usually she) reports an attack, it definitely still seems to exist.

That's kind of what happened with Stargate. The producers had created 2 long running (10 year and 5 year) fairly lighthearted sci fi shows that were never as celebrated as something like BSG or Babylon 5 but had a loyal fanbase. The decided to dump that formula to create SGU and cash in on the BSG "dark and edgy" (and mega critically adored), the only problem was that they couldn't really do it and it came across (IMHO) as a desperate copycat, the stories were trite and often *less* interesting and potentially complex than the "bumblegum" previous shows. "Gritty, dark, edgy" doesn't automatically = either interesting or well written.

Not only that it also has the unique advantage of being tied into Disney, in the way that we've experienced all along but most notably with Frozen, which allowed the network to boost ratings and publicity and Disney to explore just how to deal with keeping their latest phenomenon going since the movie isn't exactly crying out for a sequel. Interesting analysis. Even though it fell after the 1st 2 episodes I think Once is up on where it would be without Frozen and with 3B hanging over their heads. I'm not sure I agree that Sleepy Hollow and SHIELD are guaranteed to reach 100 each though, probably more than 50% but they seem to be taking certain things for granted which I don't think should be in the current landscape. The ratings seem to have stabilized for now in the mid 2s live + same day which is good enough, it just depends on whether 4B has enough to sustain it.

Are Francis and Mary crumbling on the way to his death or on their way to a Darnley/Bothwell (ick Conde) situation? I dislike the illgit plot but Anna Popplewell is doing way better than last year with storylines even so. She is more a player than Kenna ever was, after a handful of episodes. However Kenna is right that a lot of royal mistresses had to grab any chance to acquire land and jewels to survive after their affair with the King ended, although she didn't seem to get any herself. Within the Reign Universe I expect and don't mind Elizabeth being used as a boogie man villain, even though she far more than May is my home gal. But there isn't a great deal of evidence that she gave a stuff about owning/conquering Scotland for its own sake, I don't think. Yep she interfered and supported Scottish protestants, though they didn't exactly always support her. Mary's real historical "Bash" brother was a powerful figure in Scotland. If they were going to have "Beige!Conde" instead of Bash they should have brought back "Scottish!Bash" back instead. Seriously did Torrence Coombs piss someone off or need discreet time off for personal reasons?

Wednesdays at 10pm was another historic weak spot for ABC, Nashville is there trying to inject some counter programming to potentially more male dominated series. It's actually been semi successful at that, although never a hit. They'll never move AOS or AC to 10pm though, that would rule out a lot of the demo they want to be watching live. It's why AOS was originally an 8pm show (with 8pm acceptable violence). Every slot on TV has competition, even Fridays is well booked out. Shows are hopefully given the best chance (obviously not always true) and then succeed or sink on their own merits. Tuesday at 8pm wasn't seen as a terrible slot for AOS last season, weak comedies, aging older skewing procedural etc, but it didn't work out that way really.

Yeah I was aware of the article, I'm just calling BS on some of the details. I don't believe she ever received *nothing* from the show, especially in the beginning, she was obviously gunning for big fame on T&T, she wanted the income from her own show and there was no guarantee of ancillaries before it was broadcast, even if they made money that way when it started. Plus as she has proven beyond doubt recently, she's extremely selfish. She might well have put some money into different accounts for the girls but I find the "I never see a penny" disingenuous and I rather doubt that they are irrevocable trusts.

Well Greer seemed pleased enough with the result of their experiments last episode, so it seems he's not a total slouch. Now it's Narcisse Lola gets to have the prospect of a fantastic lover to make her ignore any qualms about any creepy vibes he gives off in additional to "unlucky in love" stories he's banding about to her. He might like her but he also sees being step father to the king's oldest bastard (with title) and only current son as a way to gain more power.

Sounds like someone cooked up an excuse to get someone else to pay them to live in NYC for a while on the basis of extra exposure from this scandal. I still don't think photo shopped the pictures, or whatever June was claiming but he's not shy about trying to grift off it.

The way she has been spending money (or allegedly spending money) I wouldn’t be surprised if she was using money that she claimed was earmarked for the girls, whether it had ever been put in trusts (or separate accounts) or not. TLC aren’t known for generosity and splitting an episode (or season) fee 6/7 ways doesn’t leave particularly large amounts over. Although it depends how much extra juice they got from any “merchandising” or promotional deals. It may be Anna’s way of hitting back at her mother, and I wouldn’t blame her one bit) but OTOH I wouldn’t be surprised if the girls find the promised money doesn’t exist in a few years time. I think SB is being lured back into cooperating with the promises of more money, the un-cancelling of the show and maybe getting back with June (can’t believe he would want to but ick he might). The guy was so broke he was “borrowing” money from friends and living in a trailer paid for by TLC, and is ill so he can’t get easy work. He’s probably desperate enough to lend June credibility because he doesn’t have many other options. The next season was probably supposed to contain the “SB in a trailer” “storyline” so they hope they can leverage TLC into going back to that or at least airing what they already have.

IIRC the Orlando Bloom ep was a bit ironic because it had several LOTR references, and this was *before* he was Legolas, or had he already been cast in it but it hadn't opened yet?

Wasn't there death by church bells? Or certainly murder because of a bell ringing competition. That was my favourite.