Doctors Austen week, 2013 BBC series (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: October)

Wow, this was confusing!  First I read that there’s a whole week of Austen-related specials on Doctors.  I watch two of them (Austenland: Part 1 and 2) and judge by the preview of the supposed third episode (Charlotte’s Web) that it has nothing to do with Austen and that in fact it was just a two-part special.  Before I get round to reviewing it, we find a letter in the following week’s Radio Times discussing the Austen-inspired episodes on “14-18 October” and realise that I need to watch the rest after all.  In fact, it turns out that there are six in all – seven, if you count the episode in which the main, stand-alone story hasn’t anything to do with Austen (that I could spot) but the ongoing story arc does – spilling over into the start of the following week.

Doctors

For a summary of the series as a whole, see my previous post.

The background to the specials is that there is to be a Jane Austen exhibition held somewhere in the locality, which one of the regular cast is encouraging others to attend.  Also ongoing seems to be a sponsored read they are taking part in to raise money for charity.  Some of the characters who have never read any Austen are being sponsored to get through one book, but must pay the money themselves if they fail in the attempt.

Plot summaries and comments

Austenland: Part 1 and 2

The two Austenland episodes (nothing to do with Shannon Hale’s novel of the same title) seemed distinct from the rest of the series, except for a few references to the sponsored read and a shot of the poster advertising the launch of the exhibition.  The story concerned a girl in her late teens or early twenties who had been the victim of a mugging some time before and was now selectively mute, choosing to carry around a computer tablet on which to write any communication.  She was shown with her head in an Austen novel from the outset.  I felt that the design of her costume was very clever as she looked quite Regency in style whilst wearing modern day clothing – a long dress with a high waist and a cropped denim jacket with a very Spencer jacket look to it.  Unfortunately this was about the only thing I did like, and to be honest if I hadn’t decided to review the episodes (and that I wouldn’t have time left this month to listen to the audio version of Longbourn) I’d have stopped watching after the first one.  The girl, whose name is Lizzie, visits the the GP for a reason that now escapes me, although it can’t be connected to her trauma problem as the doctor quizzes her about why she hasn’t been attending her counselling appointments.  The girl becomes even less communicative but it’s clear she doesn’t want to belong to our world, but to retreat into the society of Austen’s novels.  She falls suddenly unconscious and begins to dream a strange version of Pride and Prejudice in which she is Lizzy Bennet and other characters from the book are played by characters she has met around the surgery.  She has clearly developed a crush on one of the doctors and casts him in the role of Darcy, whilst a practice nurse plays Lydia (the only other sister present) and a receptionist plays Mrs Bennet.  Before long Mr Collins appears on the scene (played by one of the nicest doctors – I felt a bit sorry that he had to have such a ghastly part but he did it very well!), along with – inexplicably – Frank Churchill and General Tilney.  Despite her confusion over where these characters have come from, she’s enjoying herself and goes out, only to find herself at the picnic scene from Emma.  Mr Woodhouse and Miss Bates are there, and Lizzie insults Miss Bates in the way Emma does.  Embarrassed, she leaves the party and finds Mr Darcy, who scolds her.  She returns to the house and discovers she’s now at Northanger and must endure a terrifying night during a storm.  From then on things deteriorate further – she’s discomfited by Mr Collins’ lecherous looks as he proposes and won’t take no for an answer, she’s alarmed by the violence Darcy shows when he rescues Lydia from a gypsy and she’s horrified when she discovers Darcy and Caroline Bingley in a passionate embrace in the gardens.  Everything is going wrong, and she’s confused because it’s a world of her own creation.  The doctor finally succeeds in wakening her and she is now able to speak.  She agrees to return to her appointments to help herself reintegrate into real life, but by the time she has got through the very busy reception area she’s obviously having second thoughts and as she leaves she spots a man who’ll make a perfect Captain Wentworth…

I really wasn’t sure what to make of those two episodes.  There didn’t seem to be any clear message in them and it looked rather like the cast had all had the chance to pick an Austen character they wanted to be and a story had been woven around that.  I thought they all did very well in their characters but the whole thing didn’t hang together very well, the doctors were unable to help the patient and the status quo was restored by the end of the episodes.

