Transcript
Speaker: Hey Stephanie. Hey Melinda. What if Lizzie Bennet was a communications student vlogging about her life for her final university project? And what if she brings us along for the ride as she lives out Pride and Prejudice in California in 2012?
Speaker: I'm not gonna lie, this sounds like it could only be set in the 2010s. Because if you lived through it, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker: Welcome to Jane Austen Remixed, the podcast where we examine the viral and memeing world of Pride and Prejudice adaptations. I'm Melinda. And I'm Stephanie. And this week, we have part one of our discussion on the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. This series is so huge, our analysis will stretch over two episodes.
Speaker: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries consists of 100 episodes on the main YouTube channel and 10 extra Q&A style videos responding to audience questions. There are also videos on four spinoff channels that support the main story.
Speaker: There are then two books, The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Kate Rorick and Bernie Su, which is Lizzie's personal diary exploring what happened off camera during her year of vlogging.
Speaker: And then there is a sequel book, The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet by Kate Rorick and Rachel Kiley, which tells Lydia's story after the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. There are also some sequel productions on YouTube featuring some of the LBD characters.
Speaker: Are you overwhelmed or confused yet? I just cannot fathom how much material is in this series. Like 100 episodes is a huge amount full stop before you add in the books, the supplementary channels, the follow-ups.
Speaker: It's mind-boggling how much content is in this and I'm genuinely impressed that you decided to tackle this. Well, spoiler alert, it's a good one.
Speaker: But for simplicity, we're only going to look at the main Lizzie Bennet Diaries videos, two spinoff channels, and then the book, The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet. I'm sorry, did you say only? Did you say we're only going to look? Okay, that's about half of it.
Speaker: but But if you are interested in watching the whole thing, I'd recommend starting with the main YouTube channel and then branching out into the other channels and books. I am a latecomer to this series. I discovered it thanks to the YouTube algorithm during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020.
Speaker: Like everyone, I was at home a lot and watched it so much that it became my personality for a little while. I would have been obnoxious if I discovered this in 2012 and was watching it live. Steph and I had just met and she would have disowned me pretty quickly.
Speaker: ah Considering Pride and Prejudice is the basis of our friendship, I don't think that's possible. I think I would have given you a run for your money. And after watching the YouTube videos, I then discovered the existence of the books. Now, Steph, you have a little bit of experience with this adaptation.
Speaker: Do you want to share how I forced you to watch some of it one time we were hanging out? Yes. From memory, we'd organized a catch up and it was during the time where we were allowed out of lockdown so we could go to each other's houses. So it was in like a safe, quote unquote, safe period of think later COVID, maybe 2021. And you told me that I simply had to watch it.
Speaker: But you understood that I am not very good at sticking with something as basic as a TV show. So you had put together a hit list, like a list of episodes that I had to watch. And sometimes they weren't even full episodes from memory. It was just like a few minutes from this one and then a few minutes from this one. And you basically like strung me along through the whole thing. We were there for like a few hours. I was having great time. by the way, guys, this is not a complaint. And that I think we ran out of time, but me being me, we just never got back to it. So I actually don't know how it finishes.
Speaker: Which will be fantastic for episode two that we do on the series. So Steph is going to read out the blurb of The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, because it kind of gives a good summary of the whole story and where we start.
Speaker: All right, here we 24-year-old grad student Lizzie Bennet is saddled with student loan debt and still living at home along with her two sisters, Beautiful Jane and Reckless Lydia.
Speaker: When she records her reflections on life for her thesis project and posts them on YouTube, she has no idea the Lizzie Bennet diaries will soon take on a life of their own, turning the Bennet sisters into internet celebrities seemingly overnight.
Speaker: When the rich and handsome Bing Lee comes to town, along with his stuck-up friend William Darcy, things really start to get interesting for the Bennetts and Lizzie's viewers.
Speaker: But not everything happens on screen. Lucky for us, Lizzie has a secret diary. I just have to take a moment because I am like a massive fan of internet culture and like the birth of meme culture and all that sort of stuff. And becoming an overnight celebrity on YouTube is just something that used to happen to real people.
Speaker: Yes. And it's crazy. There's a great book by Taylor Lorenz. I'll get Melinda to add it to her 45 pages of notes at the end of all of this if anyone is interested and it charts the rise of like YouTube, basically a YouTube celebrity. And this is just, it's so spot on.
