Gentleman Jack
Three years ago Anne Lister strode onto the screen and became the darling of relevant period drama. Suranne Jones as Lister with a nod and a wink spoke right to the audience letting us into the secrets of Lister's life. And what a life! From 1791 to 1840 Anne Lister detailed the minutiae of her life in secret diaries that were found behind a wall panel in her home, Shibden Hall. What's more stunning is that they were written in a code that, when cracked, showed their importance because Lister was unapologetically a lover of women. She wrote about her seduction techniques and love affairs, as well as information about coal and canals. Lister's marriage to Ann Walker, which concludes the first season of Gentleman Jack, is viewed as the first lesbian marriage in Britain. There's a plaque and everything. You'd think that such a life as Lister's, with all her work and travel and love affairs, would have been adapted years early, and actually it was almost a decade previously, but The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister staring Maxine Peake just seemed to be missing something, and oddly not Gemma Jones who reprises her role of Aunt Lister here. And I can't really put my finger on the failure either other than perhaps the world was just waiting with baited breath for the perfection that is Gentleman Jack. This show is an amazing headlong plunge into the life of a woman who loved life. Suranne Jones as Anne Lister is more alive than anyone I have ever seen. Her personality is larger than life, you can see how Ann Walker fell under her spell and how Mariana Lawton can not live without her. But in Ann Walker we see the heart of the show, her vulnerability, her humanity, and how Anne Lister wants to protect her. This is a complicated love story as well as a celebration of a woman who lived her life as she wanted, not willing to conform to societies expectations of her. What's more this show has a stacked cast, Timothy West, Peter Davison, Rupert Vansittart, Gemma Whelan, and so many more. But I think a king, a doctor, an in-law of Mr. Bingley's, and a Greyjoy are pretty big names indeed! But the second season seems to lack focus. Yes, love, work, politics, they were all an important part of Lister's life, but here they're all mashed together with no rhyme or reason. And as for how they handle the politics, blues versus yellows, they do know us Americans don't know what that means right? I wanted Gemma Whelan to give one of her perplexed stares into the camera just for me. But maybe, just maybe, they didn't want to spell it out because Lister was actually a conservative, AKA a blue. And as for how they handled Mariana this season, hold me back. There is NO EVIDENCE that there was an affair after the marriage. And Mariana comes across as such a manipulative bitch. But I give them credit for showing Lister warts and all, especially in how she treated her sister. Sometimes you can't like her, but you have to root for her, because it's wrong that Miss Lister and Miss Walker are the only two people in the world who are rooting for their relationship to succeed.
Post a Comment