There are stories that appeal to
both sexes, but last week, I was reminded again of how men and women want such
different things out of the stories they read or watch on TV/film and how
difficult it is to please both at the same time.
The man behind this new adaptation,
Adrian Hodges, has done a great job IMO and has brought something new to it
rather than just reworking the same old story, the way most films have done in
the past. He takes a lot of liberties,
of course, but it doesn’t seem to matter and all fits in very nicely. There’s plenty of sword-fighting and violence
to please male viewers (Vinnie Jones was in last week’s episode, which says a
lot!), and there are sub-plots galore featuring women, not least the
brilliantly selfish Milady de Winter.
The one sub-plot that interested me the most, however, was the budding romance between D’Artagnan and the married Constance, his landlady. Over many weeks they got to know each other, helped one another out and the viewer could see respect, love and trust building between them until finally, they confessed their love and started an affair.
Photo from www.IMDb.com |
The writer obviously felt that this
was what the series needed, keeping D’Artagnan free from a love interest and
able to go on his way (albeit angry and disillusioned), but could he not have
been allowed to be happy at least for a while?
As a woman, this made me feel completely cheated and if you’re reading
this, Mr Hodges, I sincerely hope you’re planning on bringing them together
again at a later stage, if not already in tonight’s episode!
Any man watching this probably didn’t
even notice and thought it just another sub-plot, but with the enormous
build-up to this particular romance it seemed to me to have much more
significance.
This has turned into a bit of a
rant, but I guess what I’m trying to say is that we can’t cheat our
readers/viewers by leading them down one path, only to trample on their joy
once we finally conclude this plot strand satisfactorily. After a while, perhaps, but not so quickly or
so callously. But maybe that’s just my
very female point of view …?