TV Review: "Carême" (S1, Eps. 7-8)
The Apple TV series builds to a delicious and satisfying conclusion in its final two episodes of its first season.
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Warning: Spoilers for the series follow.
Have I mentioned before that I love Carême? I’m sure that I have, but in any case, I think it’s safe to say that this is one of my favorite period dramas in a very long time, and the final two episodes are as expertly crafted and satisfying as any of the culinary masterpieces that our chef-turned-spy is able to whip up.
The seventh episode is a key episode in the development of the various tensions that have been simmering under the surface. As de Talleyrand continues his scheme to get the Pope to bless Napoleon’s coronation, he also has to contend with the redoubtable Josephine, whose daughter goes into labor but nearly dies thanks to a breech birth. Thanks to Agathe, however, the child is saved, even as Carême has a fraught and emotionally resonant conversation with none other than the Holy Father himself.
Josephine has arguably the most intense moment in the series so far. During a fateful, and intense, confrontation with de Talleyrand on the stairs–while in the presence of the Pope, no less!--she responds to his contempt for her by unabashedly speaking of the horrors that those women imprisoned by the Revolutio had to endure while in captivity. This is one of those rare moments when this formidable woman’s strength comes blazing out, and one can’t escape the feeling that, when push comes to shove, she will be the one who will triumph, however much the wily de Talleyrand thinks that he has the upper hand.
This episode, more than any other that we’ve seen so far, really highlights the precarious position that women occupied in the 18th century. Josephine, after all, has failed in that most important duty for a woman married to a powerful man: produce an heir. Instead, that burden has fallen to her daughter, who comes perilously close to losing both her life and the child. Her travails, and the fact that her son isn’t the progeny of her husband, highlight sexual foibles can have deadly consequences.
Similarly, Carême labors under the shadow that de Talleyrand, the man who he sees as responsible for Bailly’s death, might actually be his father. If this is the case, what obligation does this put on our tortured hero? Should he continue to become part of his master’s schemes, even though doing so might lead to the death of others? Or should he take justice into his own hands, as he intended to do with Fouché?
All of this comes out during Carême’s fateful conversation with the Pope, who is no fan of de Talleyrand’s, primarily because he did nothing to rein in the excesses of the Revolution and its destruction of Catholic institutions in France. However, for all of his moral grandstanding, the Pope makes it clear that he is also a master manipulator, and he uses Carême’s confession as an opportunity to manipulate the younger man, to turn him into a weapon by which he can destroy the man who he blames for the Church’s travails.
This whole sequence features some truly extraordinary acting from Benjamin Voisin. While we’ve seen Carême in several emotional states by this point, I’m not sure we’ve ever seen him quite this raw, quite this vulnerable, this heartbreakingly human. With the tears running down his cheeks and the obvious anguish in his soul, we can see that he’s not just making up his frustration and his anguish at what he has been made to do as a part of de Talleyrand’s schemes. This is also a necessary reminder that, when all is said and done, he is still just a very young man–a brilliant chef, of course, but still a young man–who has been thrust into power games that he cannot quite understand nor master. Is it any wonder that he should feel so overwhelmed?
For his part, de Talleyrand continues to scheme and manipulate, even as his plans are always threatened by both Carême and by the follies of his own son, who is the one responsible for getting Hortense pregnant. This is a man who is so fixated on the bigger prize and the bigger picture that he often can’t see what’s right under his nose. This continues right up to the end, when it seems, for a split second, as if Carême has actually poisoned the man who has taken so much from him. Of course, he would never do such a thing, even to someone like de Talleyrand but, paradoxically, it is precisely his little bit of emotional manipulation that makes him so much like the man that he so stoutly tries to resist and to criticize. He may or may not be de Talleyrand’s son, but there’s no question that the two are far more alike than they are different.
The season ends, fittingly, with our hero drawn once more into de Talleyrand’s orbit, as Napoleon prepares to go to war and uses this as a chance to humiliate de Talleyrand. Even at the end, though, it’s more than Carême can do to admit that he is not only like his enemy but also drawn to him and the life of advancement that he promises. To admit, even to himself, that he is a creature of overweening ambition would be to admit that he isn’t quite as noble or as altruistic as he might like to believe, for all that he was willing to sacrifice his relationship with Henriette in order to make sure that Agathe was cared for during her pregnancy.
It remains to be seen whether the series will get a coveted second season, but for my part I truly hope that it does. There’s so much juicy drama to be told here. Aside from everything else, we simply must see more of Fouché who, rather remarkably, largely takes a backseat during the final two episodes (he doesn’t appear at all in the seventh). This is the kind of juicy period drama that I’ve been yearning for, and I just hope that Apple gives the chance to flourish even more in a second season.