"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
This is probably one of the most well-known opening lines from any novel in the history of the printed word. If you don't know what this is from, what were you doing in your high school English class? Maybe that's a bad question...I definitely wasn't paying attention in class when I read this book...
If you are still unaware, this is the opening sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It also the first line in the web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a YouTube-based adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
That's right.
Pride and Prejudice.
AS A WEB SERIES.
It's pretty freaking great.
Here's my thing with P&P: I had meant to read it for a really long time, ever since my ninth grade English teacher made a flattering-but-mostly-terrifying comment on one of my assignments about how my writing reminded him of Jane Austen's. I figured I should read the author in reference in order to, you know, properly appreciate the comment.
That didn't exactly happen. Unfortunately, the only point at which I finally found myself reading P&P was in my senior year English class, when it was required reading, which probably wasn't the best environment in which to really enjoy the book. The assignment that we had to complete for the book did nothing with analyzing the characters or the story; we had to find a certain number of quotes in each section of reading that fell under the category of "marriage", "pride", and (you guessed it) "prejudice". So all I had to do was find the quotes (or scroll through SparkNotes), write a sentence or two of B.S. commentary, and my teacher would give full points.
So I ended up hating the book. I had no idea what was going on half the time. (Although that might have also had something to do with my state of mind at the time...I've looked back at some of my old entries around this time last year, and...yikes...) While I had some basic knowledge of the story (this girl Elizabeth hates this rich guy Mr. Darcy, and he loves her, but they still get together at the end), I had never seen any of the film adaptations of the book beforehand either, so this was my first introduction to the world of Ms. Austen's.
Was I disappointed that I ended up hating a book that I was excited about finally reading and that many people before me had hyped up as their favorite book/the best story of all time?
Yes.
This was in February of last year.
Fast-forward a couple of weeks to April 12th.
In my anxious/depressed state last year, I spent a lot of time on the internet, YouTube especially, trying to numb the worry away. One day, I was checking my YouTube subscription box and clicked on the most recent Vlogbrothers video (if you have spent a decent amount of time on the internet in the past three years and you have not heard of John and Hank Green a.k.a. The Vlogbrothers, what are you doing with your time? Seriously, if you haven't heard of them, stop reading this and go look them up on YouTube. You won't regret it). Anyways...this video was titled "Introducing Lizzie Bennet". It started out with Hank Green walking through the woods. As he sat down in front of a river somewhere in Montana, his camera propped up on a tree, Hank delved into an explanation of his latest project--a modern-day, YouTube-based adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Having just come out of a rather negative experience with that particular text, you'd think that I would just roll my eyes at the mere mention of the title.
But I didn't. I watched intently as Hank delivered this pitch abut this project about which he was obviously very passionate and excited. And I found myself wanting to watch this series. I trusted Hank's enthusiasm for this project because, as those familiar with the work of Hank and John know, anything that either of the Green brothers touches turns to gold. So when the oh-so-catchy theme of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries played at the end of Hank's video, I clicked on the link to Lizzie's first video...and subscribed to the channel approximately four minutes later when the first episode ended.
(At the time, there were only two videos available on the Lizzie Bennet channel. In Hank's video, he said that eight videos had been shot, so I was highly disappointed when I was unable to click through to the next video after the second episode.)
Needless to say, the show hooked me immediately.
The format of the show is a bi-weekly video blog chronicling the life and times of 24-year-old grad student (with a "mountain of student loans") Lizzie Bennet, occasionally accompanied by her two sisters (yes, only two) Jane and Lydia, and her since-fetuses best friend, Charlotte Lu. (Some other people show up eventually.) Of course, the series follows the story line of P&P pretty closely though, obviously, not perfectly because it is 1) an adaptation, and 2) adapted in a format that, so far, has been used very little). But, for what the creators did and how they did it, it was damn near perfect.
Of course, the "experience" of the show was not exclusive to the medium of YouTube because, let's face it, this is the 21st century; people are on the internet all the time. So the characters have Facebook accounts and Twitter accounts and Tumblr blogs and Pinterest boards, and they're updated in real time with the events of the show. The creators resolved to make a universe as transparent as possible...one in which even Sense & Sensibility exists and Lizzie gets to meet Hank, one of the show's creators, at Vidcon, a conference about online video. If you hadn't known that this was a P&P adaptation, you might have actually thought these people were real.
That being said, the acting int he show is superb: each of the four female leads will make you laugh, cry, cheer, and a plethora of other emotions throughout the entirety of the series. Ashley Clements portrays a very modern Lizzie who very much prefers to see things the way she wants to see them (Or, as Jane would put it, "Lizzie sees what Lizzie sees"). Ashley has mentioned several times throughout the running of the show that her favorite thing about Lizzie is that she is highly flawed. And that is possibly my favorite thing about her as well. Through this particular medium, we get to see events, very blatantly, from Lizzie's heavily biased (prejudiced, even) perspective. Over the course of the show, you see this stubborn young woman who, at times is so dialed into her own life that she can barely see the others around her, grow and change her thinking about her family, her friends, and a guy named William Darcy.
