Les Mis BBC, Part 3
Jan. 13th, 2019 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bobcatmoranThoughts cut for spoilers below:
• Hey, Valjean? Dude? There was another abused child in that inn there. I know you saw him. You were looking right at Gavroche. There's no way you could've missed him. But you didn't even try to get him out of there. What the heck?
• Speaking of Gavroche, unless he just straight-up stops aging at some point, he's only gonna be a couple years younger than Cosette at most, which means either a) Marius is romancing Cosette when she's, like, 14, which I don't think modern-day audiences would go for, or b) this will be a Gavroche in his mid-late teens by the time he dies.
• I mean, I do appreciate that they showed Cosette's chores being foisted off on Gavroche after she's gone, which is what logically would happen with a Gavroche this old, but this might be even more Problems, timeline-wise, than the stuff with Marius last episode.
• Oh, gosh, Lily Collins was so hard to watch in this episode, by which I mean, give her a BAFTA.
• And jeez, all the patrons of the inn seeing Mme. "Rosaline" Thenardier beating Cosette as sporting entertainment was horrible in the way it should be. I think that scene went on longer than needed to make the point, though.
• This is far from the first Les Mis adaptation to have Thenardier conclude that Strange Rich Dude With A Weird Interest In Cosette has said interest because he's a pedophile. I'm pretty sure this is the first adaptation where he straight up pimps Cosette out to Valjean due to said conclusion. Eugh.
• Wow, so the Thenardiers lose the inn due to Javert. That's a choice. Admittedly, it's a choice I can see this Javert making, since he is both the sort to not give a crap about ruining people's lives and also has concluded (correctly, as it may be) that they straight up sold a child to a complete rando off the street.
• Speaking of selling children to complete randos off the street, Valjean never did show in any way that he knew Fantine, IIRC, so yeah. They absolutely just sold Cosette to a random dude that they strongly suspected just wanted her for horrifying sexytimes.
• This gets worse the more I think about it.
• I did like the escape from the police — I was genuinely in suspense as to whether Valjean and Cosette would get away, mostly because this adaptation makes so many Choices that I have given up trying to predict what will happen.
• So Simplice is the connection that gets Valjean and Cosette a place in the convent. Okay.
That's different. I'm willing to roll with that, even though it precludes any Convent Husbands. Less sure about rolling with the Mother Superior letting Valjean stay even after he tells her he's an ex-con wanted by the police.
• Finally, WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU DOING FOR TWO YEARS, JEAN VALJEAN?? IT'S CLEARLY IMPLIED THAT YOU "DROWNED"/ESCAPED YOUR FIRST NIGHT BACK IN PRISON, AND YOU KNEW EXACTLY WHERE COSETTE WAS. WHY WAIT THAT LONG?????? WHERE WERE YOU? DID IT TAKE YOU THAT LONG TO GET A BERT THE CHIMNEYSWEEP COSTUME? IS THAT IT? WHAT THE HECK?
• Hey, Valjean? Dude? There was another abused child in that inn there. I know you saw him. You were looking right at Gavroche. There's no way you could've missed him. But you didn't even try to get him out of there. What the heck?
• Speaking of Gavroche, unless he just straight-up stops aging at some point, he's only gonna be a couple years younger than Cosette at most, which means either a) Marius is romancing Cosette when she's, like, 14, which I don't think modern-day audiences would go for, or b) this will be a Gavroche in his mid-late teens by the time he dies.
• I mean, I do appreciate that they showed Cosette's chores being foisted off on Gavroche after she's gone, which is what logically would happen with a Gavroche this old, but this might be even more Problems, timeline-wise, than the stuff with Marius last episode.
• Oh, gosh, Lily Collins was so hard to watch in this episode, by which I mean, give her a BAFTA.
• And jeez, all the patrons of the inn seeing Mme. "Rosaline" Thenardier beating Cosette as sporting entertainment was horrible in the way it should be. I think that scene went on longer than needed to make the point, though.
• This is far from the first Les Mis adaptation to have Thenardier conclude that Strange Rich Dude With A Weird Interest In Cosette has said interest because he's a pedophile. I'm pretty sure this is the first adaptation where he straight up pimps Cosette out to Valjean due to said conclusion. Eugh.
• Wow, so the Thenardiers lose the inn due to Javert. That's a choice. Admittedly, it's a choice I can see this Javert making, since he is both the sort to not give a crap about ruining people's lives and also has concluded (correctly, as it may be) that they straight up sold a child to a complete rando off the street.
• Speaking of selling children to complete randos off the street, Valjean never did show in any way that he knew Fantine, IIRC, so yeah. They absolutely just sold Cosette to a random dude that they strongly suspected just wanted her for horrifying sexytimes.
• This gets worse the more I think about it.
• I did like the escape from the police — I was genuinely in suspense as to whether Valjean and Cosette would get away, mostly because this adaptation makes so many Choices that I have given up trying to predict what will happen.
• So Simplice is the connection that gets Valjean and Cosette a place in the convent. Okay.
That's different. I'm willing to roll with that, even though it precludes any Convent Husbands. Less sure about rolling with the Mother Superior letting Valjean stay even after he tells her he's an ex-con wanted by the police.
• Finally, WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU DOING FOR TWO YEARS, JEAN VALJEAN?? IT'S CLEARLY IMPLIED THAT YOU "DROWNED"/ESCAPED YOUR FIRST NIGHT BACK IN PRISON, AND YOU KNEW EXACTLY WHERE COSETTE WAS. WHY WAIT THAT LONG?????? WHERE WERE YOU? DID IT TAKE YOU THAT LONG TO GET A BERT THE CHIMNEYSWEEP COSTUME? IS THAT IT? WHAT THE HECK?
