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Le sigh.
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brokenrecord_ pretty much laid out my feeling on this episode here and I think tumblr has pretty well covered what’s not working about this section of the narrative. Speaking personally, I am not traught with any of the choices being made
but I feel like the format (five minutes twice a week, resolution to come in 2-4 weeks) and the secondary narratives (for my own enjoyment, I’m avoiding the secondary videos and twitter feeds) deeply acerbates what’s not working. If I could (and fandom could) power through these episodes in a half an hour and move on to Lizzie and Darcy's faces once more interacting... I mean, it wouldn't make these choices good, but there could be less attention paid to them. Additionally, I’m starting to question if the writers are directly responding to viewers in the videos or they’d always planned to have, for example, Jane explicitly stating that Wickham is responsible for all his actions, not Lizzie.
Speaking of, Jane telling it like it is was the only good part of this week’s episodes.
The rest was not awesome. The problem with a sex tape is that while it matches the sexual aspects of book!Lydia’s running off with Wickham, it really, really doesn’t match the way that book!Lydia’s actions effected the rest of the Bennets. Basically, the sex tape has NOTHING to do with Mr. Bennet or Lizzie or Jane. It hurts Lydia. An embarrassing sibling just doesn’t have the same social/economic consequences in modern times. I feel like a drug over dose, a criminal charge, or a gambling debt, would have been VASTLY superior choices because all of those options would have been both a.) personally devastating to Lydia and b.) hugely effect the rest of the Bennets. Imagine if Lizzie had to take out another loan to finish grad school or even take a personal loan to help pay for the consequences of Lydia’s actions. Or if there had been a more pressing reason for Jane to need to be back at the Bennet’s house. (Callous that I am, part of me was going, ‘Jane, you can’t do anything at home – don’t lose your job!’)
Sidenote: While I understand there was probably extra-textual reasons for why Lizzie isn’t filming in her bedroom, textually, I was boggled by the cruelty of Mrs. Bennet redoing Lizzie’s room while she was house-sitting out of town. Ouch.
I’m really glad I’m most invested in the Lizzie/Darcy stuff, which is the thing that has been done the best in recent episodes.
In a change of tone, I do want to recommend two LBD fanworks:
In Our Own Pretty Ways in which Gigi and Lydia exchange music and don't talk about things (with bonus fanmix!) and this fanvid:
brokenrecord_ pretty much laid out my feeling on this episode here and I think tumblr has pretty well covered what’s not working about this section of the narrative. Speaking personally, I am not traught with any of the choices being madebut I feel like the format (five minutes twice a week, resolution to come in 2-4 weeks) and the secondary narratives (for my own enjoyment, I’m avoiding the secondary videos and twitter feeds) deeply acerbates what’s not working. If I could (and fandom could) power through these episodes in a half an hour and move on to Lizzie and Darcy's faces once more interacting... I mean, it wouldn't make these choices good, but there could be less attention paid to them. Additionally, I’m starting to question if the writers are directly responding to viewers in the videos or they’d always planned to have, for example, Jane explicitly stating that Wickham is responsible for all his actions, not Lizzie.
Speaking of, Jane telling it like it is was the only good part of this week’s episodes.
The rest was not awesome. The problem with a sex tape is that while it matches the sexual aspects of book!Lydia’s running off with Wickham, it really, really doesn’t match the way that book!Lydia’s actions effected the rest of the Bennets. Basically, the sex tape has NOTHING to do with Mr. Bennet or Lizzie or Jane. It hurts Lydia. An embarrassing sibling just doesn’t have the same social/economic consequences in modern times. I feel like a drug over dose, a criminal charge, or a gambling debt, would have been VASTLY superior choices because all of those options would have been both a.) personally devastating to Lydia and b.) hugely effect the rest of the Bennets. Imagine if Lizzie had to take out another loan to finish grad school or even take a personal loan to help pay for the consequences of Lydia’s actions. Or if there had been a more pressing reason for Jane to need to be back at the Bennet’s house. (Callous that I am, part of me was going, ‘Jane, you can’t do anything at home – don’t lose your job!’)
Sidenote: While I understand there was probably extra-textual reasons for why Lizzie isn’t filming in her bedroom, textually, I was boggled by the cruelty of Mrs. Bennet redoing Lizzie’s room while she was house-sitting out of town. Ouch.
I’m really glad I’m most invested in the Lizzie/Darcy stuff, which is the thing that has been done the best in recent episodes.