Speaker: So if this sounds interesting to you, please seek it out and give it a watch and a rate. Now, before we get into this adaptation, we need to discuss an elephant in the room. In recent years, stories have been shared about how someone involved in the show was not a good person to work with.
Speaker: We're not going into it here. You can look it up if you'd like to learn more. So given that background, you might ask, why are we even covering this adaptation? It's a fair point. How do you respond when you love a piece of art, but it's revealed that someone involved in the production is at best sketchy or at worst downright awful?
Speaker: In terms of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, the actor who played Lizzie, Ashley Clements, did a YouTube series called The Look Back Diaries to mark the show's 10th anniversary in 2022 and 2023. She went through every episode and interviewed the actors and writers who poured their hearts and souls into this production.
Speaker: She said that despite the issues, she looks back on the Lizzie Bennet Diaries with fondness because of all the incredible people she worked with. So that's why we're covering the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. If you would like to support some of the actors, I've included the links to their YouTube channels in the show notes.
Speaker: Such a great point, Melinda. I think there has to be a reckoning for behavior like this, but also you have to take into account the other people involved in the production and their thoughts and feelings. So yeah, I think that's a really good way to frame this up right from the start.
Speaker: And now it's time for the spoiler chat. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries were released on YouTube twice a week from April 2012 to March 2013. It is very 2012 and for anyone who can't remember, there were some iconic things released on YouTube that year.
Speaker: The most watched video in 2012 was the music video for Gungam Style by Psy, the last time the hon moon was sealed for good. ah The Dumb Ways to Die train safety ad was released in November 2012. Oh my God.
Speaker: like A Screaming Goat was edited into Taylor Swift's I Knew You Were Trouble to jump scare people. The Harlem Shake Dance took off in February 2013. And then the song The Fox by Ilvis, better known as What Does The Fox Say, was uploaded in September 2013.
Speaker: And the first photo of Tardasauce, aka Grumpy Cat, was posted to Reddit in September 2012. And this is the environment that Lizzie Bennet Diaries was released into.
Speaker: i am having a breakdown. i did remember the Psy one because I had a fight with someone at work about this the other day. They didn't believe me. But I also have, for all the Swifties out there, a super fun fact about the screaming goat.
Speaker: It's not a goat. The sound is not the goat. Oh, guy who made the original Screaming Goat recorded his friend doing a sound that the friend thought would be the sound that that goat would would be making. So it's actually a person pretending to be a Screaming Goat edited over a Screaming Goat edited over Taylor Swift. There you go. The layers just keep getting deeper and deeper. 2012 was a time.
Speaker: Alright, so Lizzie's vlogs are filmed with a stationary camera and Lizzie and her guests talk directly to the audience. Looking at the vlog setup, it's no surprise that Lizzie Bennet Diaries was originally Hank Green's idea. Hank Green of Vlogbrothers and so many other projects.
Speaker: Vlogbrothers is a YouTube channel by Hank and his brother, John Green, author of Fault in Our Stars and many other books. Shout out to any Nerdfighteria listening along. If you have ever watched a Vlogbrothers video and heard, good morning, John, it's Friday, then LBD style is very similar.
Speaker: How did I miss that the Green Brothers were involved in this? I'm pretty sure I told you early on. You must have, and I've just completely forgotten. Because you didn't know who Hank was. No, i I didn't know John Green had a brother.
Speaker: I knew him from Tumblr and I knew that he wrote books. Lizzie is a grad student in a town in California, and her vlog recaps her day-to-day life. She uses props to dress as people she meets to reenact life events with costume theatre, with the help of her family and friends.
Speaker: Jane is Lizzie's older sister. She is underpaid and overworked, but still finds time to bring her sister's copious amounts of tea. She is played by Laura Spencer, who some of you might recognize from Bones or The Big Bang Theory.
Speaker: And Lydia is the younger sister of the trio. She turns 21 during the year at a very memorable party. We'll get to that. Lydia likes to party and is boy crazy, which Lizzie is very judgmental about.
Speaker: Remember, this is the 2010s. Lydia is played by Mary-Kate Wiles. And Charlotte Lu is Lizzie's best friend since they were fetuses and is also studying communications at grad school with her.
Speaker: She appears in many videos and is often behind the camera, Lizzie's editor and costume theater re-enactor. Charlotte is played by Julia Cho. Because of how much she's in this series, I'm really only going to be looking at the big arcs of the plot and how the characters are adapted from Pride and Prejudice. I cannot get into every running gag, costume theater prop choice, the adorbs and the Lydia. So if you want to hear all the jokes, you have to go watch it.
