by Helen Langdon
After taking a week’s break last week so that BBC One viewers could watch Manchester United do badly in the FA Cup, The Musketeers were back to deal with issues of faith and mob rule. It all went a bit Joan of Arc as prophet Emilie told the people of France that it was their destiny to rise up against Spain and depose the antichrist King Philip. With Spaniards brutally lynched in the streets of Paris before the opening titles, it was easy to imagine that this was going to be an episode full of violence and action.
After taking a week’s break last week so that BBC One viewers could watch Manchester United do badly in the FA Cup, The Musketeers were back to deal with issues of faith and mob rule. It all went a bit Joan of Arc as prophet Emilie told the people of France that it was their destiny to rise up against Spain and depose the antichrist King Philip. With Spaniards brutally lynched in the streets of Paris before the opening titles, it was easy to imagine that this was going to be an episode full of violence and action.
But instead the episode was full of lots of talking, as the main plotline was squashed aside to make room for countless other little storylines. And that’s a pity, because in the previous episode, multiple storylines were handled with care and panache, each given the room they needed to breathe. Here, the whole episode ended up feeling like a bunch of plot developments jammed in together, small things that are necessary to move the season arc forward but don’t deserve proper scenes. So, aside from Emilie, in this one episode we had: Rochefort discovering Milady’s assassin past, Constance finding out about Anne and Aramis, Rochefort and Perales trying to kill each other (Milady trumps prostitute, so Rochefort wins), Marguerite being blackmailed into spying for Rochefort, Milady taunting Athos and Porthos suspecting that Treville knows something about his father.
BBC It’s a pity that this episode does feel so disjointed and oddly paced, because there’s a lot that The Musketeers is doing right. Its treatment of female characters has improved so much compared to the first season, with women all over the episode. With Anne and Constance holding hands and trying to change France for the better, it’s pretty much guaranteed that every episode finally passes the Bechdel test, and meanwhile Milady’s got everyone guessing as to how much she’s reformed.
The Musketeers now seems to have an awareness of gender issues, following on from Constance’s diatribe in episode one about how it’s a man’s world. You’ve got Louis sidelining Milady from political discussions, Anne aware that it’s only her fertility that keeps her as queen, and Marguerite’s reputation more important to her than anything. But what’s great is that The Musketeers also chooses to make the audience complicit in treating women as inferior. After all, the prostitute might accuse Rochefort of “never ask[ing her] name,” but did we even notice up until that point that she hasn’t had a name in the end credits?
The Musketeers now seems to have an awareness of gender issues, following on from Constance’s diatribe in episode one about how it’s a man’s world. You’ve got Louis sidelining Milady from political discussions, Anne aware that it’s only her fertility that keeps her as queen, and Marguerite’s reputation more important to her than anything. But what’s great is that The Musketeers also chooses to make the audience complicit in treating women as inferior. After all, the prostitute might accuse Rochefort of “never ask[ing her] name,” but did we even notice up until that point that she hasn’t had a name in the end credits?
BBC The Musketeers will be taking another break next Friday night for the rugby. This season’s ratings might be suffering from the move to Friday nights and the constant interruptions for sporting events, but the creative team are taking chances and trying to make a more mature, well-rounded drama. It might not always work in individual episodes, but overall, these first few episodes have proved that season two is a major improvement on the previous one.
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