Charlotte’s Web

The other episodes focused on one book each.  Charlotte’s Web was a modern take on the story of Charlotte Lucas.  I think I found this the most interesting.  It investigated the idea of marrying for money and security, but the main difference was that the modern-day Charlotte seemed to be doing this out of laziness and a disinclination to work, rather than the need for protection that a Regency woman would have had.  However, it examined the effects on her other relationships, including with a close male friend who obviously has feelings for her, and raised the question over whether, like Austen’s Charlotte, she would sacrifice as much as she gained in the marriage.

Northanger Bungalow(!)

This covered the story of Catriona Morbrook, a teenager living with her recently separated mother, and obsessed with horror films and zombies.  She becomes convinced that the previous occupant of her home had murdered his wife.  Whilst searching the loft for evidence she believes she sees her own mother who has now become a zombie.  It turns out to be a type of epilepsy, but whilst it was a good way of updating the story, I was unimpressed with the hallucinations and the very casual treatment of apparent mental illness (similar to the Austenland episodes).

Gemma

This episode was a reworking of Emma in which a young girl from a council estate becomes frustrated that she can’t be as in control of her friends’ lives and events around her as she would like.  It turns out that this is her reaction to the discovery that she has rheumatoid arthritis and her fear that this will stop her dancing, which she wants to pursue as a career.  I quite liked this story apart from its rather laboured use of signs such as “Hartfield Estate” and “Randalls Park”, in case we couldn’t work out the connection!

Remission

This was the story of a man who’s celebrating his five years clear of cancer.  As he arrives at the health centre to invite the staff to his party he bumps into his former boyfriend, who disappeared overseas during his illness with little explanation.  The staff work together to uncover the cause of the split (the mother of the recovered cancer patient who had in fact given the impression in an email that her son was dead!) and reunite the pair.  Although this was a little predictable at times, it was probably the best updating of one of the stories and I also liked the title, which was enough to give a clue to the source novel but also describe the focus of the medical storyline.

Background story

Running throughout the latter four episodes, and continuing into the subsequent, non-Austen, episodes, was the ongoing story of a mother and daughter who were opening a beauty salon locally.  It quickly became clear that this was a Pride and Prejudice idea, the twist being that the mother was both Mrs Bennet and Jane.  They turn up at the health centre to register and Gloria, the mother, quickly becomes convinced that Kevin, a young GP, will be the perfect partner for her daughter Sigourney.  Sigourney, however, is unconvinced that she’s in need of a man and has a low opinion of the medical profession.  Gloria falls for an older doctor, Heston, who’s quite flattered by her attentions, but Kevin convinces him Gloria’s a gold-digger and he’d be better off steering clear.  At the launch of the Jane Austen exhibition Kevin becomes keener on Sigourney and “rescues” her from the attentions of her landlord who’s also the security guard at the health centre (in fact, this was one of the most poorly attended launches I’ve ever seen, since everbody there, but for Gloria and Sigourney, was a staff member of the health centre!)  Next day, Barry the security guard turns up at the salon to mend a leak and takes the opportunity to impart some information about Kevin’s past (it’s all true – I knew just enough about the history of the programme to know that! – but slanted to make Kevin look bad).  Kevin turns up later and tries to ask Sigourney out, but she throws it all in his face, along with the accusation that he split up Heston and her mum.  Before he can leave, the leak – which Barry had repaired badly so he’d have to come back again – bursts and Kevin comes to the rescue.  He defends himself against Barry’s rumours and then storms off.  Later, however, he encourages Heston to think again about Gloria and finally Sigourney turns up in the health centre car park and kisses Kevin.

