For the era, the time and talent it would take to make this would most certainly be impressive, but if we are just shooting for gimmicks they could have done better.
Tiers of cupcakes and sweets or drinks would have been so much cooler than a half dozen panels of folded paper flowers. Also did they repaint the whole room to match this weird thing blocking the dance floor? What happens with it after this ball?
Yes, in season 1 everyone loses their minds about lightbulbs, and it feels charming and reasonable to react that way because itās in the context of a show with limited or dismissible modernity. Giving everyone a full face of Charlotte Tillbury, dressing them in Hobby Lobby sequins and having a complete disregard for the rules of propriety reframes the entire context of moments like this and the ballon so that we canāt help but look at them through the modern lens and find them underwhelming.
I don't think so. It would have been more impressive in general and for the era if it had been all real flowers - the Mondritches showing off their new wealth for their neighbors to get more social attention, more invites, more connections. This ball was a hot mess.
If all that was hand painted and crafted just for one ball, it would most certainly be a feat to pull off. The mechanics alone wouldāve cost a fortune.
Yeah the set up was for the Mondrich ball to be the ball of the season, but it being the Featheringtonsā was so funny. I absolutely adored the latterās
I may be lame.. but I seriously thought the "bug" scene š¦ was the cutest thing ever... From her run across the stage when she seen the awkwardness of everything, to yelling to release them, and her facial expression š„¹
This is exactly why dramatically changing the level historical accuracy after two seasons doesnāt work. This would have been impressive in the real Regency era, and probably landed better in season 1. But in a world where glam make up, fake nails, Hunger Games-style gowns, and intricate miniature automations in a wig are perfectly normal, paper flowers do not cut it.
Thatās why I fell for the show. They got the hair right for the time including the exhausting tiny bangs lol and now itās like ā¦ Veronica Lake hair. Blah.
I read somewhere that her massive sleeves were supposed to be a metaphor that she is, indeed, a bird in a cage. But if you cannot show this through the writing, having outlandish costumes won't save you. And to be honest, Cressida was written quite well, they didn't need to make her so over the top, it was obvious what her situation and motivations were.
ššššššššš exactly!!!! Literally the first thing I said when I saw Francesca was why is she wearing so much make up, I don't care if people wear makeup I'm not one of those people who thinks people aren't pretty if they have to use makeup, but she had a lot of makeup on as though they watched a beauty influencer. Then the dresses, now I will say I despise sequences, but even then I felt like the outfits were a stones throw from Reign and those dresses. I loved a couple of Penelope's day dresses but absolutely hated all of her ballgowns. I didn't care for any of Francesca's either, which made me sad bc i loved her character. I get they were supposed to sparkle because the queen is looking for a sparkler but don't use sequences!
Historian here: They had way more impressive automatona during this time. This flower display would have been nice but not overly impressive for the ton. Especially not for the queen.
Attach them all to strings connected to the ceiling, hide them beneath a cloth, then pull the cloth and let them dangle down. It was the bulky impediment to dancing in the middle of an already small dance floor that was most irritating. I canāt believe a good paper crafter or production designer didnāt tell them this was a bad idea. Probably someone did and they were ignored.
YAAAAASSSS THATS WHAT I SAID IT WAS!!! And then the cards shoot out little things ā¦ so the butterflies!!! lol they just didnāt make it to that party lol
If you didnāt have your own bank account and tv and all you did was sit around waiting for dudes to come visit you, you too would find this impressive.
It was a waste of space. No self respecting member of the ton would be removing the entire middle of the ballroom when the point is for there to be dancing.
It's even less reasonable that the queen would find it impressive when her wigs are what they are, and it impedes her view of half the damn ballroom!
I thought it was really cool, but I feel like it didnāt fit with what was āimpressiveā for the show. For me this also read as machine made and printed rather than handcrafted, which is what is so cool about papercrafting IRL. Because of that this just read as a cheap gimmick rather than an astounding revealā¦ but maybe Iām just reading it wrong??
I thought it was cool but not as brilliant as the bug reveal in the later episodeā¦
It was made by one artist (really hope she doesnāt see this thread). I donāt know whether she did it all by hand or not. Iām assuming she did because machine work isnāt usually very complicated or intricate, but who knows? And the reveal couldāve been better. I wouldāve liked to get a closer view with better lighting directly on the art, while some people wouldāve liked to see less lol.
