S02.E06: I Can Be as a Meteor in Your Life

[TexasGal]

Quote

Anne Lister brushes the humiliating newspaper announcement aside, refusing to be intimidated by its public lampooning of her sexuality. Ann Walker is devastated to discover that her family have colluded with Captain Sutherland over the Walker estate, and suspects Parker of being in on it. And when a shocking letter intending to destroy Ann’s trust in her wife arrives at Shibden Hall, the cracks already appearing within their marriage are forced open.

Airdate: 05/15/2022

Season 2 episodes are airing in the UK a few weeks earlier than in the US.  Anyone waiting for the US airing - don't enter if you don't want to be spoiled!

[natyxg]

So this episode was half coal/politics/will stuff that I don't really care about or understand (I try to follow it, but I genuinely can’t), and half Ann(e)s stuff that I really liked.

I specially loved the last scene. I have a real soft spot for vulnerable Anne and she was back in full force in that last scene. Just when she thinks she finally has a wife and things are settled, Ann terrifies her by making her feel like some man can come along and Ann might choose him because she wants to be a mother someday. Anne has such trauma around being left for men that it really triggers her. But underneath her apparent anger she’s just terrified. That moment when Ann caresses her face and Anne's lip trembles, and then she has to hold herself steady by holding onto the mantelpiece  after Ann is gone, because she had been trying to keep herself strong while her legs were jelly because she was so scared/upset… *chef’s kiss”

On a more superficial level, they looked so good in this episode.

I SWOON!

[tennisgurl]

So the theme this season seems to be that Anne really hates when people want children...

[Moxie Cat]

On 5/19/2022 at 8:45 PM, natyxg said:

So this episode was half coal/politics/will stuff that I don't really care about or understand (I try to follow it, but I genuinely can’t)

I loved when Marian mouthed "what?" to the camera when Anne was discussing the neverending pit politics with her workers. You and me both, Marian!

I get that this was real life, but I honestly can't follow much detail this season, whether it's the pit(s?), Anne's real estate issues, Tory politics, Ann Walker and the Sutherlands' will drama, and the many, MANY Walker relatives - the last of whom are frequently named but rarely shown on camera aside from the older aunt who disinherited Ann and the Priestleys. I do enjoy the more human interactions, including the excellent acting, but this season has been bogged down by too many intricacies and secondary characters that I honestly try to follow but just can't make heads or tails of (even with the captions on).

Edited June 2, 2022 by Moxie Cat

[natyxg]

On 6/2/2022 at 5:02 PM, Moxie Cat said:

I get that this was real life, but I honestly can't follow much detail this season, whether it's the pit(s?), Anne's real estate issues, Tory politics, Ann Walker and the Sutherlands' will drama, and the many, MANY Walker relatives - the last of whom are frequently named but rarely shown on camera aside from the older aunt who disinherited Ann and the Priestleys. I do enjoy the more human interactions, including the excellent acting, but this season has been bogged down by too many intricacies and secondary characters that I honestly try to follow but just can't make heads or tails of (even with the captions on).

I agree completely. I felt like one of the things that hurt this season the most was that it seemed like they struggled with finding a story for the season, and thought "oh well, let's just follow the diaries" and ended up adding a lot of unnecessary, boring details that were just so confusing and hard to follow. They gave too much emphasis to things that are not inherently dramatic, and then didn't turn them into proper drama.

It's like making a movie about a math genius that is not primarily about his rivalry with another math genius who used to be his best friend, or something like that, but instead is about literal math equations and they spend a big chunk of the movie talking really fast about math theory and solving complex math problems on screen. 

I think the story should have been about interpersonal conflict (with a heavy emphasis on giving the Ann(e)s a satisfying, emotional shared plot) with the more mundane, confusing business stuff and the like happening, yes, but in the background mostly.

[kwnyc]

I have been following the coal/canal/railway parts of the story in a way (and Marian's "WHAT?" is one of the finest moments of the show).

And because of watching shows like Cranford, and Young Victoria, I know that the railway is going to be huge. So Ann, who has a fabulous business sense, is hedging her bets with the canals, so they will be as modernized as possible before the railway ends up taking over, and looking seriously at investing in the railway; not to mention that it runs on coal, and all her mines will be right there.

She was making moves that would make her fabulously wealthy. (A hotel, though? Nah. They are expensive and fail easily...)

And note later that she's willing to sell some of her canal shares, and at a price lower than what she was asking.

Had the real life Ann Lister lived to a ripe old age, she might have been one of the richest women in England.