Conclusions

My thoughts on the short series are that the on-going story was well thought through, although I’d imagine the more familiar you are with the series and the characters, the more you would get out of it.  There was another storyline in which Emma, a doctor, and Howard, the practice manager, were seen separately on several occasions reading Persuasion for the sponsored read, usually with the other’s voice heard as a voice-over reading the passage from the book.  I assume they have had a previous relationship a long time ago but I don’t know this as the last time I watched it, Emma had not yet arrived.  If I were a regular viewer, no doubt those scenes would be more meaningful to me.

I didn’t feel that the individual stories worked very well, however.  Because there was no time to develop the guest characters, a very broad-brush approach had to be used in order to establish their personality as well as make the link between the episode and the source book.  This led to the issues I’ve already highlighted surrounding mental illness, along with the fact that everything felt rushed and forced.  And why no Mansfield Park or Sense and Sensibility episode?

Overall I was disappointed; when I was still a regular viewer I saw a short series of Shakespeare-themed episodes which were much better constructed.  The stories were developed over several days, making them more believable and involving, and nobody had to dress up in period costume! In addition, much of the action took place on location in Stratford-on-Avon itself, which made it seem more of a special event.  A shame the Austen season didn’t achieve as much.

My November review will definitely be of Jo Baker’s Longbourn (audiobook).

Thankful for…

• An enjoyable (if brief) trip to Kent to visit friends and relatives
• Surviving the storm whilst we were there, with no damage to property or person
• Ann Voskamp’s recent series on Missing Jesus, which I’ve found encouraging reading
• The chance to spend time with my parents, who arrive today
• The decisions over the Bookworm’s high school applications finally completed

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries by Hank Green and Bernie Su (Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge: April)

Oh, my goodness!

I really don’t know how to begin a post on something which has been so new to me in lots of ways, and has covered so many different modern media.  What would you even call it – a TV programme?  A social media experiment?  An internet tribute to a classic novel?

Described on its own website as “an online adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice“, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is all of those things and – without wanting to sound too clichéd – many more besides.  When I first “discovered” it, via an organisation I follow on Facebook, it was already half-way through and it took me weeks to realise just how far-reaching the contributions and updates were.  What I first encountered was essentially a TV programme, broadcast via YouTube in short, twice-weekly episodes typically lasting between 2 and 5 minutes.  (You can read my initial responses here).  I also discovered that there had been spin-off webisodes featuring blogposts from Lydia Bennet and Maria Lu (sister to Charlotte, the LBD version of Charlotte Lucas) and that various social media sites (Facebook, tumblr, etc) had pages concerning the show.  There were twitter accounts for just about every character but I did not realise for a very long time that reading and following these would enhance the experience, as the characters posted comments and photos and held conversations with one another which expanded and furthered the story (I was never very good at following these as my activity on twitter is sporadic and I’m not very good at isolating the accounts I want to read, but I did manage to catch up on occasions via storify).

Whatever I might have said in the past about post length, to describe in detail the LBD universe would take more space (and time) than I have here, and there’s also the spoiler issue for those of you who haven’t yet experienced this for yourself and might like to (there are plenty of other places on the internet to look if you’d prefer the concise spoiler version to the full experience!).  So here I intend to provide a brief summary and talk about some of my favourite elements and points of interest.

Lizzie (I know, but it’s a modern-day adaptation, and after a while you get used to the spelling) Bennet is a grad-school student in America, studying mass communications.  The vlog diaries which constitute the episodes are a project, produced with her lifelong best friend Charlotte Lu.  In the early episodes the viewers also meet Lizzie’s elder sister Jane, who works in fashion, is kind, generous and softly spoken, and their younger sister Lydia, who lives life to the full, eschews any kind of serious activity and isn’t afraid to speak her mind (as I mentioned in my previous post on this series, Mary and Kitty are present but it cousin and cat form respectively).  The rest of the characters referred to in their conversations are portrayed in “costume theatre” moments, in which Lizzie and any of the other three who are on hand don particular garments and accessories to represent the people they have met.  Lizzie begins her vlog just as a local house has been sold to a wealthy single man, which has excited Lizzie’s mother whose ultimate aim in life is to subscribe her daughters to the “2.5 WPF club” (2.5 children and a White Picket Fence).  The way the first line of the novel is incorporated into the video is ingenious!  Via costume theatre we’re introduced to her parents, then to the new owner of the house – Bing Lee – his sister Caroline and his friend Darcy whom they meet at a wedding.  Some characters eventually appear in the flesh (there’s a wonderful on-going joke about what Bing thinks is going on), whilst others, such as Lady Catherine, never do.