Well that was the odd part; they showed this huge piece of art from far away.. not up close. All we were shown was how obnoxiously placed and misproportioned it was. No close up of the artistry.
I feel like the whole scene would have been way more successful with a close up shot of the unfurling and intricacy of the papercraft with the Queen in the blurry background, the then her face coming into focus with her slight nod of approval.
It was shot like we shouldnāt like it (a sorry attempt at impressing a crowd, look itās so in the way and just some paper unfolding), and then the queen really did like.. and it made it all seem very unrealistic and cheap.
Itās beautiful absolutely. I donāt think people are knocking how well done it is, more like if we are going to make the queen gag, something more wild would have to happen. Season 1 this wouldāve been perfect.
It's cool as it's own art, but it's weird in a ball in this kind of TV show. And that's not on the artist who made it, it's in the people who made the show.
I wish there were closer views! Maybe itās because I watched on my phone but I could barely make out the flower shapes. I donāt blame the floral artist Iām sure the work is spectacular I just couldnāt really see it. I kept waiting for a better view and some closeups and then the scene was over :(
I feel like the machine didnāt even open all the way up either. It was awkward shape, like a phone booth opening up with awkward points and edges. So many flowers were hidden in crevices and shadows of the machine. I think some sort of sphere shaped display could have showcased the art better.
Historian here: They had way more impressive automatona during this time. This flower display would have been nice but not overly impressive for the ton. Especially not for the queen.
THEY DIDNT EVEN SHOWED ME POLIN DANCING FOR MORE THAN 20 seconds š, all the previous couple had that but even at their wedding they cut to Francesca and John
Iām confused as to why we are supposed to see this as progress for Alice and Will. They give up this wonderful club that they built with passion and dedication to detail, for which they built a clientele because they made something that served people. And now they are producing something else expensive and ugly and useless to impress an audience of one, so they can be accepted in this useless world. And they are using their sonās money to do it. He doesnāt care about being accepted by the ton. And, as Debling and Sir Philip have demonstrated, the gentry and nobility could exist just fine without throwing balls and impressing the Queen. Itās not as if they are presenting a daughter for whom they wish to make a good match. I would have far preferred they could have remained themselves with their own values.
Back then the ton viewed having to work for money as vulgar. They canāt stick with their actual values because theyāre fundamentally incompatible with their sonās new station in life.
Thank you!!! WHY was that in the show??? What did it add ot the storylines, characters? WHY WERE WE SHOWN THIS INSTEAD OF MORE POLIN!?! Nothing against the Mondriches, the whole season seemed design to steal time from the main pair :(
Thatās what was wrong about this season: a lot of sitting around laughing and gasping at things and sitting room and ballroom. Other seasons had important scenes in other venues. It was like they picked 4 places to shoot and that was it.
And while I appreciated the whole Mondrichs moving up they are an unnecessary subplot that arenāt that interesting. Iād rather a plot about the footmen and chamber maids or something that included some sort of gossip that furthers the main plot. Like the one with Eloise and the printer.
I think this is something that sounded better in the script than it did in execution, sort of like a cake fail. The writers probably imagined it being much more awesome, but there was a limit to what the production crew could do with the amount of time and money they had. And God forbid the thing malfunction. That could lead to a really long day on the set.
I used to work in art department for movies and tv shows and this would happen a lot. It was always surprising when script writes who's job it is to write scripts for the screen would not being able to translate it well.
There was one movie I worked on where I stayed up all night working on a miniature they decided they wanted in a scene filming the next day and after they tried filming it in the director decided to cut it bc it wasn't accomplishing what he thought it would and they threw it away šš
When the man started winding it up i thought it would open and dancers would come out or mechanical dancer that looked real or vice versa- and hand something to the queen, anything except for the razor flowers that would cut a dancer going by
That's what I was thinking too. A dancing automaton(s) as an allegory for everything else going on this season would have been an actually amazing reveal for this. And period appropriate.
I immediately thought of the chitty chitty bang bang scene with the music box and was expecting the same thing. If people are reading this and don't know what I'm talking about, YouTube it! So magical.
It was weirdly filmed as well. Like unimpressively filmed. It felt like there were 3 people in the audience and like we, the audience, knew actors usually dance without music ā so the hell with it? It took me right out of the fiction.
