26 thoughts on “War & Peace (2016) Recap, Pt. 3

  1. Seriously Natasha? You seriously want to leave (hot-very-hot) Andrei for the (not-hot-and-very-creepy) Douchebag? My suspension of disbelief dropped here so hard it made a hole on the floor.
    Also, poor Marya. Poor, poor Marya (give her some happy, she needs it)
    Also, this has to be some kind of pseudo-reenacting by a group of very confused time-travellers where they only got the uniforms right. (or any other option that involves time-travelling)

    1. It’s from the source novel (since the same plot points show up in the 2007 version), but — WHY??!! Someone out there who has read the book, please ‘splain it to us.

      1. I know… But it’s just… not reasonable here. They should have made Douchebag look less creepy and douchey so we could actually buy Natasha being all lovey dovey over him, as opposed to Andrei, who is hot, handsome, tortured in a very Russian way, very much in love with her and allows her to be kind of free while he is away.
        Here I just kept hoping the Sassy Gay Friend would appear to ask Natasha “What What are you doing?”

        1. Yeah, the book (via Marya’s reaction before she catches him with Mlle. Bourienne) *almost* manages to convince us that Andrei is attractive if you don’t know him that well.

        2. Dorky as Pierre’s floppy hat is, it’s not as ridiculous as the white hat he wears to observe the battle in the book.

        3. Agreed. Again, the only thing I can compare it to is the 2007 version, and while Andrei is WAY HOTTER than whatever-his-name-is (I can only think “Douchebag” now!), Db is reasonably hot and far more plausible. In this version, a rock could see that Douchebag is a douchebag from 3 galaxies away. EW.

          1. I think his name is Anatole? Anyhow, I might need to check the 2007 version to kind of see the appeal.

    2. Natasha is basically a spoilt child who has always had everything her own way. She feels rejected when Andrey (way is it spelt in my version of W&P) goes away for a year. She is used to getting what she wants when she wants it and she is not yet 18. Her treatment by his family, which was rather offensive is her first experience of rejection. In contrast to Maria’s coldness and the father’s rudeness Helene woos her and Douchebag tell her he loves her. She only 18, Not the most sensible age when it comes to “affairs of the heart.” Well not from my personal experience anyway.

  2. Excellent deployment of Strictly Ballroom clip! And yikes, the story just keeps getting worse and worse–as do the costumes. Was the acting good at least?

    1. HMM. The actress playing Marya is particularly good. Lily James doesn’t irritate me as much as Clemence Poesy in the 2007 version, so that’s an improvement!

  3. I am most irritated by the ill-fitting bust in Marya’s dress. I feel like this production had the money to alter it to fit her! She wears it a lot, it looks like, so how could they have not noticed how weird it makes her look?

    1. Seriously! I didn’t notice it until the 3rd or 4th episode, but now I can’t stop staring at it. Especially since she wears it in 99% of her scenes.

      1. Maybe it’s a deliberate attempt to make her look frumpy enough for the role? We’ll have to see if she finally gets something more flattering now her father is out of the way and she and Nikolai are clicking.

        1. Marya should be plan and simply dressed but she is the daughter of a Prince. I am rather certain she would have had a dressmaker who knew how to fit a dress properly. A decent costume designer would not have resorted to badly fitting to convey Marya’s character. Also despite being quiet and unfashionable Marya is not week. She has strength of character which is not well represented by sloppy dressing which screams, “victim”.

        2. I am loving this blog. I was in tears laughing so much reading this. Thank-you for the entertainment. Did they ask the tea person to design the women’s costumes? If not then perhaps they should. Tea person could not have done a worse job. IT is not just that they are totally wrong for the period, or any period for that manner, but they are UGLY and ill fitting. There is no redeeming feature and no excuse.
          Also could someone please tell Andrew Davies that the success of P&P was not purely due to Darcy’s wet shirt moment and that Colin Firth was hot with or without a wet shirt. I am getting sick of his now obligatory male torso moments.

          1. The thing I find funny is that in P&P, we don’t actually SEE Mr. Darcy with a plastered wet shirt! We see him dive in, then he’s walking up to Lizzie with his horse and his shirt is NOT stuck to him (it’s damp, but it’s not sopping). It’s so much more about the suggestion!

        3. Clearly she’s supposed to look VERY conservative, not in a political way but in terms of being shy, living in the country, etc.

  4. I had already decided to “just go with the flow” when it came to BitchWife’s totally inappropriate dresses. But when the untidy mess of tulle wrapped with gift ribbon came to the screen I couldn’t believe my eyes. What were they thinking? In what universe is that thing even pretty?

  5. Discussing this with a friend, she was convinced that Helene’s latest conquest is the Tsar (he did ask her to dance at the ball) – thoughts please?

    Still can’t decide which is more distressing – Marya’s ill-fitting dress, or the gloriously-named W&P Barbie. The latter is far FAR worse, but the former gets more screen time to annoy me.

  6. It’s amazing how it’s about minus five-hundred degrees, and even then nobody in the show puts bloody gloves on! I’m Ukrainian, and headscarves in that part of the world are quite common. But not with hairpin-free, flowing Barbie hair!

    And, for God’s sake: everyone, put your boobs away!

    Also, pretty annoyed what they’ve done to the character with my name…

    But I LOVE you for the Strictly Ballroom GIF. :) I knew the lead guy in it, and I get all nostalgia-feely when I see things from the movie.

    1. We interrupt this War & Peace comment to say:

      You know Paul Mercurio? I had SUCH A CRUSH on him as a teenager.

      And now back to your regularly scheduled War & Peace discussion.

  7. Is there any way you could fix the images on the lower half of the page. I can’t load them and the link says that its broken. I love this blog and really want to see the pictures of the costumes that go along with the commentary.

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