As time goes by, just as in the novel, Lizzie sees Jane become involved – and then much less so – with Bing, Charlotte move away to be with Mr Collins (although not in quite the same way as in Austen’s version!), Darcy being pompous and irritating, George Wickham being charming but rather shallow and her mother being obsessive and neurotic.  She visits Charlotte, meets Darcy’s friend Fitz and ends up in the same, very surprising, conversation with Darcy.  She spends time at home feeling the loss of both Jane and Charlotte.  She goes away again for an internship with Pemberley Digital (oh yes, it’s a real company now) where, of course, she becomes better acquainted with Darcy (the boss) and his sister Gigi.  Just when it’s all starting to go better she has to return home in a hurry when a terrible crisis occurs concerning Lydia.  Eventually the story reaches similar (but not identical) conclusions to the novel and Lizzie decides to wrap up her vlog at episode 100.

What impressed me most about this series is undoubtedly the way in which the writers have moved away from the recent fixation with the Lizzy/Darcy romance.  As I said in a previous post, Pride and Prejudice is Lizzy’s story, which includes her relationship with Darcy, but also her relationships with her parents and sisters, the development of her understanding of the way the world works and her growth to more maturity of outlook and opinion.  All of this can be found within The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.  It’s been said often, all over the internet, but it’s certainly true that one of the best decisions the makers made was to confine Darcy to costume theatre until more that half way through the series, despite the repeated pleas from the growing fan-base for him to make a personal appearance.  In Pride and Prejudice we often see Darcy through Lizzy’s eyes, especially earlier in the novel, and so it’s right that this should be reflected here.  The costume theatre device was a wonderful way of recreating that (Charlotte and Jane even draw our attention to this in Episode 15: Lizzie Bennet is in denial), so we don’t get to see Darcy for himself until her own views begin to change.

The other most impressive element was the treatment of Lydia’s disgrace.  Clearly a girl running away with a young man who isn’t her husband, whilst concerning for her family, isn’t going to garner much in the way of long-term social disapproval in the twenty-first century.  The writers approach to updating what happens (I really, really don’t want to spoil this for people but if you want to know without watching the series then Wikipedia is your friend) is perfectly conceived and the use of the internet for Lydia’s spin off vlogs leading up the the crisis (powerful acting, especially if you’ve been in, or know someone who has been in, that kind of relationship), for the problem itself, and for its resolution, fits so well.  The change it all brings about in Lizzie’s relationship with Lydia is lovely, and adds an extra element of realism to the updated version for a time when family relationships are more intimate and informal and we talk more openly about our feelings.

What makes this series so different from other adaptations is the fresh and spontaneous feel.  Part of that is the way the videos are edited (“the video feels more authentic when it’s not too polished”, as Charlotte tells us in an early episode) but much of it is the script and the way that the vlogs fit together with other elements of the adaptation, such as Gigi’s Domino videos, which are ostensibly intended as a demonstration of Pemberley’s new product but actually become the means for something much more significant, and the twitter posts.  Seasons of the year (summer, Thanksgiving, New Year) are mentioned as the series plays over the course of a real year which makes it all the more believable (if you start watching it now at 2 episodes a week it would probably work out right again, actually, although I defy you not to keep watching once you’ve begun!).

