Buxom bodices and Brash Buccaneering

I just finished Season 4 of this show - I believe it began filming around 2015, so it is the most recent version of the story. (There are several older ones I believe.) There is a season 5 but I have to rent it so I will wait to watch it. 

It took me the better part of a year to watch these. It wasn't like an addictive compulsion for me to finish this. It passed the time pleasantly. I especially enjoyed the scenery, music, and aesthetic of the filming, costumes etc.

Spoiler alert: What prompted me to write was my emotional reaction last night upon finishing the series when Elizabeth dies. I never liked Elizabeth. I found her tolerance for the despicable social-ladder-climbing-at-all-costs of her second husband George to be disgusting. She was an opportunist. While I can sympathize with the fact that women had few chances for stability without an "advantageous" marriage, she engaged herself to Francis before confirmation that Ross was really dead. When he showed up alive, she still married Francis even though she clearly was still in love with Ross.

 I could forgive her that, but then she manipulated George into marrying her in time to cover up her pregnancy through her one night stand with Ross, which didn't really work because her baby turned out looking just like Ross and coming "one month early" but with full term characteristics. OOPS. George has many flaws but being a complete idiot isn't one of them.

I don't believe she ever loved George - she knew he would provide her the genteel life and social standing she craved. Then she stood by passively disapproving or at time approving his gross exploitation of the poor - including his arrangement of the marriage of her cousin Morwenna to a perverted loathsome vicar. 

I can feel some sympathy for Elizabeth. Her maneuverings never really managed to attain her the happiness she hard-sought. When she tried to manipulate the timing of the birth of George's baby to make it seem like another "eight month miracle" - in order to fully deceive him about the first child being his, it backfired and killed her. 

Elizabeth's formality and dogged pursuit of gentility stand in sharp contrast to the warmth and genuineness of Demelza, who happens to rise in stature completely without guile. 

All that being said, I do appreciate the complexity of relationships with history, especially in the context of a rural village where everyone is linked to one another. Elizabeth was at one time the symbol of happiness for three men. The last episode masterfully wove together the power of her influence and thus her death. Ross can't help but be moved by her passing. We see the graciousness of Demelza as she extends kindness to Elizabeth and Valentine (the illicit child of Ross and Elizabeth) just prior to the death. 

I wasn't sad to see this end. I have for some time been weary of the same pointed rocks over the shore, no matter how beautiful. Also the bare chested embraces of Ross and the constant presence of buxom bodices. (Those just make me jealous LOL) There is only so much drama that can happen in a given small village: you've got the miners, romances that transcend social classes, intense jealousy, war heroes who return and romance wives, deaths, and beyond that there is only so much that can be fabricated!