Reign Recap: Episode 4

Just caught up with REIGN this morning. OMG you guys, so much drama! Archery contests, whipping boys, ghosts, intrigue, romance. Where do I begin?

- Tomas and Francis competed in an archery contest because a joust would have been too exciting I guess. Tomas cheated, and then gave Mary a favor of a pink rose. In front of everyone!

- Mary's uncle Claude de Guise showed up again to basically tell her stuff. This time it was to tell her that King Henri wasn't yet willing to end her betrothal to Francis.

- Catherine de Medici admitted to Mary that she wanted her gone, gone, gone.

- Francis, now that Mary was about to get engaged to another man, got all handsy and jealous.

- Lola flirted with a wounded Bash.

- Tomas showed his true colors by telling Mary every time she disobeyed him, Miguel the whipping boy, would be punished.

- Simon, Lord Westbrook, was accused of being a spy for the English and almost executed in the middle of a masquerade ball.

- Kenna aka Lady McSlutty told King Henri Horndog that she was ready to be his mistress but he told her that position was filled.

- Clarissa the ghost left Mary, Simon's seal which proved that he wasn't the guy the prostitute saw in the tavern after all, which meant he was innocent.

- The prostitute confessed that it was actually Tomas. OMG, I totally didn't see that coming!

- Bash and Francis united to prove that Tomas was a total SOB which culminated in an exciting fight in the woods! (No not really).

- Mary wore more cracked out fashions that have nothing to do with the period.

- Greer flirted some more with the servant boy from the kitchen.

- King Henri Horndog changed his mind and decided to make Kenna his mistress after all. Because Catherine emasculates him and Diane spends too much time shopping in Paris.

- Mary shocked the court by telling the King and her uncle that she would be leading the renegotiations for her betrothal to Francis.

- Nostradamus did absolutely nothing. (Seriously this show would be much more interesting if Catherine de Medici and Nostradamus were getting it on!).
Historical Notes:  Well, I was wrong about Claude de Guise, I assumed that he was her cousin, but he's actually her uncle.  The show has also been picked up for a full season which means that I will be recapping the show for another 18 episodes! It will be interesting to see if they actually do develop this love triangle between Bash, Mary and Francis that they promised.  At some point Mary and Francis will have to get married, the writers can't keep throwing ridiculous obstacles in their path.

Reign: Episode 3 Recap

 

I finally got a chance to watch last week's episode of REIGN. OMG, you guy, so much happened to our girl Mary this week.

- England sent troops to the Scottish border which sent Mary into a tizzy when her cousin Claude de Guise showed up to tell her. (Given how long it took news to arrive, are we to assume that the English troops just camped out on the border hoping for a fight?)

- She asked King Henri for troops to help Scotland and he said 'no way.'

- She kicked a ball around with Prince Charles.

- She climbed a tree and then got stuck.

- She met Tomas, the sexy illegitimate son of the King of Portugal.

- She broke the girl code, spending time with Tomas, even though she knew Greer liked him.

- She offered to sell Tomas timber in exchange for troops. Instead he wanted to marry her. Something about her 'wildness' appealed to him.

- She did a sexy dance with Tomas at a ball, which consisted of a lot of dipping and lifting, wearing a dress that looked like a feather duster.

- She called out Francis on his commitment issues.

- She received her first kiss ever from a guy, from Francis, who then told her to marry another man.

- She wore costumes that ran the gamut from the Regency to some off the shoulder anti-bellum dress.  She even managed to wear a dress that was actually the right period.  Don't know how that slipped by.

- She drank coffee.

 Also, Nostradamus made strange predictions, while looking like the 16th century equivalent of John the Baptist (something about Greer marrying a man with white mark and the lion will fight with the dragon on a field of poppies), and Lady McSlutty did dirty deeds in dark corner with the King but refused to give up her V-card. She then had an awkward conversation with Henri's illegitimate son Bash, on how to win back the King's affection. Francis also threatened to tell Catherine de Medici and Diane de Poitiers that the King had a new bit on the side unless he helped Mary by sending troops to Scotland. Needless to say that didn't work out so well. 

Historical Notes:  Yes, Mary, Queen of Scots did have a relative named Claude.  He was actually her uncle, the Duc of Aumale. Her cousin would have been his son who wasn't born yet.  Why he tells her about the English, and not say anyone at the French court like the King, I have no idea. Nor why there is no Scottish ambassador to the royal court.  As for Tomas, John III of Portugal did have an illegitimate son named Duarte who was the Archbishop of Braga. However, John III was succeeded by his 3 year old grandson Sebastian, so some of the details are right.

First Look: The CW's Reign

There are many great things about living in New York, and one of them is the Paley Center in midtown.  The Paley Center is a museum that is dedicated to one thing only; television.  For the past several years, they have given members as well as the public the chance to get a first look at the new fall television season.  This year, I was lucky enough to get to view the pilot for the new CW series about Mary, Queen of Scots, called appropriately enough, REIGN.

 



(Mary and Francis have a tense moment)

 



I tried desperately to check my brain at the door and throw away and preconceived notions that I might have had from watching the extended preview online.  However, that proved difficult once the show started.  Granted, I’m clearly not the intended viewing audience for this show.  The CW tends to skew hella young and most of the shows are geared towards teenagers and twenty-somethings.  REIGN is definitely skewed towards teenage girls; there is man candy, pretty dresses and lots of jeweled headbands.  I wouldn’t be surprised if FOREVER 21 and the CW hooked up to do a dress and accessory line based on the show.  The show is basically GOSSIP GIRL + 16^th century France + supernatural elements = REIGN.

