#and I really like how Cosette and Marius then ended up being more giddy and teenager like which is more book accurate

[hadleysmis]

The wedding.

As far as restrictions go, the women are not allowed to dance on stage or touch men.

The restrictions don't stand out so much in relation to Cosette and Marius' romance because it makes sense for them to chase each other around and peacock from a distance.

[bullseyegames]

PLEASE ELABORATE

Not sure if this is talking about the les mis post... BUT IT DOESNT MATTER CAUSE WE ARE DOING THIS.

The easiest cats to assign were Mungojerre and Rumpleteazer because Duh. Their criminal activity and also their immediate connection and synergy with each other. I really shouldn’t have to say it but THIS ISNT INCEST they are unrelated cats who secretly despise each other but also love each other. It also is fun because Jerre actually gets to be really evil for once which is amazing.

Next came the iconic love triangle of Marius, Cosette and Eponine. Now initially I had another trio in mind, that of Misto, Victoria, and Rumpleteazer filling the parts in the order listed above. This was a cool concept, but I didn’t like the idea of pairing mungo with anyone else and having Tugger being enjorlas worked... just not that great. Also I remembered another iconic ship of mine for Tugger and misto so we got Bomba deme and Munk as our iconic lovers.

Old deut and macavity and Grizabella were also easy to pick due to their built in character dynamic. Also I loved the idea of macavity having much more emotional meaning to his actions and Deut actually striving toward the everlasting cat for forgiveness. Also “I Dreamed a Dream” is such a Griz song and I loved the idea of Deme being her daughter so much. ;-;

And the most iconic matchups, Misto and Tugger as Grantier and Enjorlas. Misto finally getting to be this big inspiring leader and Tugger being his drunk secret lover. The lover dynamic between Grantier and Enjorlas is something I’ve loved for a while because they always bicker and mess with each other throughout the production and near the end when the barricade falls they both usually end up holding hands holding the French flag as they get executed. It’s beautiful and emotional and always makes me cry (if your interested I would gladly describe every single interaction I’ve seen them have in all the productions of les mis I have been in).

And finally Pouncival. Gavroche was hard to cast because there were a lot of options. I didn’t like using the psychic twins or any other kitten. I considered Plato for a second but then I figured out a much better place to put him and Victoria. Then I realized how perfect pouncival is. He’s a young giddy kit who follows everyone around. He would absolutley run into danger to prove himself and also his relationship ship to Tugger is very important. When gavroche dies in the musical it’s normally staged that Grantier sits down in the corner with gavroche’s body cuddled in his laps and it’s one of the only times in the show he doesn’t drink. Also that makes him Bombas little brother and mungo and rumples son which I thought would be fun. :3

[annachronistic]

BBC Les Mis highlights

I waited till the last minute to review decided to review the BBC Les Mis series after all 6 episodes have aired.  So here’s my partially analytical, partially comical commentary on the BBC series.  A lot of stuff under the cut, lol.

- The Waterloo scene with Thénardier flexin’ like he wasn’t just about to rob Pontmercy 😒.  The dude’s so two-faced, but that’s in character.

- The Toulon prison scene looks like it was filmed in an arid, desert-like region, like Zion National Park.  I’m very curious about where this was filmed!

- One moment in the Toulon scene that stood out to me was with the prisoner about to get executed by firing squad.  And Javert just says “fire” in the most monotone voice ever as if it was nothing.  It really shows how indifferent he is to this sort of stuff.

- The “you will never win” line from Javert makes him seem like a stereotypical movie villain.  Just add lightning and a dramatic music sting wait, there’s no music allowed.

- The French dialog in the background is a clever way to establish the setting.  I wish I knew more French so I could understand the background conversations!

- The parts of episode 1 with Fantine and her homies just hanging out and being happy were my favorite scenes.

- Fantine is played by Lily Collins, who is Phil Collins’ daughter.  Phil Collins is a musician.  But I thought there was no singing allowed, Davies 😤

- I like how Fantine has a last name (Tibeau) in this series.  I like the idea of giving names to characters with unmentioned last/first names in the book.

- Georges Pontmercy tries to contact his father-in-law George Washington Gillenormand, who is a pretentious royalist that won’t let Marius see his dad.

- Seriously, I know almost nothing about 19th century fashion and I still can tell that Gillenormand and his royalist buddies’ hairstyles are anachronistic.

- Cosette, Éponine, and Azelma playing together after Fantine arrived with Cosette at the inn reminded me of the powerpuff girls with their hair styles.

-This is sad as well, because this the last time Cosette will be happy in a very long time.

- Fantine being optimistic and thinking she’ll see Cosette in 6 months really makes me sad, knowing what will happen in the future.

- Madeleine firing Fantine for lying (when he himself is lying, in a way, by hiding his identity) seems harsh and out-of character.  Valjean is supposed to have the most dramatic character changes of all the characters, but it looks like he hasn’t changed at all since Toulon.

- Javert talks to Madeleine in the same condescending way he did when he was 24601.  He was being all passive-aggressive and basically accusing him of being a criminal without directly saying it to his face.

- The dude that buys Fantine’s hair and teeth looks hella creepy.  Like wtf is that tattoo near his eye?

- Javert was super indifferent to Fantine’s death.

- Javert seems more like lawful evil than lawful neutral in this series.

- Valjean Harry Houdinis himself out of prison and shows up to get Cosette...2 years later?

