With the exception of one truly cringe bit of casting, I was mostly compelled by
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, Shonda Rimes' newest offering on Netflix (but then I did cut my eyeteeth on Mills & Boons). The series loosely portrays the love story between King George III, who may have been schizophrenic, and his wife Queen Charlotte, who was biracial (like Meghan) and the grandmother of Queen Victoria, which means Charlotte is an ancestor of today’s British royal family, whether they like to be reminded of their Black ancestry or not. Shonda Rimes releasing the six-episode miniseries just before coronation day was inspired, really. The actors who played George and Charlotte, newcomers Corey Mylchreest and India Amarteifio, were mesmerizing to watch, their chemistry beautiful and heartbreaking. The costumes and the sets were gorgeous, but the glimpse into psychiatric methods of the time was harrowing. I find I keep thinking about Charlotte and George, these people who breathed centuries ago, and aching for them. It’s a credit, I think, to the young actors. That’s them, above.
Oh my. The trailers have looked quite intriguing. The podcast Armchair Expert just did an interview with Shondra Rimes.
ReplyDeleteMary, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Shonda made one big misstep in my humble opinion, but I totally stan for her (as the kids say), and those young people are gorgeous humans, very easy on the eye.
DeleteI have been planning to watch for it. Will watch for the casting error. The concept of making the racial mixes visible is a fascinating one. Puzzling to my literal minded engineer of a husband, but I have been loving it.
ReplyDeleteBut the series is worth watching for the costuming and settings, almost.
Mary, I love the way Shonda Rimes reimagines the world, from Gray's Anatomy on, with everybody in the picture, and internal human interaction rather than externals such as race the main driver of the story. It's a relief sometimes to enjoy stories where the entire focus of everything isn't the way race plays out, often is such painful ways, in our nation and the world. I'll take the fantasy sometimes.
DeleteYes indeed. That is why Shonda Rimes is such a wonderful storyteller. I love fantasy and imagining what things would be like with some of the elements of the fantasy present. I guess we are gaining a bit, a very little bit, at a time in righting historical norms. Some days. If you watched any of the coronation pageantry, you would have seen our Governor General, who is indigenous, all decked out in her culture's finery. I loved it. Even a generation ago, that would not have happened. She looked regal, and very much at her ease.
Deleteas if the various humans haven't been mixing from the beginning of human existence. the arrogance of white people, that their lack of color somehow makes them superior to people of color, just pisses me off. and the whole one drop of black blood makes you black is preposterous. humans have such a lovely range of skin color and if white was so great, why do white people go to such lengths to get a tan. I don't, well I did as a teenager, but since I stay in the shade as much as possible. but not because I think white skin is better. all of which has nothing to do with your post.
ReplyDeleteellen, my husband, a biologist, often observes that race is a completely artificial construct when it comes to classifying species, human and otherwise. It's history, not science, that drives the divisiveness. Will we ever get past it? Not in my lifetime, that's for sure.
DeleteSo, do the present royals know about Queen Charlotte, and by extension their ancestry, I wonder. Maybe they'd like to reconsider their position on Megan and her children. These people just wear me out. The costumes on the TV show are sumptuous! Did you see the photo of Charles and Camilla on twitter? People were wondering if the fabric came from Joanne's.
ReplyDeleteAllison, the royals do know about Queen Charlotte. In fact, her portrait hangs in Buckingham Palace, and when Harry brought Meghan to meet his grandmother the first time, she showed her the portrait and told her the story. So yes, they know. Some royal historians try to rewrite her ancestry and say Charlotte wasn't biracial, but the accepted historical record is that she was. Wouldn't it be great if this weren't a big deal?
DeleteI look forward to checking it out. I loved the movie "The Madness of King George" with Helen Mirren playing Charlotte, but now that I think about it, of course there was absolutely no reckoning with race in that version.
ReplyDelete