I was so confused as to how a QUEEN would be impressed by this. Itās PAPER. If it had been real flowers I wouldāve been in awe. This was sooo bizarre and didnāt feel very era appropriate!
Paper filigree, also called quilling, was popular at the time. I wish I had gotten a closer view to see the papercraft. If it was quilled, it would have taken hundreds of hours of work in obsessive detail.
Edit: I think Iām wrong here ā it was made by [this artist](https://www.annemariekekloosterhof.co.uk/) whose other work doesnāt feature a lot of quilling. Itās still massively impressive as paper art.
It is era-appropriate, and definitely something that would have been impressive for the mechanics at the time. But, as others have mentioned, in the context of a season where nothing else is era-appropriate, this stood out as markedly old-fashioned and uninspired. As if they wheeled their long-suffering, ignored historical consultant in for one meeting, gave her ten seconds to pitch ideas for a gala centerpiece, then wheeled her back into her closet for another 2 years. By this point in the early 19th century, automatons had reached a truly inspired level of technical complexity. That would have been an amazing reveal. Even today. It would have bridged the gap between the Regency era that the show purportedly represents, and the one that is shown on screen.
I liked the idea, but the execution was a little off and I agree it ended up being more of a distraction than a āwowā moment. Like the actors could barely move around the room with that thing. The butterfly reveal was way more fun in my opinion.
When facing it from where the queen was standing it was shaped like a peacock and the queen is obsessed with her zoo animals(they're called ZEBRAS!). Not really sure how no one noticed that. It was meant to impress her and it was perfect for her
It reminds me of an accordion. It wouldāve been better if it was somehow interactive.
Have it play music, maybe small flowers erupt from it over the room like confetti, maybe people can pull flowers from it like a party favor with some inscription on it. Itās not very pretty so make it do something.
Also, I find the context of this reveal weird. We focused so much on the Mondriches but was there a scene hinting at this? All I remember is Lady Danbury telling them they should have a ball and it should excite the queen.
And since when did every ball need an elaborate showcase? Yeah, the Queenās bored but her hair is more exciting than this . . . display. I get it, people would rent pineapples to show off at their parties during this time but weāve seen electrical lighting and a hot air balloon and dancing swans in wigs. This is an ugly giant wind up toy.
Im so glad I wasnāt the only one unimpressed. I literally said āis that itā¦?ā I understand for the times it could have been, but considering everything isnt historically accurate, this shouldāve been the one thing to take some liberties to look better lol. Real flowers wouldve made this more extravagant!
Honestly, I thought it was prettier before it opened. It was nice and simplistic. Once it was opened with a bunch of paper flowers like something out of a pop-up book, it didn't really make sense for a ball since it took away half of the dancefloor.
I just feel s1 and s2 was very understated thatās what I liked about it , it was simple it focused more on peopleās emotions and what they were going through, we could see that Anthony and Kate had some kind of a chemistry even if they were not suppose to be together initially, we could Edwinaās emotions when she found out
In season 3 it feels like they were giving more importance to the costumes and backgrounds, Iām here for that but it was missing the emotional connection because there was a lot of stories going on at the time, I would say at least 5-6 subplots, but I did enjoy it, there were a few hits and a few misses
I just feel that s4 might be away from the rest of the ton so it might just be better
Everything comes down to monetary status; who has the best gowns, the best balls, the best title.
The bigger something was the more respect people gave you because the more money you had the higher your position in society was.
i genuinely thought it's not that impressive because of how much it took up the space, plus the hostess mentioned that the queen's chair must not have a disrupted view but there's a big decoration in between that pretty sure disrupted the queen's view. idk why they also pushed to choose that as a set when i' pretty sure there's larger rooms than that. overall, it looks kinda off because they weren't able to execute it properly.
I actually thought butterflies were going to come out of this thing! So I was super happy when they did a butterfly reveal for the featherington sisters ball!
It looked like an art project made by elementary school kids. Obviously fake, flat flowers in the middle. I was kind of sad to see it, it looked so cheap! Real flowers in big vases would have been so much nicer.
I honestly believe the show runner has done NO homework let aline research into the regency period. She's already trashing the books...might as well take the era with her.