Speaker: We get straight into the action in episode one. Charlotte helps Lizzie reenact a conversation between her parents where Mrs. Bennet tells her husband that a large house in Netherfield has just been bought by a single rich man named Bing Lee who is studying to be a doctor. Okay, I have to just take a moment.
Speaker: I forgot his name is Bing Lee. And yes, as someone who lives in New South Wales, Australia, there is a chain of home goods stores called Bing Lee. Hearing Bing's name for the first time was hilarious. I've included the link to one of their ads in the show notes. However, if you do go searching for others yourself, be warned that the ads from the 80s and 90s on YouTube use racial stereotypes. They have not aged well. No, no, they have not.
Speaker: But Bing Lee in Australia is an icon. He has since passed away because he was a person and his son and his wife kept up the ads for years afterwards, which was really sweet.
Speaker: It is very sweet. Mrs. Bennet and Lydia have been lightly stalking Bing to get more information about him. But the Bennets finally meet Bing, his sister Caroline and his hot friend Darcy at a wedding.
Speaker: Jane and Bing hit it off straight away and Lizzie and Darcy, What even is Darcy? Is that his first or his last name? Are forced to share a dance. Lizzie describes the encounter as the most awkward dance ever TM and Darcy later calls Lizzie decent enough to bing.
Speaker: And let's just say Lizzie's prejudice gets locked and loaded and we get a few episodes dissecting what happened at the wedding and how much she hates Darcy. Lizzie is creeped out that Jane is going out with Bing because their mum basically picked him out for her. We also get some family dinners reenacted where the Bennetts go to the Lees and vice versa. And during this time, Lizzie slowly changes her mind about Bing, seeing how much he truly cares for Jane and how much Jane cares for him.
Speaker: Lizzie praises Jane for playing it cool, which Charlotte picks up on. Charlotte and Lizzie know the many moods of Jane Bennett after years of practice, but Charlotte's not convinced that Bing can tell the difference.
Speaker: And that's super fair. I remember him being a real sweetheart. Well, coming across like a real sweetheart in this. So the the introvert girl unable to express feelings is a nice flip of the usual introvert man unacquainted with feelings. Yeah, it makes sense. On one memorable night out, the group go to their local bar, Carter's, as in Captain Carter. Lizzie is trying to be supportive, but she thinks that Jane and Bing are getting serious quickly.
Speaker: Caroline and Darcy stand in the corner being judgy. Lizzie wants to play Just Dance. Oh, hello there, 2012. But no one wants to play with her. But Lydia notes in the reenactment that Darcy absolutely would have.
Speaker: The Bennetts end up leaving the bar early because Lydia is drunk and starts making out with a guy in a way that is moving X-rated very quickly, and the bartender asks them to leave. That's hilarious.
Speaker: that they got asked to leave. Having spent a lot of time professionally with bartenders and bar owners, I find it deeply hilarious that they would have been asked to leave.
Speaker: Well, it's the conceit, so we roll with it. In the next video, which is episode 15, Jane and Charlotte take over and we get their perspective of what happened at the bar. Yes, William Darcy absolutely offered to play Just Dance with Lizzie and she ignored him. And when Charlotte walked by Caroline and Darcy during the evening, she heard Darcy telling Caroline that Lizzie has fine eyes before he pretended to fake text to avoid chatting with Lizzie.
Speaker: Yep. It's all coming back to me now. Yep. Just going to pause things here to discuss Lizzie Bennet's prejudice. One of the things this adaptation absolutely nails is Lizzie's biased point of view.
Speaker: These are her vlogs, other than a few hosted by the other characters. In this episode 15, Charlotte and Jane say that they're there to set the record straight about what happened at Carter's.
Speaker: Jane says, quote, this is her vlog, Lizzie sees what Lizzie sees, end quote. And Lydia repeats that sentiment in episode 37. Lizzie is locked into her viewpoint.
Speaker: We see it most clearly in the costume theatre and how she and other characters pretend to be the same person. The starkest example is how everyone portrays one William Darcy. Lizzie's Darcy has a super deep robotic voice, he's always snappy and critical of what's going on.
