Necrotongue

Well, here we are again—nothing's really changed from the last episode. All the stuff that actually interests and entertains me — like history and politics — got shoved aside, while the dull romantic storyline took up all the spotlight. That opening episode that I raved about kinda led me astray. Turns out this series is a whole different genre than I thought.

I was silently crossing my fingers that it wouldn't happen, but alas, my hopes were dashed. The creators completely abandoned the political and historical storyline and dove headfirst into a purely romantic subplot, complete with the classic he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not back-and-forth. But honestly, I was expecting something different from this series.

This time around, I tuned into what felt like a slightly modified fox hunt — only instead of chasing a fox tail, the prize was the queen's hand. Initially, I was all set to award this "race" a full five stars, thanks to the skillful politicking on display. But I was taken aback by the excessive amount of romance, so I ultimately settled on a four.

The second episode didn't quite keep up the pace set by the first, and I found myself a tad disappointed that the political intrigues took a backseat to the intrigues of the household servants. Still, Rufus Sewell absolutely nailed it once again, though I have to admit, the other actors seemed to fade a bit in comparison to him.

As someone who loves movies and series set in the Britain of yore — not the current parody of itself — the first episode hit all the right notes for me. It had that quintessential English blend of reserve and cunning intrigue that I adore. If the series keeps up this vibe, count me in for the long haul.

I’m obviously not the target audience. I expected something completely different of a comic book series. What I got instead were characters none of whom I could relate to (except Hazel), a completely predictable story, constant whining of the characters over their lives and all too frequent and unnecessary attempts at romance.

I had high hopes that the creators would pull out all the stops for the season finale and make up for those occasional moments of boredom I experienced along the way. Unfortunately, they fell short. The biggest letdown for me was the casting of Ellen Page as the main antagonist. While I can usually tolerate her, she just didn't seem to fit into this role. Initially, Vanya came across as the embodiment of depression. This time, she was probably supposed to be menacing, but those weird contact lenses just made her look like a stoned emo. Honestly, it felt like the creators were poking fun at me the whole time.

So, compared to the last one, there was definitely more action, but it still didn't quite do it for me. What really gets under my skin is the creators' apparent lack of effort to shake up the storyline and make it less predictable. And don't even get me started on the constant whining from certain characters about their cruel fate — it was annoying enough with one, now it's getting ridiculous.

When I think back on the plot, it seems like besides Allison's interactions with Vanya, not much else happened. And given how Allison looked, it seems like everything will turn out just fine in the end anyway. But hey, I did learn one valuable life lesson from all of this — I'll definitely be treating musicians, especially those who play string instruments, with a whole lot more caution from now on.

The elements that kept this series above average have faded away, and now we're getting more and more romantic moments, which honestly made the plot pretty boring at times. I'm just hoping the creators have saved some aces for the final three episodes to liven up the pace a bit.