S02.E08: Dear Mrs. Kennedy

[Spartan Girl]

I had to laugh at Philip drooling over Jackie.

[Clanstarling]

16 hours ago, Growsonwalls said:

Here;s a SBS comparison of real life vs. The Crown:

I think The Crown purposefully made Jackie's gown strapless so she'd seem slightly risque and tacky compared to the queen. But in real life that ice blue gown was gorgeous. 

As I said, the show definitely has an "only the Brits know how to behave" POV that is annoying.

It is annoying, but to be fair, I'm sure American productions' depiction of Brits is pretty annoying to them too. Perspective is everything.

[Roseanna]

5 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

It is annoying, but to be fair, I'm sure American productions' depiction of Brits is pretty annoying to them too. Perspective is everything.

Exactly. But time also influences.

When I studied long time ago, I read a book called Mass Culture where an article dealt with British and Russian characters in American movies during WW2. Formerly f.ex. a Tory lady had been described negatively, but now her good qualities were discovered. In the same time, now Russian peasants lived happily in collective farms.

[Camera One]

I had mixed feelings about this episode, again between taking this as a drama vs. as history.  Claire Foy is so good as Elizabeth, and I sort of wish this series would continue with her journey, though I can see that the same character beats could get tiresome with further seasons.  I'm not sure I liked that female jealousy and trying to one-up Jackie Kennedy as the reason for Elizabeth dancing with the leader of Ghana, though Foy did an excellent acting job with this mid-life crisis of sorts.  It makes Elizabeth seem a little childish and petty, though I suppose that real news article above describing how she intentionally excluded Margaret from the guest list seemed petty as well.  Taken purely as a work of fiction, there were a lot of funny and powerful moments that came out of this episode's storyline, but then again, I'm not sure if this show would have equal impact if it was some fictional queen with fictional prime ministers, etc.

Philip gushing over Jackie at the party was almost embarrassing to watch and it's like he couldn't care less for Elizabeth's feelings.  I can't say I find Philip, Margaret or David likeable, but I still found myself engaged in the last few episodes, which have focused on them (I couldn't find enough to say to post individually in those episode threads).  But maybe I'm more intrigued by how those characters as well as guest characters this season (like Lord Altrincham in "Marionettes" and Jackie in this episode) have all tended to criticize or challenge Elizabeth's judgements, and I have enjoyed seeing how Elizabeth have responded to them.

I haven't seen such a buffoonish representation of JFK before, and I agree the actor's lack of resemblance to the real man was rather distracting.  The actress who played Jackie was a main character in a rather soapy Canadian WWII era series called "Bomb Girls", and it's hard for me to judge her performance since it's mixed with my feelings about her previous role.  

Even if the show wanted us to believe Elizabeth was moved to action by Jackie's public criticisms on her, I don't see how JFK would directly pinpoint Jackie's comments as motivating Elizabeth to do what she did in Ghana.  I don't think that conclusion needed to be stated or said by an outside character.  All that was needed was for Jackie to learn that her insulting words in public got back to Elizabeth.  

I like analyzing film/TV adaptations of books, and it's also interesting to think about the process for how history is adapted for the screen.  I looked up the dates... the Kennedys visited Buckingham Palace in June 1961 while the trip to Ghana happened in November 1961.  It's like the Writer looked at major events and photographs from that year and decided "Wouldn't it be neat to link those two events together?" and wrote a fictional scenario to make it "work". 

As much as I enjoyed the character moments and the humor of the circumstance presented, I can't say the plot itself was all that believable.  The speech that the leader of Ghana gave at the beginning was very pro-USSR and against British colonialism, so I couldn't buy that a dance fixed all that.  Still, it's fun to read up on the real history... I was reading this article after watching the episode.

Anyway, I'm sad I only have two more episodes in Season 2 left.  I've tried to watch only one or two episodes max. per day to make it last.

[Razzberry]

I really hated that Jackie would say such awful things about Elizabeth, so I looked it up.  While she did comment to friends on that hideous dress and a few other things,  it wasn't as bad as depicted and none of got back to E. Loved her classy comeback anyway.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

So many previous comments on the outrageous errors by Morgan and Co. in this ep.  No need to rehash.

I think my favorite moment was when she walked in to inform Adeane about the mourning period and bells.  I believe this was the first time we have seen her outright order him, thus telling him to STFU before he opens his mouth to suggest a flippin' thing.  Well done, Your Majesty.

I can accept that the African Foxtrot was deemed some type of genius diplomacy.  I'm still at a loss trying to figure out just why that is.  Maybe it's because the PM Nkrumah was forcefully portrayed as holding the deepest resentments towards the UK and the West, generally.  He then makes a secret deal with the Soviets (Which reminds me, I had no idea that the Brits insisted on referring to them as the "Russians.")  which was hard core realpolitik.  How would that guy be charmed into any core change?!