Speaker: While Jane's Darcy is formal and shy, but desperately trying to connect with Lizzie and not be awkward. Even his best friend Fitz gets in on the action, more on him later, and his version of Darcy is restrained with an upright posture, but is very nice in what he says.
Speaker: Lizzie thinks Darcy is awful, but it's clear that not everyone does. And as well as being prejudiced, Lizzie is also super judgmental. She judges Jane for going out with Bing at first, Charlotte for drinking too much one night, and most importantly, we see it in Lizzie's treatment of Lydia.
Speaker: This show is very 2010s coded and shows Lizzie's internalized misogyny and sexism. There is a whole thing we could unpack with that that is outside the scope of this podcast.
Speaker: But Lizzie openly slut-shames Lydia. Lizzie says she's trying to care for her and help her make good choices, but it's all done with judgment. It starts from episode two when Lizzie says the family are super relieved that Lydia is now too old to appear on a reality TV show about teenage pregnancy.
Speaker: She openly calls her a slut. Lydia actually makes her apologise on camera, which good on her. They openly talk about the times Lydia gets drunk at Carter's and they have to escort her home or chaperone her. Small reminder, Lydia at this stage is 20, which is underage for drinking in the US.
Speaker: Charlotte even has a dig at Lydia's drinking in one episode and Jane immediately jumps to her sister's defence. Lizzie also jokes about how little Lydia means to her. In episode 12, Lizzie says Jane and Charlotte are competing to be her best friend, and she says, quote, we're glad you aren't Lydia, she doesn't even rank, end quote.
Speaker: Lizzie says things with similar sentiment even when Lydia is in the room, and every time Lydia's face falls for a split second and then the smile reappears in full force. Lydia teases Lizzie too, calls her boring, nerdy, a loser, perpetually single. but they are more lighthearted.
Speaker: Lizzie is really locked in on how Lydia is being irresponsible and needs to be looked after because she's making terrible decisions. Lydia's an adult. Lizzie may not agree with how she's living her life, but the constant judgment and put downs are patronizing and not helpful.
Speaker: I'm specifically mentioning all of these examples because they are important for the our second episode on this adaptation. Yeah, you're right. It's very 2010s coded in the way that there is so much really harsh girl-on-girl verbal assault, for want of a better term.
Speaker: It's really shocking to go back and look at media like this from like our vantage point over 14 years later. But hearing all this takes me back to being that age in like the noughties. And it was the same thing.
Speaker: It's a really difficult time to look back on. But that was the culture that we lived in at the time. absolutely And it's really hard to listen to you talk about Lizzie being like this because it makes me think she was so awful and so insufferable. How did anyone like this show?
Speaker: You haven't seen the ending yet. So yeah, yeah, that's fine. But I remember watching it with you and really enjoying it. Yeah, no, I get it. It was really interesting looking back with a really fine tooth comb and looking at it. Um,
Speaker: It's said in a joking way, right? Oh, look, she's too old now to be a teenage pregnancy show. hahu Which I know doesn't make the sentiment any easier, but it's said with jokes in mind. And Lydia is clearly affected by it. There are definitely a couple of times where she pulls her up on it. Yeah, which is good. But it was that same, oh, I won't make a big deal about the jokes because I'm a cool girl. I can take it.
Speaker: Yeah. But I think what this really gets right is it shows how prejudiced Lizzie is. Which is on point for the book. We've spoken about how pride and prejudice, those two nouns, are two of the main issues in this book. And what this sets up brilliantly is how Lizzie is so locked in on her own point of view. that she's correct, that while Lydia's doing bad things, or not necessarily bad things, but she's making unsafe decisions, I need to fix her. It's so true to Elizabeth Bennet.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely. And we are on record complaining in the past that adaptations of Lizzie, written by people who adore her as a character, make her perfect. She has no flaws. She doesn't have the prejudice.
Speaker: which means she can't grow as a person, which is integral to the story and the enemies to lovers storyline sort of thing. So yes, it is good that she has that and that she's not perfect, but I'm just having horrifying flashbacks to like high school and university. Haha.
Speaker: That's okay, we can all have them together. And now, back to the story. Swim Week is here. Each year, the university in their town hosts a national swimming tournament, so the town is invaded by burly young men, or as Lydia describes them, hot aqua man cake action.
Speaker: Oh no. Oh, Lydia. Lydia wants to go to Carter's and Lizzie agrees to go with her to chaperone. The next video, Jane asks how Carter's went and Lizzie and Jane reenact her interactions with several incredibly creepy guys before one gentleman catches her eye.
