Picoreview: My Lady Jane – actually quite entertaining
You know how I wrote MAGIC & MANNERS after a PRIDE & PREJUDICE watching-and-reading binge caused me to ask “what if the Bennet sisters had too much magic instead of too little money?”
Well, My Lady Jane feels like somebody did that with Tudor England, except their all-consuming question was, “What if instead of Protestants, England had shapeshifters?”
Now, lest you think this means we’re pro-Catholic in My Lady Jane‘s fantasy England, let me rush to assure you that there don’t appear to be Catholics, either; they swear by gods and hells, not singular of either, thus suggesting we are fully removed from our known monotheistic culture. True humans (as I call them in my shifter books) are Verities; shifters are Ethians. No idea why, for the shifters, although ‘Verity’ seems pretty on the nose.
And again, lest we be mistaken: there is nothing about this show that isn’t on the nose. It is, despite that, or perhaps because of it, quite a lot of fun. It is simultaneously profoundly ahistorical and also surprisingly historically accurate, in a sexy modern over the top way. I did find the first episode a little tedious and slow-going, but I then watched the entire rest of the show in the next 27 hours, which is very unlike me; I rarely binge-watch anything.
The woman playing Jane is a cutie, and her love interest is Not My Type but is still entirely suitable for his role. Their parents (one mother, hers, and one father, his) are FANTASTIC, and her youngest sister is possibly the most interesting character in the show. The woman playing Princess Mary is delightfully unhinged, and the woman playing Elizabeth is INCREDIBLY appealing and I want to hug her. There seems to be very little in the way of miscasting, and most of the characters are well-written.
If it seems like it might be your jam at all, and you’ve got the time, watching it all before late July will help them get a second season, as apparently Amazon only counts full, not partial, watch-throughs in the first 30 days in their decision to renew or not. :)