I’d like to give balance to this review by saying something more critical, but I really don’t have a bad word to say about it!  It’s obviously possible to dismiss it as teenage candyfloss, not worth any serious attention – it was on the internet, for goodness’ sake! – but actually the acting is good, the casting is good (Laura Spencer is my new favourite Jane!) and it’s all so much fun it would feel churlish to find fault.  Its credibility was borne out when the DVD set was advertised on Kickstarter and 100% of the funding was pledged within three hours (some of the money will be ploughed into the next project, which I’m eagerly awaiting!).  It has introduced me to to a whole new vocabulary (probably one I’m far too old to be using!) where “fangirl” is a verb (as in “fangirling so hard over this”), “awesome” is a noun (“check out the awesome and the adorbs!”) and “shipping” has nothing to do with P&P and everything to do with rooting for two characters to form a romantic relationship!

My summary is a quotation from this article:

So thank you Lizzie Bennet Diaries, for reminding us why we love Pride and Prejudice so much. You have breathed new life into a story which didn’t need it, but has benefited greatly from it all the same.

Some things were different, some things were left the same, but every decision was appropriate and well-executed.  I’m really glad I found it.

If you’re interested, prior to the commencement of the next main project, a mini-series called Welcome to Sanditon, featuring Gigi Darcy, will be broadcast in May.

Thankful for…

Wonderful friends to meet with, eat with, chat with and pray with

The recent sunny weather – long may it continue!

My children settled in new clubs and projects

The prospect of a public holiday next week

A lift in energy from a change in diet

Good news about some household repairs we require

The Memory Garden

At long last I’ve finished reading The Memory Garden.  Or, more accurately, at long last I finished reading it and at even longer last I’ve got round to blogging about it.  Same with The Little Stranger which is next up for comment.

I enjoyed The Memory Garden.  The two storylines (the 1912 one and the present-day one) fitted in well together and the flashbacks to 1912 provided a kind of dramatic irony with the modern-day story of Mel and Patrick, trying to piece together the mystery of the paintings found in the old houses.  I loved the resolutions to both the stories, a mixture of happy and sad, although I was slightly disappointed that the 1912 story wasn’t more fully developed, as there didn’t seem to be much of what at ‘A’ Level we used to refer to as “Local Colour”, supporting the picture of early twentieth century life and Pearl’s love of painting and the garden.  Surprisingly what I found most interesting, and the most effective writing, was the development of the relationship between Mel and Patrick themselves.  As an avid reader of chick-lit and the romantic genre I’m well-used to having my feelings manipulated towards (or away from) certain characters and situations and it’s no surprise to find that the thing you were hoping for – usually that the heroine would end up with a particular man, rather than the less suitable one she initially finds herself attracted to – occurs in the end.  However in The Memory Garden this manipulation of feelings took on a different significance, as it actually mirrored the feelings of Mel herself.  Before she and Patrick initially “get together” there’s quite a bit of sexual tension and she frequently finds herself in situations with him in which she’s not quite sure of his feelings or intentions.  Finally they do become a couple but, far from the satisfying sense of  “all’s right with the world” usually experienced, everything begins to feel rather uncomfortable and really dissatisfying.  At the same time Mel is constantly questioning the relationship, Patrick’s feelings and her own, because they are both recovering from previous break-ups and not yet emotionally ready to commit to another relationship.    When they part company Rachel Hore manages to evoke a sadness at the same time as a recognition that it’s the right thing to do.  Obviously, that isn’t the end of the story but I do try not to give everything away in my reviews!  However, the writing, and the feelings it gives rise to, continue to mirror Mel’s state of mind as she continues to recover and to progress emotionally.

I still have one more of Hore’s books to read: The Glass Painter’s Daughter.  I look forward to starting it when other commitments allow.

Austen Challenge update – haven’t got much further with it as time has been a problem and I’ve been reading for reading group mostly.  I’ve now started Lady Susan as my latest idea is to read them in the order they were written.