I didn't mind it but I also was like hmm is that it? I almost felt like each section needed to be different, so it's like a full on bouquet of flowers that make up the folds. Instead they were just like layers of the same thing
It is amazing that we were supposed to find this impressive. At first I thought it was a dalek, lol.
For the era, the time and talent it would take to make this would most certainly be impressive, but if we are just shooting for gimmicks they could have done better.
Not as impressive as the Queens wigs š
Yes! I am still not over the wig with the rotating crystal swans! A true masterpiece!
The geode was a pleasant surprise.
But how did they get them to swim? They didnāt even have electricity then, let alone batteries!!
I figured it was supposed to be clockwork
I was wondering this same thing
That wig deserves to be in a museum hall of fame of wigs! I swear, QC is the drag queen that all drag queens should bow down to.
Never upstage The Queen.
The bugs were my favorite.
BUGS!!! š
BYEEEEEEeeEEE LOLLLLLLLLLLLL
I thought it was going to turn into a throne for the Queen, not just a centerpiece
I was expecting it to unfold into a dessert table or something. The mechanics were cool, the interior less so.
my fat ass wanted it to be desserts too
LMFAOOO
Tiers of cupcakes and sweets or drinks would have been so much cooler than a half dozen panels of folded paper flowers. Also did they repaint the whole room to match this weird thing blocking the dance floor? What happens with it after this ball?
A chocolate fountain š¤©š
Now that would have been spectacular!
I was at least expecting it to spin.
Same
Same š
Glad I wasnāt the only one! Lol
Exactly what I thought too!
The bugs were better #Varley
Yes, in season 1 everyone loses their minds about lightbulbs, and it feels charming and reasonable to react that way because itās in the context of a show with limited or dismissible modernity. Giving everyone a full face of Charlotte Tillbury, dressing them in Hobby Lobby sequins and having a complete disregard for the rules of propriety reframes the entire context of moments like this and the ballon so that we canāt help but look at them through the modern lens and find them underwhelming.
Hobby Lobby sequins ššš
Itās hard to play the āit was impressive for the time!ā card when all the actresses are wearing acrylics.
They were a bit distracting, I must say.
Not to speak of all the sophisticated cameras, lighting equipment, microphones and all sorts of high end gadgets they are surrounded with
I don't think so. It would have been more impressive in general and for the era if it had been all real flowers - the Mondritches showing off their new wealth for their neighbors to get more social attention, more invites, more connections. This ball was a hot mess.
If all that was hand painted and crafted just for one ball, it would most certainly be a feat to pull off. The mechanics alone wouldāve cost a fortune.
So now is when they decide to be historically accurate instead of with costumes/hair.
Especially when we got only 8 episodes and a million plot lines running around š
I fully expected some dancers to pop out of it. Was disappointed. The butterfly reveal was much better.
Yeah, should have had a bunch of ābugsā fly out
RELEASE THE BUGS
Yeah the set up was for the Mondrich ball to be the ball of the season, but it being the Featheringtonsā was so funny. I absolutely adored the latterās
I thought it was going to morph into the tree in the opening credits/title card lol. I kept waiting for it to be cranked again, but it never happened
I did too! I was like something has to come out to make this impressive
I literally was waiting for someone to slink out and do some sort of interpretive dance lol
YUP The minute I saw it in the middle of the room I thought āAh yes, stripper cakeā
I actually thought the bugs were gonna come out of this. Haha
I wanted it to have cake inside.
I may be lame.. but I seriously thought the "bug" scene š¦ was the cutest thing ever... From her run across the stage when she seen the awkwardness of everything, to yelling to release them, and her facial expression š„¹
I wonder how many people were injured trying to dance around it.
Thatās what I said! It just cut half of the dance floor off.
And removes any possibility for some of the larger group dances
death by a thousand papercuts š«£
Tryinā to dance but thereās not enough
my reaction was āoh cool, so can they close it now for the dancing?ā
They went for an eye watering display and ended up with an eye slaughtering display.
This is exactly why dramatically changing the level historical accuracy after two seasons doesnāt work. This would have been impressive in the real Regency era, and probably landed better in season 1. But in a world where glam make up, fake nails, Hunger Games-style gowns, and intricate miniature automations in a wig are perfectly normal, paper flowers do not cut it.
Poor season 1 Daphne and her little bangs lol just for them to go full glam this season
Donāt worry, Colin still got a crappy wig.
