REVIEW: Little Women (2017) Episode 2

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Little Women (2017) BBC One
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6853528/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

Episode 2 (27th of December 2017)

A less annoying opening scene and the titles are growing on me, although my overall feeling is that they go by too quickly.

The most emotional moment for me was Marmee seeing all her daughters in their finery for Meg’s wedding, and how she was both a part of it and separate from the sisters in their youth and their bond, how it tied into her sadness that they were growing up and her pride and joy in them.

In the meantime, Beth went to the Hummels one more time and fell prey to scarlet fever, and though she and her father recovered, she was, as Jo said, fading. I think the slight lack of focus on Jo and Beth’s relationship in the first episode cost them here. Because it did come fifth to Jo’s relationships with Meg, Amy, Laurie and Marmee (and I may have ordered those incorrectly in terms of screen time and impact). I shouldn’t be feeling most heartbroken for old Mr Laurence – not that I was, precisely, but that was as much from remembering the books and feeling for Meg and Jo, who had too great a responsibility and worry in their mother’s absence. Of course, Jo’s low-voiced speech to Beth was touching, as was Amy’s grief and worry in their own way.

Amy provided a lot of the comedy here, with the limes (until she was struck), the malapropisms and the self-dramatisation. At the same time, there was the mauling by Aunt March’s parrot, which she endured. I thought the scenes with Laurie at Aunt March helped prepare the ground for their furture nicely.

For in this episode, Jo was fighting growing up, loss and romance as hard as in her lay. We literally had her and Laurie fighting over who should take over the reins, which says it all. I was always a faithful literalist over the romances in this series, so I’m glad the adaptation made clear how Laurie and Jo probably wouldn’t work.

In contrast, Meg and John’s romance was very sweet – I surprised myself by how much I liked the montage scene starting with the girls singing. For one thing, it made me wish there’s been even more singing in this episode; perhaps if I ever get a chance to see a musical adaptation of ‘Little Women’, I should take it. But it brought the continuing war into focus, again, putting the story in its important context, allowed time to pass (as measured by Jo’s hair growth) and showed us a little of Meg’s love enduring and growing. It was also nice to have the Christmas a year on, making this very seasonal telly.

There are so very many things I like – that Jo’s stories were, I think, Alcott’s herself. The additions didn’t jar – I wonder where they got Mr March’s never published novel from.

Angela Lansbury’s Aunt March continues to delight. I loved her apology to Meg and that she has some self-awareness. As Gambon’s Mr Laurence danced with her at Meg’s wedding, I wanted someone to have insisted that he took care of her because that’s Angela Lansbury. I am sure he did. She’s in her nineties, but she’s still a real force in all her scenes.

I am wondering about how they’ll convey the next few years as Jo and Amy, in particular, become young women (oh, Beth!) Jo seems so perfectly caught at a coltish age, and for Amy, there’ll need to be a little bit more than putting up her hair. The actor playing Brook looks very boyish to me, which only says how very much older I am than when I first read the books. (He also sounds more English than New English, but that’s another matter.)

It’s a treat for the eyes.