- Rosalie Thénardier (again, I like that she has a first name) is depicted very well and is not solely a comic relief.

- Creepy hair buying guy returns and sells Chuckie Catherine to Valjean

- Valjean when he sees that Thénardier followed him and Cosette into the woods to bargain for more money:

- Cosette is right.  The landlord is a nosy lil bitch.

- At the end of episode 3, Javert gets super pissed that Valjean has narrowly escaped.  This is so sad Alexa play One Way or Another by Blondie.

- Big time jump!  What year is it?  Now I miss the exact year being shown on the screen.

- Valjean has morphed into Queen Aggravain from Once Upon a Mattress, so I guess Cosette is a much-smarter Prince Dauntless?  (Stop it annachronistic!  This is not a musical review.  Andrew Davies forbids it 😠)

- Since Cosette has some traits of an ingenue, and since Davies likes making female characters one-dimensional, I was afraid that he was gonna make her really dumb.  Thankfully she is smart, and I don’t think that Valjean perceives her as being dumb.  I think he is trying to shelter her from the world not because he thinks she is weak, but because he is super paranoid and has trust issues.  Like he might be afraid of her meeting someone like Tholomyes or Thénardier.

- But Valjean goes about his protection of Cosette in the most jerkish way possible. 

- Mabeuf is the real MVP

- The return of the landlord in episode 4 (dun dun dunn)

- I hate the strip tease scene.  Like stahp.

- And I also dislike the over-sexualization of (abused!) women, and the idea that a woman has to be “sexy” or beautiful in order to be loved.  In the words of the great Bart Baker “It sends the message to young girls: pretty equals happiness.  If you’re ugly then you’re worthless and your life will be bland and shitty”

- In episode 4 Marius is pretty much a socially awkward Glenn Quagmire from Family Guy.

- The scene where Thénardier forces Azlema to break the window with her hand makes Thénardier look like a sociopath.

- I don’t know why Valjean took Cosette to the Gorbeau house where the Thénardiers were staying.  I think it’s to emphasize that Cosette remembers the Thénardiers?

- New drinking game: take a shot every time Thénardier says he was in Waterloo.

- The Gorbeau house raid was actually my favorite scene of episode 4 (I’m biased because I’m an action movie fan), although there is a shocking lack of “would you like my hat?”.

- Valjean going crazy and burning his arm with the hot iron and Madame Thénardier throwing that giant ass rock!   I think X Gon’ Give It To Ya by DMX would be the perfect soundtrack for the Gorbeau house scene.

- Gavroche’s brothers/gamin buddies in episode 5!

- Also, Gavroche looks like Huey Freeman from The Boondocks.  I cannot unsee this.

- Marius, justifiably upset at his grandfather says “You disrespected my father, and now you disrespect wife?!”  Like, he didn’t even say “future” wife, and he’s only spoken to her 4 times in the show.  Slow down there, buckaroo.

- Also Gillenormand changes somewhat even he changed more than Valjean wtf and has some regrets about not letting Marius see his dad.

- I hate seeing Valjean fighting with Cosette.  In fact, the whole thing is pretty farcical.  There are a lot of Jerry Springer moments.

- Case in point: Enjolras.  The background info for the reasons for the June rebellion was glossed over pretty quickly, so it seems like he’s starting shit just to start shit.

- Javert thinks Valjean is the leader of the rebellion like wtf?  At this point, BBC Javert seems more like the Javert from the musical (ya know, going after the same criminal for almost 2 decades instead of randomly meeting him in a series of coincidences). 

- I love the drone shots of the barricades

- Marius goes from super giddy to suicide bomber in like one day.  I love the recurring theme of characters going berserk.

- And Enjolras and the rebels thought that was a badass moment for him.

- It’s a 3-way tie between Valjean, Javert, and Marius for being the most extra™ character in the series.

- Cosette saying “I hate you” to Valjean somehow seemed both out-of character and justified.

- Éponine getting shot was too sad.

- Gavroche’s body getting put next to Éponine‘s :(

- The army guy staring at Grantaire and Enjolras after killing them :(

- After Valjean finds him at the barricade and sees he has a knife Javert is like:

- Valjean saying he might “change his mind” about not killing Javert ???

- not enough sewers 0/10

- Gillenormand’s reaction when he thought that Marius was dead made me finally feel sympathy for him

- Javert’s suicide was surreal because he was methodical about it.  After crying for a few seconds, he goes back to his stoic self and jumps off the bridge because he actually sees it as a logical solution.

- Valjean casually admitting to Marius that he was thinking about murdering him *eyeroll*

- The biggest what-the-fuck moment (history wise) was when Thénardier said he was going to La Jolla in the New World to trade slaves.  If I heard it right, he is talking about La Jolla in California.  California did not become a state until 1850.  So if this is true, then Cosette is in her mid-30′s, Marius is at least 40, and Thénardier is at least 77.  Damn, they aged well!

- Valjean’s hair finally changed color once he slips into depression.

- At least Valjean had a peaceful death, and Cosette was by his side.  His relationship with his daughter was resolved and the story was able to (sort of) have a happy ending.

- Speaking of endings, the series ends on a frickin’ cliff hanger with the two gamin boys begging on the streets.  I guess it’s to show that the world is still a cruel place, but some can overcome it?

- We now need Les Misérables 2: Thénardier goes to America and his 2 unnamed sons get adopted by the Pontmercys.