Last time around on The White Queen, we saw Elizabeth convincing King Edward IV to marry her and his subsequent acknowledgment of that marriage. Elizabeth then made her way to court, where she was greeted less than warmly by a number of folks, particularly Edward’s uncle Warwick and the king’s own mother.
This time around moves us rapidly through the course of months. Elizabeth has the king’s baby in her belly and eventually gives birth to a girl, thus not fully securing Edward’s claim on the throne. She also makes he debut as queen in an official coronation. In the meanwhile, her family and Edward’s bicker a lot, playing political games and plotting against each other.
Edward is, however, a bit too trusting and short-sighted. At first he puts all his faith in Warwick. Later, he begins taking council from Elizabeth’s family and instead of throwing Warwick a bone here and there, he makes every attempt to shut him and his people out of positions of power. This snubbing, naturally, pushes Warwick over the edge and he foments rebellion with the intent of bringing Edward’s brother to the throne. By the end of the show, Warwick has Edward captured and Elizabeth is in danger of losing both her throne and her head.
In the meanwhile, a third player is lurking in the shadows and waiting to make a move. Margaret Beaufort has a son that just happens to be the old King Henry’s rightful heir. By helping to encourage conflict between the two reigning sides, she looks toward the long-term goal of moving in to take over once they have exhausted themselves in yet another civil war.
Though I wouldn’t consider The White Queen a masterpiece of television, they do at least do a decent job of moving from important event to important event. It feels a little rushed at times, but with so many years to cover in 10 episodes, it’s pretty much a given that it will have this feeling.
My biggest problem is with the acting. It feels much more dramatic than historical and Warwick in particular is kind of goofy in that whenever something bad happens to him, he just kind of looks dejected. Such a power player seems like he might be more… aggressive in general. And if the writers’ intent is to make you dislike pretty much every one of the main characters, they have done a good job of it. For half the episode, I was routing for Warwick. In historic context, this makes sense of course, though I wonder at the show’s focus.
For a look at next week’s episode, check out this site here.
Photo Credits -
The Price of Power courtesy of hanko9.com
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