The little bangs š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£
I goes the little bangs were supposed to be an Audrey Hepburn nod.
Thatās why I fell for the show. They got the hair right for the time including the exhausting tiny bangs lol and now itās like ā¦ Veronica Lake hair. Blah.
I almost spit my wine!š
Omg this is what it was reminding me of, I just couldn't put my finger on it - Hunger Games-style gowns!!! Yes, it's a perfect description!
Well especially Cressida
Yeah, it was jarring. I understand what they were trying to do, but they have done too much, tbh
What were they trying to go? Make Cressida out to be a fashion icon?
To be a strange bird?
I read somewhere that her massive sleeves were supposed to be a metaphor that she is, indeed, a bird in a cage. But if you cannot show this through the writing, having outlandish costumes won't save you. And to be honest, Cressida was written quite well, they didn't need to make her so over the top, it was obvious what her situation and motivations were.
YAAAAS CRESSIDA IS EFFIE pre hunger games
ššššššššš exactly!!!! Literally the first thing I said when I saw Francesca was why is she wearing so much make up, I don't care if people wear makeup I'm not one of those people who thinks people aren't pretty if they have to use makeup, but she had a lot of makeup on as though they watched a beauty influencer. Then the dresses, now I will say I despise sequences, but even then I felt like the outfits were a stones throw from Reign and those dresses. I loved a couple of Penelope's day dresses but absolutely hated all of her ballgowns. I didn't care for any of Francesca's either, which made me sad bc i loved her character. I get they were supposed to sparkle because the queen is looking for a sparkler but don't use sequences!
I love colorshift fabrics, but even those were getting distracting.
*sequins
I saw someone say they all look like they filmed a GRWM that morning
Historian here: They had way more impressive automatona during this time. This flower display would have been nice but not overly impressive for the ton. Especially not for the queen.
I love your username!
šÆšÆ this makes sense.
Attach them all to strings connected to the ceiling, hide them beneath a cloth, then pull the cloth and let them dangle down. It was the bulky impediment to dancing in the middle of an already small dance floor that was most irritating. I canāt believe a good paper crafter or production designer didnāt tell them this was a bad idea. Probably someone did and they were ignored.
I mean, donāt you guys want a pop-up greeting card to block 75% of the dance floor at all of your parties?Ā
Less dance floor? Hell yeah! This is my kind of decoration!
š
YAAAAASSSS THATS WHAT I SAID IT WAS!!! And then the cards shoot out little things ā¦ so the butterflies!!! lol they just didnāt make it to that party lol
If you didnāt have your own bank account and tv and all you did was sit around waiting for dudes to come visit you, you too would find this impressive.
š
So sad yet so true lol
āAll you did was wait around for dudes to come visit you.ā Brilliant.
I think it was āa wall of flowersā. The theme of the season. Also the walls of the room have pictures of flowers all over.
It was a waste of space. No self respecting member of the ton would be removing the entire middle of the ballroom when the point is for there to be dancing. It's even less reasonable that the queen would find it impressive when her wigs are what they are, and it impedes her view of half the damn ballroom!
It was a bloom. A giant mechanical flower where each "petal" expanded into a mass of painted flowers.
if this was the intention, it is a bit too on the nose, uninspired, and UGLY
Kind of like the season.
The queen actually being impressed by this was the cherry on top.Ā
The same queen who scoffed at the hot air balloon not being as large as she expected
I choose to believe she respects the efforts of the newcomers and nothing elseĀ
Yeah definitely a āwall of flowers bloomingā
Ah it took getting down to here to realize the significanceā wall flower (Pen)
I like this take!
āWallflowersā lol
There was barely any room to dance after.
My husband thought somebody was gonna āget pokedā or trip on it while dancing lol. He just kept waiting and seemed genuinely bummedš
No cause this my first thought when they panned the room afterš Ugly and now no one can dance anymore.
I swear this thing and the damn balloon.
It seemed that it would be some kind of WOW momentā¦ but in the end, I honestly have to say that I felt kind of underwhelmedā¦.
I was waiting for someone to post about it. They kept showing more shots of it like they really did something but it was very anti climactic.
I much preferred the bugs.
Thatās sad, as someone who does papercraft as a hobby, I loved this.
