The Pursuit of Love – Episode Two Review

The second episode of The Pursuit of Love shows Linda and Fanny taking different paths in life and tensions starting to form between the two.

Linda (Lily James) has married Tony Kroesig (Freddie Fox), the son of a banker, and has become a Conservative MP. The couple even had a child. But Linda gets bored with married life and becomes a socialite before running off with a good-looking communist, Christian (James Frecheville). Fanny (Emily Beecham) has settled down to a stable but boring life with Alfred (Shazad Latif) and keeps popping out kids.

The first episode of The Pursuit of Love stood out because of its quirky style that felt like the works of Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola. This quirky style compensated for the first episode’s need to introduce most of the characters and their backstory. This episode was more story-driven so wasn’t so reliant on these techniques. It showed the collapse of Linda’s first marriage, her new relationship, and the strains in Linda and Fanny’s friendship.

The episode still did have some of the style of the first episode. Important new characters were introduced using title cards and the scene where Linda left her daughter was framed in the same way as The Bolter leaving Fanny as a child. This led to one of the big conflicts between Fanny and Linda because Linda is acting like her mother. Linda was partying with bohemian artists and political radicals whilst Fanny was at home with her growing brood. Linda only went to Fanny when she needed help. A powerful scene was when Fanny was with her mother and she said having children didn’t stop her from living her life. This led to a falling out between Fanny and Linda.

Bolting was a trait that ran in the Radlett family. As well as Linda running out on her husband, her siblings also ran away from the family home. The siblings’ journeys have their own pay-offs In the first episode, Linda’s younger sister saved up her money so she could run off, whilst Linda’s brother went off to fight in the Spanish Civil War, which parallels Linda’s political journey.

This episode took place in the 1930s and it showed the political changes that were going on at the time. Linda started off with a conservative, banker family whose only concern was making money, hold views about poverty being self-inflicted, and some supposed Hitler. Linda was out of place in the world because of her free-spirited nature. Linda leaves them to join a group of communists and enjoyed the talk, chatter, parties and reading but lives in the comfort of London. She has to face the harsh reality of the Spanish Civil War when she goes to France and helps refugees. The threat of the war lingered in the background

The episode also addresses the social changes going on during this period. Two of the Radlett children have gone off to be communists and lived in various forms of hardship, whilst Jassy (Martha Kent) left the family so she could marry a movie star in Hollywood. It showed the prestige, power, and influence of the aristocracy was waning at this point in history.

The second episode of the series was more dramatic in tone than the first, but it managed to have lighter moments and humour. I did chuckle a few times like when the family considered who should go to Hollywood to speak to Jassy. Andrew Scott as Lord Merlin was a delight, especially when he went to Fanny’s looking for Linda. He was hilarious in his frustration. Combined with his roles in Fleabag and His Dark Materials Scott is on a roll.

The second episode worked better as a story due to Linda’s relationship issues and the dramatic weight it had.