Let's turn on the television and see what I've been watching.
The Crown
Andrea and I finally finished the 3rd season of The Crown this weekend.
And about damn time, I would say.
This is not an easy show to get through. Mind you, it is well made with wonderful actors giving wonderful performances from wonderful scripts while working within wonderful sets.
But it is a show that can be rather quiet and deliberate. Lots of pensive silences in The Crown. While beholding all the wonder, one's mind may start to wander.
The last two episodes of season 3 hammer home the theme of this series to date: for all the power and prestige of being in the royal family, no one ever gets what they really want.
A young Prince Charles is in love with Camilla Shand. Apparently, this is not a good thing to many of the busy bodies in the royal family who spend considerable effort to separate the two. To her credit, Queen Elizabeth herself is content to let nature run its course with these two. But while she may be the Queen, the plans and schemes of others prevail.
Back in the last two decades of the 20th century, I like most of the world bought into the fairy tale of the wedding Prince Charles to Diana Spencer. It is a fairy tale that ultimately reaches a sad and tragic end with the desolution of the marriage and Diana's death in a car accident in Paris. At the time, it looked like Charles' dalliance with Camilla looked like the ultimate betrayal. Given the machinations working against Charles and Camilla back in the 1970s, it seems Charles was the one who was betrayed before Diana ever entered the picture.
The last episode of the season turns its attention towards Princess Margaret whose tumultuous marriage to Tony is on the rocks. He's got a dalliance on the side with a young woman while Margaret has a fling with a boy toy that lets her experience joy for all of two minutes before everything crashes down around her. Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth is approaching her 25th anniversary on the throne and is wondering what the hell she's doing there.
No one ever gets what they really want.
Stumptown
Last week's episode repeated a story device from the first episode, an intense action sequence to start things off with Dex in a bride's maid dress fighting a bunch of dudes and interrupting a wedding. It's a fun way to start off the episode as we jump back a week to explore the events leading up to that scene.
Dex in a bride's maid dress?
Star Trek: Picard
Last week's episode gets us started on some actual star trekking. Picard adds a Romulan samurai to this crew and picks up a visitor from another series.
Yes, Seven of Nine finally shows up.
And it is an "Oh Hell Yeah!" moment we've been waiting for.
After three whole episodes of laying down a foundation of Picard's life and the status quo of life in the future, Star Trek: Picard is geared up now to use that foundation to launch some actually adventuring.
Props to Jonathan Frakes as the director of this episode whose flair for action and for character moments makes this seem like the most Star Trek episode of this series.
Outlander
The "droughtlander" is over at last as we got a new series premier on Sunday. Jamie, Claire, Breanna and Roger are all in the same place and the same time for the first time ever.
Last season, I made it clear how much I dislike Roger.
This season, I don't expect to change my mind much about him. Yeah, he's officially wed to Bre and they're together to raise their new son and make a life in the 18th century but damn, the only person I know less suited to live life rough in the 18th century than Roger is me.
Yes, even in the 21st century, I am a total wuss. Plop me down in the 18th century in the American colonies and I would be dead in minutes. Roger does little better than that.
Still my intense dislike for Roger McKenzie takes a beating. He serenades Bre on their wedding night with "L-O-V-E", a 20th century ballad, tells Jocosta off when she insinuates Roger may not be as devoted to his son if his parentage is in doubt and actually steps up with the other men of Fraser's Ridge to pledge his loyalty to Jamie.
I still dislike Roger but he made a better case for himself this episode.
The episode opens with a time of pure joy and happiness so we know horror and tragedy are sure to follow. Seriously, whenever anyone in Outlander is happy for one minute, you know there's ten minutes of pain to pay for it.
We start off with the wedding of Bre and Roger with Jamie charming as the nervous dad and Claire positively beaming with pride at her daughter. It is a perfect tableau of family love, harmony and joy.
So what can we do to ruin it?
We find out Stephen Bonnet is still alive. Well, fuck that fucking fucker!
And Governor Tryon shows up to personally turn the screws on Jamie with an order that is essentially, "Stop fucking around and bring me Murtaugh's head on a stick already!"
And that is that for now. Yes, Batwoman and Supergirl were back new this Sunday but I'll post about them in next week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
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