Well, the Dawn Saga has concluded with Midnight Whispers, and boy, was it a trip.
We went full circle from Longchamp to Cutler to Longchamp yet again, as Christie might have formally freed herself from the curse of that blasted Cutler household and located one thing akin to happiness.
But, in fact, happiness all the time comes at a value, and it was main.
Is it attainable to reside fortunately ever after within the V.C. Andrews Universe? It does not appear to be it.
And this closing installment was an ideal reminder because it was riddled with darkness and dying, together with of our treasured Dawn and her beloved Jimmy.
Obviously, this sequence is not a stranger to darkish themes. It virtually relishes them at each conceivable flip, steadily gearing towards the melodramatic.
But off, this was a darkish one, as we discovered bits and items concerning the household’s previous, and we needed to watch Christe struggle for her life towards her lecherous Uncle Philip and spineless Aunt Beth.
Christie had a very good factor going for her for a while, in order that’s one thing. She no less than obtained to make it by most of her life, dwelling in a privileged, well-adjusted, loving, supportive household and minimal scars.
Midnight Whispers had some modifying points. It began with how they dropped us into this random level in Christie’s life after which relied so closely on exposition to hold many of the story.
With the lengthy, convoluted historical past of V.C. Andrews’ Dawn Saga alone, not to mention all the opposite tells, one barely batted an eye fixed over the truth that someplace in time, Christie began relationship her step-uncle Gavin Longchamp.
Sure, a few of this franchise’s attraction is watching the forbidden, and plenty of notch posts of inappropriate relationships truly play out in entrance of us. We cannot all the time have romance, I assume.
Gavin Longchamp was a bit one-dimensional, regardless of Emrik Lopez’s admirable makes an attempt at bringing the character to life.
Gavin had that Longchamp appeal and swagger if the motorbike and that chain round his neck did not make that clear. Oh, I see you, sir.
It was arduous to get hooked up to the character or their romance when it principally felt like background fodder in an aimless chapter of this saga.
But he positively had his brother’s goodwill and “Captain Save a… Wholesome Blond” high quality. It’s a Longchamp superpower.
Presumably, among the best issues about their romance is that if she inevitably ties the knot along with her Step-Uncle now that her precise uncle is locked away and never chasing after her, she does not even have to alter her identify.
She’s destined to be Christie Longchamp for the remainder of her life, and he or she does not even should abide by all that Cutler nonsense and the hell that identify brings.
The Longchamps weren’t significantly cursed a lot as humble, working-class folks with a penchant for bother right here and there, save Fern, who’s a hellish anomaly not price claiming.
Did any actual good even come from her studying her twisted household historical past on the Meadows?
It did not really feel like we discovered a lot of something we did not already know or could not guess, and we already noticed a lot of what Christie pieced collectively.
But her studying the reality did not appear to have a lot bearing on how she operated since Christie already acknowledged that anybody who wasn’t her dad and mom was batshit cray.
Instead, we borderline obtained one other rudimentary albeit traditional Lifetime fictional piece a couple of younger woman making an attempt to flee the sexual assault of her obsessive uncle.
Frankly, Dane Schioler is just too good at taking part in this crazed, entitled, creepy man, and I absolutely count on to see him in related Lifetime films.
This dude is tailored for this particular style and may very well be deep in his bag with these roles. He has that Lifetime antagonist position down pat. More, please!
The movie peaked when our woman Dawn died in a blaze of glory and love with Jimmy in that resort inferno after Philip clocked Jimmy within the head with a wrench within the boiler room, like a live-action recreation of Clue.
Rest in peace, child woman. You died method too younger, wanting each little bit of a youngster regardless of taking part in 33, however alas, I admire they did not do something too drastic to age up her, Jimmy, or Philip. My ego could not have taken a success in the event that they obtained too loopy.
I’m nonetheless mad that the Longchamps obtained blown to bits when Beth was proper there.
I hate to be that one who would sacrifice a girl’s life for a scorching dude, however Beth was the worst, and so they might’ve stored their household issues inside their interior circle as a substitute of spilling over into the Longchamp bubble, dammit.
In reality, this film sucked for making me advocate for violence towards girls. In hindsight, issues may’ve been higher if Philip had killed Beth and gone down for it.
Goodness is aware of she had no sense of sisterhood solidarity by laying by and permitting her psycho husband to sexually assault a youngster within the subsequent room.
And her personal violence towards Christie was abhorrent.
And a lady should not have been virtually feral when Homer snatched Fern up.
Homegirl by some means managed to make The Craft her complete persona 5 years earlier than it even got here out, and doubtless simply wanted a very good old-fashion ass-whooping.
Her lack of sympathy when she discovered the true cause Christie fled Philip was abhorrent and but not all that stunning from a lady who cried abuse to govern Jimmy into taking her in and proceeded to offer Dawn holy hell throughout Twilight’s Child.
The Meadows have been creepy, even with electrical energy, and Charlotte and Luther have been glad out of their minds.
It wasn’t stunning to be taught that the satan’s baby Charlotte supposedly had was truly a biracial son with Luther. Emily and all of her pseudo-Christian, sexist, racist evil bullshit would freak out about her sister having a toddler with a Black man.
And they implied that the household was paying for sins from slavery. And hey, a lady will not knock a generational curse within the identify of justice.
But throwing all these items out into the ambiance felt foolish after they did not quantity to something or lead wherever.
Finding out that Lillian obtained offered to Big Daddy Cutler for the Meadows was simply an errant story that supposedly defined away why Lillian was hardened broad.
But all of it felt like random issues from the e book thrown at us to pad this story additional for a film that did not really feel prefer it wanted to occur.
If they selected to finish the story with Midnight Whispers as a substitute of tossing us that Darkest Hour prequel, they may’ve simply left issues at Twilight’s Child, alluded to Dawn and Jimmy’s dying on the finish with a flashforward or one thing and left issues there.
Watching Pedo Philip lose his thoughts over by accident killing the girl he obsessed over and harassing his niece to the excessive heavens sucked.
And it felt like manufactured contrivances to have Zaddy Bronson unavailable and unable to take Christie and Jefferson in.
They teased that he and Christie have been like “two peas in a pod” and that man was mainly conscious of all of the household’s nasty, soiled secrets and techniques.
The man knew rattling effectively that Philip was a creep and that his spouse was a jealous, wounded lady with a vendetta, and that the twins have been evil spawn kids.
It additionally did not make any sense that Dawn and Jimmy would not have any will or paperwork to deal with what occurred to the resort or, extra importantly, the children if something occurred to them.
Why would not Tricia take them in or one thing? Even if she introduced them again to her residence in NYC and organized for them to have supervision, it might’ve made extra sense than leaving them with Philip and his spouse.
And as a lot as a lady enjoys laying eyes on Joey McIntyre, particularly since he stopped wanting like a Ken doll within the newer installments with the blond hair, Christie seeing her father once more did not quantity to a lot both.
But so ends the V.C. Andrews Cutler Saga. Was it every part you needed it to be and extra?
Which V.C. Andrews sequence do you hope they cowl subsequent? Sound off under with all your ideas.
If you have not already, you’ll be able to try all of our V.C. Andrews evaluations right here at TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior workers author for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching method too many reveals and binge-drinking method an excessive amount of tea. Her eclectic style makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for advanced characters, numerous illustration, dynamic duos, compelling tales, and responsible pleasures. You’ll positively discover her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on Twitter.
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