Sarcasm is an adjusted stress reaction.

I'm pleasantly surprised by anti-monarchy TV, but it's because I watch a lot of palace dramas and not because I'm shocked by the idea.

YES. Actually, I think Babel would work incredibly well as a drama -- it has the scale to be a visual feast, you wouldn't have the narrator constantly telling you how to react to everything, and the right actor would make Robin feel subtle rather than flat. I'd watch that in a heartbeat.