The Romance Collection: The Scarlet Pimpernel

I recently spent $80 on a 14-DVD set collection of A&E/BBC miniseries (it was totally worth every penny and I would have paid more for it). The DVDs included:

Pride & Prejudice (the single greatest miniseries ever created with the possible exception of Anne of Green Gables)
Victoria & Albert (which I first saw as a sophomore in college when it first came out)
Ivanhoe
Emma
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Lorna Doone
Tom Jones
Jane Eyre


Here comes the third review:

The Scarlet Pimpernel
IT ROCKED MY FACE OFF!!!!!! First of all, the actors were AWESOME!!! Usually in these miniseries, you're lucky if you find even one person that you warm up to (obviously not counting Pride & Prejudice) or find attractive. My biggest pet peeve is when (and it happens in EVERY BBC production script) Character B says about Character A, "S/he is so beautiful" and viewers at home are like WTF??????????? because they are totally NOT beautiful and it's an insult to the average person's intelligence to believe that they are. You know? Well, in this case, the actors are EFFING PERFECT!!!! The actor playing the Scarlet Pimpernel is just the right amount of foppishly flamboyant. That totally makes him sound gay, but, believe me, if you're watching it, you don't think that at all because he is also really cool (not in a leather jacket and shades kind of way, but in a suave, grace-under-pressure kind of way) and a little sexist (but in the bossy/macho/Captain von Trapp/"I must protect my wife no matter what!"/hot kind of way).

His wife, Lady Blakeney, has just the right amount of repressed I'm-still-in-love-with-my-husband-even-though-he's-distant-with-me heartache to make us feel for her while her anger at being rejected by her emotionally unavailable (for reasons she doesn't understand) husband saves her character from being a sap. Not to worry, you purists out there, her anger at him is distinctly lady-like. For you feminists out there, her anger is especially satisfying because he's such a cold fish (until, of course she figures out he's the Scarlet Pimpernel and then she's no longer angry, but all kick-ass in a Victorian sort of way. Well, except for the fact that she's French.)

The best part is it's surprisingly funny and the flirting between Sir and Lady Blakeney (post her discovery he's the pimpernel) is deliciously adorable. All in all, I give it 5 stars out of 5.

The Romance Collection: Tom Jones

I recently spent $80 on a 14-DVD set collection of A&E/BBC miniseries (it was totally worth every penny and I would have paid more for it). The DVDs included:

Pride & Prejudice (the single greatest miniseries ever created with the possible exception of Anne of Green Gables)
Victoria & Albert (which I first saw as a sophomore in college when it first came out)
Ivanhoe
Emma
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Lorna Doone
Tom Jones
Jane Eyre


Here comes the secondreview:

Tom Jones
The miniseries is a farce in the typical Henry Fielding way, so if you're into that, you will probably enjoy this miniseries. I, however, while enjoying it, had a hard time getting past a couple of things:

1) Lurkey, Tom's cousin (affectionately nicknamed so because of his habit to lurk in the corners and spy on all the other characters), is boh-ring!! Good thing he's fairly good looking!

2) Fate REALLY had it in for these characters. I mean in a Romeo & Juliet I-am-out-to-get-you-no-matter-what-you-do kind of way. Until the very end, that is. (Not to spoil it for you, but it is a happy ending. Otherwise, I totally would NOT have watched it. )

3) But it almost ISN'T a happy ending and there's only one reason for it. To put it bluntly, TOM JONES IS A WHORE!!!!!! If Tom could keep his pants zipped, EVERYONE would have been saved a lot of heartache and trouble, including Sophie, the love of his life, nearly getting raped twice and married off to different but equally disturbing men (one of those men being Lurkey who is only marrying her to make her miserable and to get back at Tom Jones for being fun and popular. Here's an idea, Lurkey: SMILE once in a while and maybe you'll make friends. Also, stop letting people's favorite pets run away. That may help too.) Course, if Tom could have kept his pants zipped, there wouldn't have been a story, but all things considered, I'm not sure that would have been that bad of a punishment.

Still, for the most part, it was fairly enjoyable. There were some funny lines and amusing parts. Most of the credit, however, goes to Sophie, who's love eventually redeems Tom's whoring, and who's portrayer eventually redeems the story with her delightful acting. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.