Rivals
Dame Jilly Cooper and her bonkbusters never really made a splash stateside. So you'd probably think it safe to assume that the one and only reason I watched this series was because of David Tennant. You'd be partly right, but throw in Aidan Turner, Katherine Parkinson, Oliver Chris, and Claire Rushbrook as well. But the thing is, if you're a fan of British television and in particular older classic sitcoms like The Vicar of Dibley, there are many cultural references that you either educate yourself about or allow to go over your head. I chose to educate myself, so while I've never read a word Dame Jilly Cooper has written I was well familiar with her name and her subject matter. I mean, the dust jackets of the Rutshire Chronicles are pretty iconic and are very clear as to what they're about. In other words, Dame Jilly Cooper is Dallas and Dynasty in prose form. And I love me my Dallas and Dynasty and was so stoked that they were going all in on the eighties excess for this adaptation. The clothes, the music, the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but at the same time, oh so British. It was like a mashup of all things I love in one perfect package. And you will see many a package. Because what sets this show apart is that it's seen through the female gaze. So it's the men whose bodies are being sexualized, and I say about fucking time. The romance genre is primarily female dominated and yet how often are adaptations still seen through the male gaze? And why I ask myself!?! Women want a little rumpy-pumpy with their own needs met. Though I will say that the coupling montage sequences that close out a few of the episodes go a bit too far... Or should I just say, I bit too much. It's like sensory overload which tips it a little too far into the camp category. And while there is no denying that this show is camp, camp is a fine line to walk, wobble too much to one side or the other and you could end up stodgy or ludicrous, which it occasionally does, in both directions. Though I shouldn't read too much into my nitpicking, because this is about abundant joy, and it doesn't take itself seriously at all, and boy did I enjoy it. I mean, the bad guy is named Baddingham and they live in Rutshire! That's the level it's playing at and playing with! And oh, David Tennant loves to chew the scenery villainously. If there's one flaw to the show it's a lack of explanation as to how television worked in the eighties in England. So Lord Tony Baddingham runs Corinium, an independent commercial television station which currently has the franchise rights for the southwest of England. But these rights are up for renewal so another company could pitch for them and a board made up of Sister Boniface's mother and a rapist priest get to decide who gets it. Which is where the rivalry really heats up because Tony's nemesis Rupert Campbell-Black, the top TV show host Declan O'Hara whom Tony fired, and electronics impresario Freddie Jones form Venturer which in the finale gets through the public hearing to being allowed to pitch for Corinium's franchise. Or at least I think that's what happens. It's confusing to an American like me where this isn't at all how television works. Anyone can have a station as long as you have money... So... Yeah. Love the show but don't really understand a lot of what happened in the middle. I guess that just means I'll have to watch it again. The lengths I'll go to to make sure I have all the facts! Grueling I tell you! Grueling! I think I'll read the book as well...
Newlywed Brits move to New York for husband's job. Husband cheats with coworker. Husband lies and says it was a one time thing. Wife finds out it wasn't. They go on vacation. The trip of a lifetime. Wife doesn't want to repeat the patterns she saw with her parents so decides her husband needs to have an accident. But fate intervenes. They run into the mistress and her boyfriend and the mistress is killed. Things get even messier. The police get involved. Mistress's boyfriend is arrested. Mistress's boyfriend is released. Wife kills mistress's boyfriend. Husband has another mistress. Husband doesn't have a clue. Wife frames him for the murder she herself committed. Wife presumably gets the divorce she wanted all along. Wife writes book. Hopefully it's a bestseller. There's nothing that complicated about this series. It's a simple tale of revenge. But it's the class of acting and the way that Jenna Coleman makes you root for Liv the entire time that make it worth watching. You feel how she has reached her last straw and so want her to kill her husband. As the six episodes unfold you keep having delayed satisfaction. The husband didn't die, but the mistress did. The husband didn't die, but the mistress's boyfriend did. Finally tying it all up by the husband going to prison for the crime the wife committed was such poetic justice. Now some people might say, it was kind of cruel to kill the mistress, as it was really the husband at fault. Well, not in my book. First, it takes two to cheat. Second, yes, I know he was emotionally manipulating her and giving her false hope but again, it takes two to cheat. Third, and most important, when the mistress meets the wife they have a moment of catharsis, a moment where they bond, and after that, like almost right after that, she tries to convince the husband to run away with her. She befriended Liv and then betrayed her, death is her sentence. As for the boyfriend? He deserved to die because he's Eric Balfour. I have hated him since the moment I set eyes on him. I actually would have been fine with him being imprisoned, he could have rotted in jail with his friend Danny Masterson, but he died, and that brings me joy. So much joy. I should maybe make Liv caving in his skull a screensaver... As for framing her husband for the mistress's murder? Well, that's just the cherry on top of the cake. And personally, I'm kind of surprised she got away with it. No one on this show has the bare minimum of knowledge about digital forensics and the omnipresence of cameras. I mean, seriously, what century do you live in? Plus you're from England, which has one of the most monitored cities in the world. But I take solace in the knowledge that if the cops actually were able to access deleted emails on the company's servers they would just implicate the husband more. But it's the final message that is the most important. Liv built her life around a man, she put her life in his hands, and his actions made her a desperate creature. He did make her do this, to an extent. But what is under that is this world women live in, a world where we are constantly in danger, where we have to think about our safety at all times, and enough is enough. Her husband thought she'd wait for him, her husband is one of the many faces of the problem women live with daily. We aren't going to take shit anymore. No more dishonesty, no more danger, we all, like Liv, have no more fucks to give.
