kater

aloof unavailable elf princess.

[johnswick]

Keanu Reeves in Good Fortune (2025)

[miffski]

[cometomecosette]

"Les Mis" poll: Is the musical guilty of "playing child abuse for laughs"?

Yes

No

Not inherently, but it is in some performances

Not the abuse itself, but the Thénardiers' comedy in general is problematic

Voting ended onMay 28, 2025

I've seen this claim made a few times and I was just wondering what other people think.

Personally, I never thought the Thénardiers' portrayals was a problem. Even though they serve as the musical's comic relief in general, I've always thought little Cosette's suffering was taken seriously enough. It's no different than the countless versions of Cinderella where the stepmother and stepsisters are comic relief characters, yet their abuse of Cinderella is still taken seriously.

But then, I suppose we might argue that Cinderella is a story for children, and that different rules should be applied to a mature work like Les Misérables.

Maybe it's also a matter of acting and directing choices. In the early days of the show, as I've learned from bootlegs, Mme. Thénardier's abuse of Cosette was played with full seriousness. No lines played for laughs, just nastiness. But then in the mid '90s, around the show's 10th anniversary, certain actresses started milking lines in that scene for comedy: i.e. sing-bellowing "NOW LOOK WHO'S HERE!!!" in such an over-the-top way that the audience can't help but laugh, and emphasizing "...or I'll forget to be nice!" to turn it into a laugh line.

Or is the problem not with the portrayal of the abuse itself, but with the Thénardiers' comic portrayal in general? Even if the abuse is staged and performed in a way that takes it seriously, does the fact that the characters serve as comic relief in other scenes show that the writers didn't take the abuse seriously enough?

I'm just curious to see what other people think.

[katerspie]

OP doesn’t say this but the rather pointed TaC reference makes me think the pointed “look who’s here” is about Jenny Galloway’s interpretation, and while it might not be, I don’t think her portrayal of that line is played for laughs even if the audience reacts accordingly. It’s played with aggression and it’s supposed to have a double meaning referencing her, mme thenardier (who has now arrived) which is the funny-ish part the audience is reacting to.

For the most part, the portrayal of the Thenardiers follows along with how the book treats them; they’re horrifying, but so many people don’t take them seriously and thus, underestimate their potential of abuse, causing problems, etc., they are the rot underneath.

This is, once again, the Twin Peaks thing—that’s not the only place this theme pops up but culturally i find that’s where people see it most clearly resonating. people are distracted by their humor, how vile they are, and don’t see the rot underneath. Though they are more laid-bare in the book, this comes across repeatedly and the musical reflects this as well.

The comedian aspects are part of the point, and that they run along the line of violence is integral to the roles.

The tonal shift in the Thenardiers, as i see it, happened more around the reworking in the 2010s. There are a lot of things I find annoying and questionable about those shifts, as someone who was basically watching as much of the musical as i could starting in real time in the early to mid 90s. I’m also not objective about any of it so, there’s that.

[ranichi17]

They are hugging each other, wild with relief. Gregory says, ‘We thought the king had committed him to some dungeon.’ Cranmer nods, tolerant, amused. ‘Your children love you.’ Richard says, ‘We cannot do without the man in charge.’ — Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

WOLF HALL: THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT (2024) | “Light”

[sunrisebayskylight]

Severance 2.09 | The After Hours

[theparadigmshifts]

also i'm such a gemma girlie. i don't mean in relation to mark or vs helly i don't care about any of that i'm a gemma girl forever. it's me and her. what if you thought you were eurydice until the last second until you turned around just in time to realize you were orpheus

[wolfhalledits-archive]

Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall | 1x06 'Master of Phantoms'

[katerspie]

i know they got roasted for it but the use of candlelight/accurate tudor lighting (whatever that means) in s1 is unparalleled and makes evening better. s2 is way too bright.

[discojams]

this show is so fucking funny

[soldierboys]

SEVERANCE 2.04 Woes Hollow / 2.10 Cold Harbor

[katerspie]

look the thing is, Irv is the only one who understands what is actually at stake here: we are dealing with human rights violations at every level, you have to have empathy for and put yourself on the line for others.

[royalarmyofoz]

SEVERANCE 2.10

[simon-green]

I'll never get enough of ethel cain @mothercain

[mothercain]

this is so sick, omg

[oysters-aint-for-me]

it’s just so wild and wonderful to me that “woe’s hollow” was filmed on location. like, they scouted out that spot. they found woods and hoped it would snow. that waterfall is real and you can go there. they had to get all that film equipment out to the shooting locations and they had to do it without moving anything because it’s a state park. those creepy icicle hands? the snow falling? the twisted trees in irving’s dream? the fog? that was all real. the fucking - cliff overlooking the lake?! that was REAL. adam scott really yelled down to john turturro from the top of that cliff! that’s so so amazing to me. like in most modern shows they’d have used CGI for the scenery and it would have been absolutely aesthetically perfect, sure. but instead they found a location and really looked at it and played with what was already there and allowed the story to be in conversation with its actual environment and it was just sooooo fruitful. like. do you understand? no one thought of and designed the tree icicles that looked like claws to be perfect visual counterpoint to the creepiness of the story. they just looked around at their actual environment and went “what’s unsettling about this place? what’s suspenseful?” and they took advantage of it, they leveraged it. that is so rare in filmmaking these days, i think, especially in television. and YEAH this season cost like 200 million dollars or something but IT WAS WORTH IT!!!!

[oysters-aint-for-me]

@soupious

[katerspie]

cool and wild to read this about a place where i live, like it’s just a regular-ass hiking spot but also yes.

[hellynas]

i'm just trying to remember how it feels to have a heartbeat

[theswisscheeserag]

With severance season 2 around the corner it’s time for me to share the time I accidentally watched 4 minutes of an episode on mute and thought it was a brilliant way to show the sensory deprivation experienced by the innies

[song-of-baldy-ron]

different show but I recently watched twin peaks and my upstairs neighbor was practicing the flute and I thought it was part of one of their dream sequences for a significant amount of time

[katerspie]

this makes sense because these shows are incredibly related like they share a ventricle

[potofmess]

You can always spot which Tumblr users migrated over here from LiveJournal because we consistently call the Read More button ‘the cut’.

[katerspie]

lmao i do this at work for the articles we have to write for the website

[birdsareblooming]

sometimes i feel like im climing up this incline again alone but thankully sisypus and the itsy bitsy spider and here with me

[birdsareblooming]

holy shit is that kate bush

[slayianthe]

you’d do well to say yes to me