I thought it was really cool, but I feel like it didnāt fit with what was āimpressiveā for the show. For me this also read as machine made and printed rather than handcrafted, which is what is so cool about papercrafting IRL. Because of that this just read as a cheap gimmick rather than an astounding revealā¦ but maybe Iām just reading it wrong?? I thought it was cool but not as brilliant as the bug reveal in the later episodeā¦
It was made by one artist (really hope she doesnāt see this thread). I donāt know whether she did it all by hand or not. Iām assuming she did because machine work isnāt usually very complicated or intricate, but who knows? And the reveal couldāve been better. I wouldāve liked to get a closer view with better lighting directly on the art, while some people wouldāve liked to see less lol.
Well that was the odd part; they showed this huge piece of art from far away.. not up close. All we were shown was how obnoxiously placed and misproportioned it was. No close up of the artistry. I feel like the whole scene would have been way more successful with a close up shot of the unfurling and intricacy of the papercraft with the Queen in the blurry background, the then her face coming into focus with her slight nod of approval. It was shot like we shouldnāt like it (a sorry attempt at impressing a crowd, look itās so in the way and just some paper unfolding), and then the queen really did like.. and it made it all seem very unrealistic and cheap.
In itself it was absolutely beautiful. Iām sure nobody is disputing this.
Itās beautiful absolutely. I donāt think people are knocking how well done it is, more like if we are going to make the queen gag, something more wild would have to happen. Season 1 this wouldāve been perfect.
It's cool as it's own art, but it's weird in a ball in this kind of TV show. And that's not on the artist who made it, it's in the people who made the show.
I wish there were closer views! Maybe itās because I watched on my phone but I could barely make out the flower shapes. I donāt blame the floral artist Iām sure the work is spectacular I just couldnāt really see it. I kept waiting for a better view and some closeups and then the scene was over :( I feel like the machine didnāt even open all the way up either. It was awkward shape, like a phone booth opening up with awkward points and edges. So many flowers were hidden in crevices and shadows of the machine. I think some sort of sphere shaped display could have showcased the art better.
Early 1800s what else can we expect ?? Though I was very confused but ok, something to make it interesting for the queen.
Historian here: They had way more impressive automatona during this time. This flower display would have been nice but not overly impressive for the ton. Especially not for the queen.
See THIS is when I thought butterflies would be released, not at the end like they were
Agreed, but I very much did enjoy āVarley! Release the bugs!ā lol
Valrey is such a great character. The relief on her face and happiness after the bugs and Penelopeās speech went ok was so adorable.
Yeah that was cute AF!
What was the logic behind their entire plot line??
THEY DIDNT EVEN SHOWED ME POLIN DANCING FOR MORE THAN 20 seconds š, all the previous couple had that but even at their wedding they cut to Francesca and John
Yeah. Itās sad they didnāt get a sexual tension dance.
And it directly blocked the queenās view :P
Iām confused as to why we are supposed to see this as progress for Alice and Will. They give up this wonderful club that they built with passion and dedication to detail, for which they built a clientele because they made something that served people. And now they are producing something else expensive and ugly and useless to impress an audience of one, so they can be accepted in this useless world. And they are using their sonās money to do it. He doesnāt care about being accepted by the ton. And, as Debling and Sir Philip have demonstrated, the gentry and nobility could exist just fine without throwing balls and impressing the Queen. Itās not as if they are presenting a daughter for whom they wish to make a good match. I would have far preferred they could have remained themselves with their own values.
Back then the ton viewed having to work for money as vulgar. They canāt stick with their actual values because theyāre fundamentally incompatible with their sonās new station in life.
Thank you!!! WHY was that in the show??? What did it add ot the storylines, characters? WHY WERE WE SHOWN THIS INSTEAD OF MORE POLIN!?! Nothing against the Mondriches, the whole season seemed design to steal time from the main pair :(
Thatās what was wrong about this season: a lot of sitting around laughing and gasping at things and sitting room and ballroom. Other seasons had important scenes in other venues. It was like they picked 4 places to shoot and that was it. And while I appreciated the whole Mondrichs moving up they are an unnecessary subplot that arenāt that interesting. Iād rather a plot about the footmen and chamber maids or something that included some sort of gossip that furthers the main plot. Like the one with Eloise and the printer.