This series also gave new light to a character that we all thought he hated (for those who know the story): Lydia. In the book, we see her as precocious and annoying and, to put it in the words from the LBD "a stupid, whorey slut". Without giving too much away, the LBD team presented Lydia and the George Wickham crisis in a way that made her a little more human. Not to mention Mary Kate Wiles's amazing performance as Lydia that can go from funny and lively to heartbreaking and devastating in a matter of seconds. About 25 episodes into the show, Lydia runs off to make her own video blogs. They are purely supplementary to the main story, but absolutely necessary if you really want to get into the head of young Lydia Bennet. (I will admit that I didn't watch Lydia's videos for the first few months.) But as the story progressed and other characters got involved (*cough* GEORGEWICKHAM *cough*), the viewers began to see a different side of Lydia, a more vulnerable, fragile Lydia--trying desperately to gain the approval and respect from her older sisters--vastly different from the rambunctious and precocious Lydia we see in the first half of the show. I'm not going to spoil anything if you haven't watched LBD, but there were a few episodes revolving around the Lydia/Wickham arc that caused me to, to put it lightly, bawl my eyes out.
(Friendly reminder that I initially hated this book. This show works wonders.)
Julia Cho brings the show's sass level to about fifteen as the bold yet grounding and rational Charlotte Lu. Julia's portrayal of the 'best friend' made me genuinely like the character. She's incredibly sharp and witty. In fact, some of my favorite lines in the series are from Charlotte. One of the few things that I got out of my initial read-through (more like skim-through) was that I did not like Charlotte. At all. I didn't like that she married Collins at the first proposal, after Lizzie rejected him, and that she sold herself out for her own petty interests. But in the web series, in one of the few videos that didn't feature Lizzie, we actually get to witness the proposal from Mr. Collins (though it's a different kind of proposal), and we get to see how Charlotte reacts and her rationale for accepting the offer. She also works as Lizzie's voice of reason at key points in the story, especially when a certain man begins to make an appearance in Lizzie's life.
And then there's Laura Spencer, who rounds out the main four as the "practically perfect in every way" Jane Bennet. In this adaptation, Jane is less fragile, less vulnerable than she's portrayed in the source material or any of the past adaptations, making her much more realistic. (Yes, the original source material is characterized as satirical, so everything is exaggerated.) Jane's a career woman; she works for a fashion company. She's very maternal and supportive. She always seems to know when someone needs a cup of tea. SHE'S A STRONG, INDEPENDENT WOMAN WHO DOESN'T NEED NO MAN...though I always want to vomit rainbows every time she and Bing Lee are together because they are so. freaking. adorable.
Don't even get me started on the men in this show. Not only are they all amazingly talented actors...but they're also outrageously handsome. I mean, if you watch the show for only one thing...I'm kidding
As much as this story eventually focuses on the relationship between Lizzie and William Darcy, the whole of the show pays a significant amount of attention and care to the relationship between Lizzie, her sisters, and Charlotte. That is what makes this project unique. Yes, I cheered when Lizzie and Darcy finally got their sh*t together and kissed and were obnoxiously cute. But I was also extremely happy when Lizzie and Charlotte reconciled after the Collins debacle, and when Lizzie told Lydia that she loved her and would listen to her more.
Sometimes it isn't all about the love story.
Hank said in his initial video that he wasn't sure if this medium was a good way to tell a story. He hoped it wouldn't be the case...and it isn't the case. The LBD team created an entire universe through this relatively new format of transmedia storytelling, and by golly, they sure did a fine job of it.
Yes, the occasion warrants a 'by golly'.
Sure, new viewers won't be able to watch the characters' interaction with each other on Twitter in real time and won't really get the 'grand experience' of the show. That will be an experience unique to those who were engaged with the show while it was running. But just because it's over doesn't make the show any less enjoyable. I've re-watched all 100 episodes and the bonus Q & A videos and all the spin-offs, and they're still just as good as when they were first put online.
So as much as this is a pitch to any of you reading this who haven't watched this show to start watching it immediately, this really is my way of extending the immense gratitude I have toward the cast and crew. Thank you Ashley and Mary Kate and Julia and Laura and Bernie Su and Hank and...everyone...You turned a story I thought I hated into a story that I now love. This show and this story was a friend to me over the past year, when I was not only battling anxiety but also making the terrifying shift from high school to college. This show taught me that life isn't about do-overs, that every person deserves a closer look. And it's the stories that we love that will stick with us for the rest of our lives.
At this moment, I am re-reading Pride and Prejudice and I am thoroughly enjoying it. It is because I finally understand it because I've already seen it played out in front of me? Or it is because that I'm finally willing to take the time to actually read it? Who knows...
But I do know one thing. After watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, I find myself acknowledging this universal truth: Pride and Prejudice is, and will remain so for decades to come, one of the best stories of all time.
And it only took a modern adaptation to get me there.
So thank you, Lizzie Bennet Diaries--where the thought of snickerdoodles makes you burst into tears, Kitty Bennet is actually a cat, peaches make you want to kill someone, and you expect a handsome man to show up on your doorstep when you order Chinese take-out.
Don't understand what in the world I'm talking about? You'll just have to check out the show to find out ;)
Here's the link to the first video. Be warned, though: You can't just watch one episode. It's impossible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KisuGP2lcPs
Best wishes.
***NOTE: Anything in "quotations" are quotations from the series and/or the novel. Just so you know...***
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