…about Shipping in the Rain, Lily and James, ep. 2, in no particular order:

• Sean got most of the lines in episode 1’s moving-in-a-movie, so I like that Mary Kate gets to be more of the star in the first half here.
• Where episode 1’s rain impressed me with how real it was, ep. 2’s rain impressed me with its magical ability to fall from a sky with almost no clouds, leave Anne and Gilbert completely dry even after the umbrella’s removal (though Anne’s knee is wet in the overhead shot at the beginning), and completely avoid falling on the (anachronistic, but not visibly so in the opening half, so that’s cool) copy of Bradford’s Emma’s Secret that James picks up after the cut.
• Maybe the previous high-profile project Lily and James worked on was marked by a more grueling shoot where the director soaked the actors to achieve greater authenticity, while this production of Anne of Avonlea is more pleasant and pretty but not necessarily as gritty and real.
• Sounds like the voice of the same director, though. Is that canon? Is Anne of Avonlea is being directed by the same up-and-comer as the previous feature? And is there canon for the name of the previous feature?
• Maybe the drier conditions on set are actually something Lily’s agent negotiated as part of her contract, giving the now B-list, rather than C-list, actor a more pleasant working environment as one small concession in a list of things Lily demanded before she would agree to work with James again.
• Hm. Or maybe the rain-that-isn’t-wet is a stylistic choice meant to evoke magical realism. Clearly I need to think about this rain thing some more.
• I can still hear the Allen’s hummingbird, right around the “mint” business, though not as prominently as in episode 1. That makes me happy.
• Everything else about it. Literally everything.

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