Thursday, April 2, 2020
Lizzie Bennet Diaries
This series was interesting. I definitely see how it connects to the book. The three sisters are taken out of the 1800's and put into the 21st century. The characters are depicted oddly as I would imagine them, in some ways. Lydia is depicted to be extremely boy crazy. I think she is more extra in the series than in the book. I find it interesting how Charlotte Lucas is Charlotte Lu and Asian. I personally enjoyed the book better than the hundred episodes. I found some of the humor a bit wacky, but that is my personal opinion. I do not find many things funny. Lizzie acts as if she was pulled out the book and brought to present time. I like how she was made a communications major who likes to read and write. She has her typical judgmental and dramatic personality. Lizzie is a mixture of nerdy and hip. Lizzie's ill feelings of her mother are crystal clear. Jane finds Lizzie's opinion of the mother unsettling. Does anyone understand the point of the gelatin green bean dessert? I found it disgusting and did not understand the meaning, if there was any behind it.
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I agree that Lydia comes off as much more boy crazy in the series than the novel. I wonder if this was intentional though. Maybe the novel's Lydia doesn't speak as much as her Youtube counterpart because of social norms. I assume that the original Lydia, being the youngest Bennet, was instructed to be seen and not heard. Time travel has given the Lydia of the Youtube series more agency - it is much more normal for a teenage girl to be very vocal in 2012 than when Austen was writing. Similarly, I wasn't a huge fan of some of the comedy either, but I chalk that up to time difference as well. 2012 was the height of "randomcore" humor, which has obviously not aged well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the green gelatin! What was the purpose? To show that her mother was an awful cook? You don't cook Jello with green beans! There were several times within the show that I thought the writers got themselves in a corner that they couldn't write themselves out of (they do mention this several times in the Jandi article we read).
ReplyDeleteGoing off what you said about Lizzie being her "typical judgmental and dramatic" self, did anyone else think that Lizzie's judgmental comments were more difficult to swallow in this format than in the novel? For me, while I knew going into the series that the protagonist has to overcome her prejudice, her "typical judgment" was still a bit of a shock to me. I think part of it might be because most of the comments are in her head in the novel, and we're used to having those ourselves. But I don't think many of us would say those worst thoughts about our loved ones aloud, much less put it on the internet.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I was thinking of that saying, "if you don't have something nice to say then you shouldn't say it at all." I think to overcome Lizzie's judgmental and stubborn self, Charlotte, Jane, Lydia, etc. were thrown in to show how unreasonable she could be in her judgments. I also wondered what made Lizzie be so judgmental? Was it her mother's overbearing behavior? Or was it this idea of not wanting to fit into society's standards of conduct?
DeleteI think it's interesting to compare the Lydias. What Lydia does in the novel (run off with a man without getting married) is like the height of scandal. This literally will ruin the whole family. It's hard to find an analogue for that in today's society because, golly, it's just not shocking to do that kind of thing these days.
ReplyDeleteAs to the jello, OMG y'all have NOT been to enough church potluck suppers in your time. That is Mrs Bennet to a T, I think! A Jello Salad is sort of 1970s middle class "elegance" - it has no real purpose or nutritional value but is just there to show off and look fancy (but in reality not be fancy AT ALL!!)
Do a Google image search for Jello Salad. You can never unsee it. Somewhere in there will be a picture of jello salad with frickin' OLIVES in it. Honestly, this was A THING. C'mon Mike, surely you remember the horrors of 70s Jello Salad!!!