18 thoughts on “Why Is Everyone Loving The Cook of Castamar?

  1. Oh that portrait made me writhe! There’s nothing remotely 18thc about the style it was painted in. And the first dress worn by the housekeeper? Totally late Victorian! And many of those costumes fit so poorly and are just crooked. All the stomachers are so awkward. OK I’m done.

  2. To be fair re Clara wearing her apron just over visible stays, I can actually see that as perfectly reasonable provided she’s actually working in the kitchen at the time. (If you can’t stand the heat, take your jacket off.) The Chocolate Girl is serving the gentry above stairs, which is a very different situation – she needs to look smart and she’s not going to get sweaty or greasy.

    But when Amelia’s straps got yanked down off her shoulders, alas it was revealed that she couldn’t afford a shift . . .

  3. I’m on the fence on this one. Yucky costumes and makeup. The plot and scripts have to be top notch for me to watch. Ergo. I’ll wait for your future report.

  4. The costumes are looking so much like cheap stuff out of the collection of a theatre or from a a poor 1950s-60s production. The beards and hairstyle of the male characters doesn’t make things better. It’s not looking promising.

  5. Yes, definitely a lot pulled from stock, it would appear.
    I remember in college costume design class, in the late 70s when the period accuracy aesthetic was strong, we discussed how the 18th century often gets lumped together as if styles didn’t change. We were comparing it to the depiction of 19th century styles which didn’t suffer from this lump it all together thing as much.
    And the Iberian Peninsula never seems to be doing what the rest of Europe is doing. This would have been a fun project to get right.

  6. Men didn’t wear beards during these times. Not the poor, not the rich. [At least not white Christian men.] Why don’t these men shave?

  7. I can keep watching and just roll my eyes at the costumes, if the plot is great. I can keep watching and roll my eyes at the plot, if the costumes are great. I couldn’t make it all the way through the first episode of this, and all I wanted was something to have on in the background while I hand-sew an endless amount of antique fur…..

  8. I’m not going to say the plot was great – every episode had at least a couple of eye-rolly situations. But for some reason, it kept me watching. If you can’t suspend disbelief, I’d say skip it.

  9. I watched the whole thing. It was good background noise for doing my makeup in the morning.

    But the plot does several things that make no damned sense and it ends very strangely and abruptly.

  10. I am a profane (i am no costume specialist or maker) but thanks to the reading of your blog for a few years, I ruled that show out at the trailer viewing stage :)

  11. “La mayoría son corsés ceñidísimos con las inevitables cintas para lograr la cintura estrecha y el pecho aplastado que estaba de moda.”

    ‘Most [have] extremely tight corsets with the inevitable lacing to achieve achieve the narrow waist and flattened chest that was in fashion [then].’ (doesn’t fully make sense in Spanish)

  12. The stomachers look like someone’s mom made them out of foam core, and they glued fabric to them. It all makes my teeth itch.

    1. WHAT is the thick stomacher thing about? Is it because they don’t want to put the actress in a corset and they’re hoping the stomacher will do the work? Or maybe it’s a quick dressing thing? I don’t know, but it always annoys me because then it sticks up into space and looks all chunky. A WOMAN IS NOT AN UPHOLSTERED PIECE OF FURNITURE!!

  13. That repro gown straight up looks like the dress my Felicity doll from childhood (aiming at 1770s and probably not super accurate, I’m guessing?) came in.

  14. The costumes are laughable (also lotsa corsets against bare skin!), its full of ridiculous & melodramatic moments (evil kitchen maids! gratuitous soprano singing! cathartic butternut squash smashing!), but I love it!

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