Adelaide Kane (who looks a heck of lot like actress Michelle Trachtenberg) plays Mary, Queen of Scots.  And if you have seen the preview commercial, you know that she does not have red hair, it’s more dark brown with red highlights.  She’s also not particularly tall or Francis is particularly short, I can’t really tell.  (According to IMBD, she’s only 5’4”, the real Mary was 5’11”).  She plays Mary as rather tentative at first but then she finds her inner feistiness.  When we first meet Mary, she’s been living in a convent in France away from the court as a way of keeping her safe.  After a rousing game of football, an incident occurs that makes the Reverend Mother realize that it is time that Mary leave the convent and head for court.

 

(The royal court waits to greet Mary)

 

Once she gets there, Mary soon realizes that her betrothed is not that happy to see her.  See Francis (Toby Regbo) is on the fence about whether an alliance with Scotland is really what France needs to protect her from her enemies.  In his spare time, he’s been forging swords and armor for the French army.  Catherine de Medici is played by Megan Follows who played Anne of Green Gables years ago.  She’s also not happy to see Mary, since her good buddy Nostradamus gave her some bad news about Mary and Francis’ future.  While Francis blows hot and cold towards Mary, his bastard half-brother Sebastian (played by Torrance Combs) catches Mary’s eye.  Sebastian is the son of Henri II and his mistress Diane de Poitiers.  I smell potential love triangle, don’t you?

(Mary and Sebastian get acquainted)

 

Mary has a small group of maids who followed her from the convent.  Historically, these girls were also named Mary, and were known as the ‘Four Marys’.  Since that would be way too confusing for a teenage viewing audience, they’ve all been given new names, Lola (I kid you not), Greer, Aylee and Kenna.  The scenes with all five girls are some of the best in the show.  You get a real sense that Mary is a teenage girl with none of the responsibilities yet of ruling.  There is a very telling scene late in the episode, when Mary tells the girls that they are her friends and she will protect them, and Lola reminds her that they are her subjects not her friends.

Besides Mary’s arrival at court which seems to be somewhere on the Normandy coast (there are many lovely shots of what is actually the Irish sea since the pilot was shot in Ireland), the first episode deals with the marriage of Princess Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Henri II and Catherine de Medici, to Philip II of Spain who is depicted in the series as a young hot guy close to Elisabeth’s age instead of a widower in his thirties.  The episode turns into soft porn when the girls decide to watch the wedding night behind a screen.  Although they don’t stay for the consummation, all of them are incredibly turned on.  They start running around the palace rubbing themselves against the furniture like they’re in heat.  Seriously, one of the girls starts to pleasure herself in the hallway.

So far Megan Follows as Catherine de Medici is the best thing about the show.  You get the sense that she is the real power behind the throne, not her husband.  Henri, so far, has been depicted as nothing more than a horn dog.  It will be interesting to see if they develop the relationship between Henri and Diane and the animosity that Catherine felt towards her rival.  In the pilot, I don’t think Diane had more than one line. Nostradamus pops up in the pilot and like everyone else; the actor playing him is about twenty years too young for the role. I mentioned earlier that there was a supernatural element to the series. Nostradamus is part of that element, but there is also apparently a ghost that haunts the royal palace who warns Mary of dire plots against her.  Oh and there is also a dark forest which Sebastian warns Mary away from after her dog Stirling runs away.

Everyone in show speaks with a sort of English accent which is interesting since Mary and her maids were Scottish, and the court French.  Catherine and Henri had ten children; it will be interesting if any of them show up in the series.  The costumes, at least for the woman, look as if the costume designer raided FOREVER 21 during prom season. There are lots of sparkly headbands and sleeveless dresses. At one point, during the feast after the wedding, the girls kick off their high-heeled pumps and dance the night away.

Although I found many moments in the show hilarious, I’m willing to give this show a shot.  Although if you disliked The Tudors because you thought it was historically inaccurate, you will really hate this show.  Since the show is called REIGN, if it gets picked up beyond the first season, at some point Mary will have to go back to Scotland to reign.  The show is up against some heavy competition on Thursday, but it might just keep the VAMPIRE DIARIES audience and pick-up those viewers who were devoted to GOSSIP GIRL. I will certainly keep blogging each episode as long as the show is on.

Fact vs. Fiction:  Well, the big one is that Diane de Poitiers and Henri II never had any children.  Diane was 19 years older than the King.  Although their affair started when he was 16, and she was 35, it seems that either Diane was no longer as fertile or she took measures to prevent a pregnancy.  The King did however have an illegitimate child by Janet Fleming, the governess of Mary Queen of Scots. Her daughter Mary was one of the young queen’s “Four Marys.”  Princess Elisabeth did marry Philip II of Spain, but she was married to him by proxy in France.   They didn’t marry in person until Nostradamus did spent time at the French court; Catherine de Medici was one of his admirers.  It is also a fact that Catherine de Medici was never that fond of Mary.  However, Mary was raised at the French court with Francis and his siblings.  Princess Elisabeth was one of her closest friends (Elisabeth is only scene in the wedding night scene). The real Francis stuttered and was abnormally short.  He certainly wasn’t a strapping hot blond. 

You can watch the full trailer for Reign below: