*Exasperated sigh*.......
OK, if you're reading this then I have to warn you right now that todays entry might not be very concise because I'm finding myself too angry and upset to write about this mini series any longer after this episode. My entire opinion of it has changed dramatically. THIS IS NOT A REVIEW, I never said I was gonna review the series, these are just my thoughts about it. My opinions are my own and my opinions are just as valid as the next persons even though you might not think my opinions are right. If you want your own opinions then you have to watch the series for yourself.
I just...I don't know what I'm even watching anymore but it's not Les Miserables. I don't know how they could possibly get it any wronger. My world is falling apart around me, I don't even know what to say...
OK OK OK, AAAAAAGGGHH! Just write something Brandon! You can do this, you read the whole book for fucks sake!
So, this episode picks up several years after last weeks ended. I don't know how long exactly because AGAIN there was nothing to show the passage of time. I would think maybe eight years because in the book Cosette is eight when she enters the convent and around sixteen when she leaves. I suppose that makes sense but come on people, these are just simple things! Give me a proper timeline! That's just one issue though, I think my main issue with this mini series is the dialogue, they're changing the dialogue too much, I think it sounds too modern.
I don't think that's entirely bad, there's nothing wrong with making it accessible to modern audiences, I mean the book isn't very dialogue heavy, Victor Hugo was more a descriptive writer than a writer of dialogue, but there's something about the way people speak in this series that just isn't connecting with me. Too much has been changed and it's only vaguely resembling Les Miserables now.
And I'm not saying it has to be a perfect copy of the book, I'm just saying there must be a happy medium and this mini series is not it!
I will admit though, for all the changes that have been made I do like the fact that Cosette seems to be an actual human being with a personality in this series. Sweet Jesus it finally happened! Cosette actually speaks! She actually has opinions and talks back to Valjean! This is the Cosette I've been wanting all these years! And FUCK ME SOMEONE FINALLY DID IT! THEY ACTUALLY LET COSETTE SHOW SOME PTSD ABOUT HER CHILDHOOD. I could see it onscreen and it was just like I thought it would be! The girl playing Cosette, Ellie Bamber, is really good in this series, she's taken a really blank role and given it some life. She actually portrayed on screen someone who has been abused and hidden from the world for years and I could see her fear, her confusion and her excitement for life in the character after Cosette left the convent. That was probably the only thing I liked about this episode.
I don't think the writers of this series really understand the relationship between Valjean and Cosette, it's my favourite relationship in the book and so any changes they make I take them very personally.
I have major issues with some of the things they did in this episode, mainly the scene when Valjean told Cosette about her mother.
Valjean would never tell Cosette that he fired her mother and that's what lead to her death, he just wouldn't, Cosette was the only person he ever loved, he would never have risked having Cosette hate him for that. Why would the writers do that? They have no idea what they're doing, they obviously don't know anything about Valjeans intentions towards his daughter.
Oh and even worse was when Valjean took Cosette to see some convicts in one scene, don't even get me fucking started on that shit.Whoever wrote that scene needs a slap...Valjean would NEVER have done that. In the book they only came across a bunch of convicts by accident, It wasn't so he could show Cosette that the world is a horrible place, it was just a coincidence. And in the book they scared Cosette so much that Valjean knew he could never tell her about his past. He wouldn't have deliberately tried to tell her and then backed out of it because of her fear. He just wouldn't!
This writers just don't get it, apart from being captured by Javert it was Valjeans worst fear that Cosette would find out that he was an ex-convict, he would never have made her see convicts for herself. They don't know him and they don't know Cosette. And was it just me or was Valjean starting to get a little...incesty...at one point? Am I reading too much into some of his lingering stares or are the writers really gonna go there?
What in the fuck are the writers doing to those two? They're twisting Valjeans relationship with Cosette into something seedy and it's actually really upsetting me.
I'm really scared that this series is gonna ruin the book for me, I don't mean with like spoilers, I know the book back to front, I mean that they're destroying my image of the book
This...this is not Les Miserables. This is not the book I've grown to love. I'm hurt by what they're doing, I actually feel hurt inside from this. It's not a good feeling at all.
Now I should probably talk about Marius...Oh God I hate him so much and this mini series is doing nothing to change my opinion of him. I didn't think it was possible but they've actually made me hate Marius MORE!
He's still a little rich prick pretending to be poor because he thinks it's a noble cause, he's still a stalking little twat following a girl much younger than him, but now they're making him have sex dreams about Cosette and Eponine. ACTUAL FUCKING SEX DREAMS!
For all his faults, and he has so many faults, I know Marius wouldn't act like that. This is not what Marius was all about, this shit is purely for shock value now. Eponine is not a sexual being to Marius, in the book I always thought that Eponine was more of a nuisance and an annoyance to Marius, he never looked at her sexually, at the most they were just friends. I don't know what the writers think they're doing but I would seriously like them to fucking stop.
The rest of the episode I guess was fine, some of the Les Amis boys were introduced in this part but their plot didn't really progress that much. I thought it would actually, I expected more out of this episode but I guess they're saving it for the next episode. That makes sense I suppose, they deserve their own plotline and not to be tacked onto Marius's plot. I'd like to see more of them and to delve deeper into their belief system. I hope they at least get that part right!
The downfall of the Thenardiers is pretty much accurate to the book so I can't find fault with their scenes, they Thenardiers might actually be one of the main highlights about this series which is weird because they're supposed to be the villains of the piece. I dunno what it is, I just think that out of all the characters so far they're the ones that have actually been done right.
The rest of it...I don't know what's even happening anymore. I don't recognise this as Les Miserables. To be brutally honest I think I'm fucking done with this series. I'm gonna watch it until the end but only out of blind loyalty. I read the whole fucking book so I'm not gonna wuss out now on a substandard mini series.
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Uggggggghhh....it's all wrong but if you're in the UK and you want to catch up with the latest episode then you can over at the BBC iPlayer.
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