In a change of tone, I do want to recommend two LBD fanworks:
In Our Own Pretty Ways in which Gigi and Lydia exchange music and don't talk about things (with bonus fanmix!) and this fanvid:
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no subject
Jane was a hugely redeeming aspect. And, on some levels, I think the sex tape does affect the fortunes of the rest of the family. It's not hard to surmise that this is a blackmail tool for money; Mr Bennet is trying to sort things out, but that can mean paying a better detective than his college PI friend, or paying off the originator of the sex tape when he's found. The Bennets are poor enough to either be refinancing their mortgage or selling their house; trying to save Lydia could bankrupt them. Jane has had enough screen presence with Lizzie and Lydia that a quick google search of her name would pull up the sex tape, and the design firm she was working with probably won't want that kind of publicity, nor will other employers- if the situation isn't contained and a lot of SEO work isn't being done, this could really jeopardize Jane's network; I can see this coming back to Lizzie in interviews, where someone says her work is good but she can't keep video participants from ruining her brand, and so she's too much of a risk from a PR standpoint. There might not be immediate consequences for everyone else, but they're all so linked online that Lydia's reputation is going to make waves in her sisters' reputations.
no subject
I don't have an issue with the sex tape thing. I agree with the comment above that because, as Lizzie says, the internet is forever, it could affect the other girls. At the same time, I like that Lizzie and Jane AREN'T thinking about themselves (as their counterparts had to in the book) but about their sister. (At the same time, I was kind of hoping for a comment from Lizzie about how Darcy isn't even going to want her to go back to SF... because Lizzie/Darcy... it is my crack.)
no subject
As one does.
(At the same time, I was kind of hoping for a comment from Lizzie about how Darcy isn't even going to want her to go back to SF... because Lizzie/Darcy... it is my crack.)
I am already nostalgic for the time when Darcy was in so many consecutive episodes. It was glorious.
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ETA: Also, wrt the sex tape, I think it works, but one of the reasons I suspected a medical trauma from the mid point or so, was because of the direct financial strain it would put on the whole family. It would also be a better reason for Jane to come home.
As usual, though, I am very forgiving. :)
no subject
Exactly! I was shocked by how dynamic that vid ended up being!
ETA: Also, wrt the sex tape, I think it works, but one of the reasons I suspected a medical trauma from the mid point or so, was because of the direct financial strain it would put on the whole family. It would also be a better reason for Jane to come home.
*nods* Yep, medical trauma would have been a lot more believable at creating the consequences that I think that show wanted.
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Yep. I wish they'd drop all the secondary narratives and just focus on doing Lizzie's vlogs RIGHT.
This adaptation has been including almost all the Lizzie/Darcy stuff, so I'm kind of looking forward to several more Darcy/Lizzie videos (since in the book - and I forgot about this - there are a few good chapters of them just being googly eyed in their own way before they get married).
THAT WOULD BE SO AWESOME. Ugh, I just want to watch Lizzie and Darcy be amazing together.
no subject
Yes, this. They're making bad choices, but the transmedia elements hinder rather than help the main narrative in terms of believability, as does the "Lizzie posting diaries about her life" format (though I'm generally more forgiving of problems caused by the latter than the former). The five-minutes-twice-a-week thing means that everything in fandom becomes hyper-analyzed and scrutinized, and it generally has become exhausting. Let's all fast forward to makeouts, kthnx.
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Exactly. I'm pretty forgiving about things like "lizzie post about her life in real time' 'lizzie uses real names' etc, because that is such a basic part of my suspension of disbelief for the entire series - I feel like if that kind of thing REALLY bothers you, how could you have make it to nearly a hundred episodes? But the stuff like the unbelievably of no body who cares about Lydia watch her videos just drives me up a wall, because it contradicts how we've seen these people act before.
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I’m really glad I’m most invested in the Lizzie/Darcy stuff, which is the thing that has been done the best in recent episodes.
Definitely agreed there. I'm kind of afraid of jinxing it, but the Lizzie/Darcy stuff so far has been complete perfection and I have no issues there, so as long as I can focus on them and ignore everything else at the moment, I'm still able to mostly enjoy the show at least.
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Speaking personally, the answer is 'no, I would not have felt as let down.' If the whole Lydia arc was something that I could get through in thirty minutes and then have at least fifteen of Darcy and Lizzie being ridiculously adorable and in love with each other, my review would read 'so awesome, not thrilled with Lydia, BUT DARCY/LIZZIE OH EM GEE.'
no subject
I totally agree with you about a drug overdose or a heavy gambling debt would have had a larger tangible effect on the rest of the Bennets and would have been both IC and deeply traumatic for Lydia. But the thing about that is that those would have been things that Lydia did to herself. The publicized sex tape? The sadistic countdown? That's all on Wickham. The sex-tape is something cruel that happened to Lydia that someone else did to her. It's someone who she thought she could trust taking that trust and perverting it and violating her in a deeply personal way. That's not to say Lydia getting into trouble of her own accord wouldn't have been interesting, but it wouldn't have accomplished the same thing for the larger story (ex: bringing Wickham directly into conflict with the main cast).
AND if you're right about Darcy being the one to get the site taken down, that establishes him as a hero in contrast to Wickham, so it's a twofer. Although, I could just as easily have seen him anonymously stepping in to pay for medical treatment or paying off a heavy gambling debt.