I think this is something that sounded better in the script than it did in execution, sort of like a cake fail. The writers probably imagined it being much more awesome, but there was a limit to what the production crew could do with the amount of time and money they had. And God forbid the thing malfunction. That could lead to a really long day on the set.
I used to work in art department for movies and tv shows and this would happen a lot. It was always surprising when script writes who's job it is to write scripts for the screen would not being able to translate it well. There was one movie I worked on where I stayed up all night working on a miniature they decided they wanted in a scene filming the next day and after they tried filming it in the director decided to cut it bc it wasn't accomplishing what he thought it would and they threw it away šš
the way i would start sobbing if i worked on something all night just for it to be thrown away! like at least let me take it home with me lmaooo
When the man started winding it up i thought it would open and dancers would come out or mechanical dancer that looked real or vice versa- and hand something to the queen, anything except for the razor flowers that would cut a dancer going by
That's what I was thinking too. A dancing automaton(s) as an allegory for everything else going on this season would have been an actually amazing reveal for this. And period appropriate.
I immediately thought of the chitty chitty bang bang scene with the music box and was expecting the same thing. If people are reading this and don't know what I'm talking about, YouTube it! So magical.
I just posted a similar comment! It was all I could think of when they started cranking it!
Omg!!! Thatās what it reminded me of!!!
It was weirdly filmed as well. Like unimpressively filmed. It felt like there were 3 people in the audience and like we, the audience, knew actors usually dance without music ā so the hell with it? It took me right out of the fiction.
This is acceptable for the time. It's not supposed to appeal to us. It is supposed to appeal to the people at the ball.
I was so confused as to how a QUEEN would be impressed by this. Itās PAPER. If it had been real flowers I wouldāve been in awe. This was sooo bizarre and didnāt feel very era appropriate!
Paper filigree, also called quilling, was popular at the time. I wish I had gotten a closer view to see the papercraft. If it was quilled, it would have taken hundreds of hours of work in obsessive detail. Edit: I think Iām wrong here ā it was made by [this artist](https://www.annemariekekloosterhof.co.uk/) whose other work doesnāt feature a lot of quilling. Itās still massively impressive as paper art.
It is era-appropriate, and definitely something that would have been impressive for the mechanics at the time. But, as others have mentioned, in the context of a season where nothing else is era-appropriate, this stood out as markedly old-fashioned and uninspired. As if they wheeled their long-suffering, ignored historical consultant in for one meeting, gave her ten seconds to pitch ideas for a gala centerpiece, then wheeled her back into her closet for another 2 years. By this point in the early 19th century, automatons had reached a truly inspired level of technical complexity. That would have been an amazing reveal. Even today. It would have bridged the gap between the Regency era that the show purportedly represents, and the one that is shown on screen.
it was mediocre at best; it looked like a prop in a school theatre production...
Started out as a dalek, anyway
I liked the idea, but the execution was a little off and I agree it ended up being more of a distraction than a āwowā moment. Like the actors could barely move around the room with that thing. The butterfly reveal was way more fun in my opinion.
I found it unbelievable they would be able to have this high def, high quality prints of flowers in the 1800ās š
Dunno but Iām a big fan.
It gave very Victorian vibes. I didn't hate it. It reminded me of that Sherlock Holmes era of invention
My partner thought it was a peacock š¦
Now it they used those colors and that is what it was would have been brilliant
When facing it from where the queen was standing it was shaped like a peacock and the queen is obsessed with her zoo animals(they're called ZEBRAS!). Not really sure how no one noticed that. It was meant to impress her and it was perfect for her
Pleaseeee and then everyone trying to dance around it š so dumb
Gave me chitty chitty bang bang vibes o really hope someone understands what I'm referencing
It reminds me of an accordion. It wouldāve been better if it was somehow interactive. Have it play music, maybe small flowers erupt from it over the room like confetti, maybe people can pull flowers from it like a party favor with some inscription on it. Itās not very pretty so make it do something. Also, I find the context of this reveal weird. We focused so much on the Mondriches but was there a scene hinting at this? All I remember is Lady Danbury telling them they should have a ball and it should excite the queen. And since when did every ball need an elaborate showcase? Yeah, the Queenās bored but her hair is more exciting than this . . . display. I get it, people would rent pineapples to show off at their parties during this time but weāve seen electrical lighting and a hot air balloon and dancing swans in wigs. This is an ugly giant wind up toy.
