Our Favourite Media of February 2021

[helloladies]

Each month, we look back over the media we loved in the previous month, from books to film to video games and more.

Jodie

The Great — I'm very much enjoying The Great; a not at all historically accurate* comedy about the early married life of Catherine the Great and Peter III. Catherine, to put it mildly, is soon extremely unhappy with her husband's rule and, with the help of her maid and a sympathetic Count, she begins to plan a secret coup while also trying to influence Peter to become a more enlightened leader and avoid getting pregnant. Juggling all those balls about as complicated as you might imagine.

First, a quick warning, this show contains a lot of violence (including animals dying), and other generally unpleasant things, played for laughs, and is near my upper limit for gross comedy (which traditionally I don't do that well with). But it has absolutely charmed me with its humour, its characters, its cast's performances, the writing, and its heart. Stand out performances are Elle Fanning, Phoebe Fox, Sacha Dhawan, and Nicholas Hoult, but this show really is an 'I love everyone in this room' situation.

*I cannot stress enough how not trying to be historically accurate at all this show is. In fact, every episode begins with a little asterix besides the title cheekily explaining just that.

Misteltoe and Murder by Robin Stevens — The Murder Most Unladylike series continues to get better as it goes on. In this installment, Hazel and Daisy go to visit Daisy's brother Bertie for Christmas at Cambridge university. True to form, the girls sense secrets and trouble from the start of their visit; especially in the tense relationship between an heir and his younger, prank-loving brother. As accidents start to occur, Alexander Arcady, and his friend George Mukherjee, aka the Junior Pinkertons, confirm the girl's concerns, and there's a race to investigate the case of an heir in peril. However, all is not as it seems.

Obviously, the idea of a mystery set at Cambridge university is irresistible to me. I love mysteries set in the colleges, and enjoyed seeing all the background to student life like the parties and the secret climbing club in this book. However, what I think makes this particular Cambridge mystery so interesting though is the social detail Robin Stevens choses to focus on. She introduces issues like women's career prospects, and the state of female education at Cambridge. The series has always touched on the racism that Hazel has experienced and, with the introduction of George Mukherjee, and Alfred Cheng, Stevens is able to expand the representation of Asian and British-Asian experiences in the British, elite education system.

You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson — A super fun novel about a girl making her way through the world of prom overload, You Should See Me In A Crown is also a wide-ranging novel that packs a lot in. Liz's life includes anxiety, struggles with her brother's inherited illness, financial concerns, friendship breakups, and the novel is heavily invested in looking at Liz coming into her own, and falling in love with new girl Mack. I particularly enjoyed the careful way Johnson wrote the changes in Jordan and Liz's relationship during their slow friendship reconciliation, Liz's relationship with her brother's illness, and her struggles with her own anxiety. And of course, Liz and Mack's developing romance is so swoon-worthy from their initial bonding to their first date to their finale.

Comments

[readingtheend.com]

THE GREAT!! SEASON TWO WHEN? My favorite thing about The Great is that people who didn't watch Skins are out here like all confused about how Nicholas Hoult manages to make such a terrible character so weirdly sweet and endearing. But I am not confused because I remember Skins, and what is Peter III if not Tony Stonem persevering?

[bookgazing]

Please make it be series two soon! Hoult really nailed this performance, and I think there is something magical about the whole cast in this project.