Season 46 - The Durrells in Corfu (2016)
The Durrells in Corfu is a series whose existence defies explanation other than a starring vehicle for Keeley Hawes, which I would normally wholy agree with, just not in this case. The thing is, in 2005 Simon Nye wrote the delightful movie, My Family and Other Animals, adapting the book of the same name by Gerald Durrell. A mere decade later he revisited the exact same subject matter but made it into a series. It's the same team just with prettier actors! Embrace the glow up! Imelda Staunton is out, Keeley Hawes is in! And while I would have liked to have spent four seasons with the cast of the movie, I did not enjoy spending four seasons with this iteration of the Durrells. The overwhelming problem is that this show boils down to two concepts; English exceptionalism and mom needing a man. Time and time again the Durrells think they know best, and while they are proven wrong over and over again, they don't grow from their experiences, instead by the end they are putting on a show of how much they've learned from Corfu when really it's just patronizing the locals. And it is oh so painful to watch. This show smacks of jingoism and now I get why the Queen said it was her favorite television show. But moving beyond the racism, there's the sexism. Oh dear lord. While it might be funny to have the writer Lawrence Durrell, who wrote rather racy literature, to boil all of one's problems down to sex, I just couldn't stand it. Not a second went by in this show where he didn't declaim that all of his mother's problems would just evaporate if she just got herself a man. While yes, during this period in history, a lot of a woman's financial stability relied on having a husband, I think Louisa was doing the best that she could. Why would she burden herself with another male? She has two sons who are insufferable asses, aside from being misogynistic, a self-centered daughter, and only one child who is delightful and his only crime is curiosity. I honestly do not get how people not only liked this show but loved it. I could barely get through it. There are literally only two episodes I can think on fondly, all the rest I want to pretend I never saw. Each and every single episode created a new aspect of these characters for me to despite. Let's take Leslie played by Callum Woodhouse who went on to play a slightly tamer version of the same character on All Creatures Great and Small. So his girlfriend gets pregnant and he fully gaslights her. It's not his, she couldn't be pregnant, is she sure she's pregnant, oh, it's totally not his. And the story is framed in such a way that we are to find it humorous and to side with Leslie. A man during this time could walk away from his responsibilities and just pick up his life elsewhere, whereas a woman would be destroyed. And yet we are to side with the man!?! The more I watched this show the more I thought that Simon Nye himself has to be sexist because how could you even write this if you didn't believe it? I just, ugh, I can't with this show. I am an anglophile and this was just too in your face about the greatness of England. I mean, they are on Corfu, maybe celebrate Corfu a little!?! Don't always deride it. But then, if this show was boiled down to one concept it is derision. Derision of women, derision of others, and, even derision of the audience because they don't give a shit about wasting your time.
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