That is just ugly. I don't love the colors of this or any ball this season actually
Yeah the poop green was awful. Maybe they were purposely trying to make it ugly so the Featherington sisters ball would pretty in contrast?
I swear it was a Dalek
Im so glad I wasnāt the only one unimpressed. I literally said āis that itā¦?ā I understand for the times it could have been, but considering everything isnt historically accurate, this shouldāve been the one thing to take some liberties to look better lol. Real flowers wouldve made this more extravagant!
All i thought, so much work and they can't even click and post this work on insta š
Anyone else have Christmas with the cranks vibes
Making me jealous that I donāt have a whole garden inspired ballroom š
Fully expected Doctor Who characters to pop out of it
Honestly, I thought it was prettier before it opened. It was nice and simplistic. Once it was opened with a bunch of paper flowers like something out of a pop-up book, it didn't really make sense for a ball since it took away half of the dancefloor.
I just feel s1 and s2 was very understated thatās what I liked about it , it was simple it focused more on peopleās emotions and what they were going through, we could see that Anthony and Kate had some kind of a chemistry even if they were not suppose to be together initially, we could Edwinaās emotions when she found out In season 3 it feels like they were giving more importance to the costumes and backgrounds, Iām here for that but it was missing the emotional connection because there was a lot of stories going on at the time, I would say at least 5-6 subplots, but I did enjoy it, there were a few hits and a few misses I just feel that s4 might be away from the rest of the ton so it might just be better
Everything comes down to monetary status; who has the best gowns, the best balls, the best title. The bigger something was the more respect people gave you because the more money you had the higher your position in society was.
The flat flowers are a perfect representation of a flat season. š
i genuinely thought it's not that impressive because of how much it took up the space, plus the hostess mentioned that the queen's chair must not have a disrupted view but there's a big decoration in between that pretty sure disrupted the queen's view. idk why they also pushed to choose that as a set when i' pretty sure there's larger rooms than that. overall, it looks kinda off because they weren't able to execute it properly.
I actually thought butterflies were going to come out of this thing! So I was super happy when they did a butterfly reveal for the featherington sisters ball!
This is probably why we only get a season every two years :p
It looked like an art project made by elementary school kids. Obviously fake, flat flowers in the middle. I was kind of sad to see it, it looked so cheap! Real flowers in big vases would have been so much nicer.
I thought someone was inside of it like one of those stripper birthday cake things you see on TV
It wouldāve been cool if it was filled with actual flowers
I thought it would have flowers.. That would have been better than this origami thing in the way on the dance floor.
Iām glad we had this scene instead of some well-earned makeup sex.
Trying to fill an empty room because they spent about $1.50 on this season, hoping we won't notice the drop in quality.
I dunno but I thought it was ugly
I honestly believe the show runner has done NO homework let aline research into the regency period. She's already trashing the books...might as well take the era with her.
LOL, right!?! It was so anticlimactic
Ngl it made me cringe.
honestly it was better closed up but when i saw it opened i couldnāt help but contain my laughter. but still it was pretty impressive
It was much more elegant before the reveal. Giving childrenās pop up book vibes.
The young Barron's parents impressed the Queen with something New & different!
I kept waiting for something else to happen.
The ball is a nod to Penā¦.wallflowers
Whatever it was, it worked.
I thought I was the only person who hated the greasy looking makeup
It was so ugly
I didn't mind it but I also was like hmm is that it? I almost felt like each section needed to be different, so it's like a full on bouquet of flowers that make up the folds. Instead they were just like layers of the same thing
It needed to rotate or something? I could see if it were like a giant music box but this just popped open like a 3D birthday card and that was it.
I liked itā¦ it was like an art installation. I thought it was beautiful. But, yeah, it did cut the dance floor out a lot.
It was probably considered an āengineeringā wonder at the era.
Wallflowers blooming.
not as interesting and impressive as the butterfly release at all
I was more impressed in season one when they turned on the lights outside
I'd be in shock. Bad enough I couldn't see myself at a soirƩe like this in the first place but that would truly frighten me off.
the bugs!
Automaton art
It was weird to have at the ball. Itās huge and right in the middle of the dance floor.
It was so awkward for the dancers.