Speaker: He's one of the coaches, not a swimmer, and he's already in her phone and has texted her. And this rare breed of gentleman is named George Wickham.
Speaker: Oh no. Oh no, indeed. Also, side note here, the LBD fandom have renamed him Dickum, which is perfection. Semester is now over and due to the success of the vlog, Lizzie and Charlotte get passes to attend VidCon. Now, this is another bit of real life trivia. VidCon is an annual gathering of creators, influencers, and other tech people that was founded by Hank and John Green in 2010.
Speaker: I'm not sure how much they have to do with it these days, but in 2012, this event would have been the height of internet culture. Massive. It was absolutely massive. If anyone's interested, there's loads of stuff on YouTube about VidCon. It's a fascinating piece of internet culture. Charlotte wants to use VidCon as a networking event.
Speaker: Lizzie says that sounds really cynical, but Charlotte wants to confirm a job after she finishes college and will take whatever she can get, including a job in reality TV and putting her own creative dreams on hold.
Speaker: Lizzie is more optimistic, saying it's easy to go for money now and say you'll do good later. I'm sorry, i'm I'm completely with Charlotte on this. You're a communications grad. You're a dime a dozen. yeah Network, get a job. There is no space in this economy. Especially not in 2012. Exactly.
Speaker: Charlotte, Lizzie and Lydia, who also ends up with a pass to VidCon, head to the event where they run into Ricky Collins. He went to school with Lizzie and Charlotte.
Speaker: Ricky, who insists on being called Mr. Collins because he hasn't received his doctorate yet, is working in the online video space. He's secured funding from an impressive venture capitalist and is there to network.
Speaker: But the next video, also from VidCon, sets the next part of the plot in motion. While the girls are away, Mama Bennett has decided the house is overdue for some renovations. So the family are going to be moving in with their cousin, Mary,
Speaker: and her family for two weeks while the house is worked on. The place is tiny and it sounds like it'll be terrible, but Jane doesn't have to stay with her family. She told Bing what was happening and he invited her to stay with him.
Speaker: And the invite is extended to Lizzie. So our eldest two Bennets are off to stay at Netherfield. Ha, I love it. I remember this bit. Now, this is the start of our Jane Sickert Netherfield arc, which yes, comes a little later than in the original story, but it's a great setup to explain their extended stay at someone else's house. It also includes the on-screen introductions of Bing and Caroline Lee.
Speaker: Lizzie is recording her next video gushing about how large the house is, how sweet it is to watch Jane and Bing get closer together, and how frustrating one William Darcy continues to be.
Speaker: when Caroline Lee walks in and she reveals that she knows about Lizzie's vlog. Lizzie is genuinely surprised. Wow, someone in my life has seen the videos I'm posting publicly on YouTube. What a shock.
Speaker: Caroline confirms that Bing and Darcy don't know about the videos. Can you imagine how that will impact Bing and Jane's relationship? It would be devastating. Lizzie agrees and thanks Caroline for keeping her secret, saying that she misjudged her.
Speaker: And Caroline smiles sweetly at the camera. Caroline in this, i remember from the bit the bits that you showed me, she's so spot on for a modern adaptation. I think this is one of the best adaptations of Caroline I've seen. It really modernizes her, not just her snark, but her social savvy.
Speaker: Yes, completely agreed. And we're now going to pause here quickly to discuss Caroline. The actor who plays Caroline, Jessica Jade Andress, is amazing. The first costume theatre we get of Caroline is in episode 15, where Charlotte portrays her as an upper-class hipster, that this town enjoys non-organic produce and top 40 radio unironically.
Speaker: And in Caroline's first appearance, she immediately mentions that portrayal and says, quote, we're all naturally prejudicial in some way. It's just a matter of getting past them. End quote.
Speaker: She is clearly trying to rehabilitate her image with Lizzie's viewers, playing up their friendship and using the video's existence as leverage over Lizzie. Her tone, manner and smiles all indicate that she is on Lizzie's side, but the undercurrent of Mean Girl Edge is absolutely there from the start.
Speaker: And as we continue this arc, we'll see how Caroline continues to manipulate Lizzie into doing certain things that, if the existence of the videos are revealed to the guys, could absolutely ruin Bing and Jane's relationship and Lizzie's fine eyes with a certain robot newsie.
Speaker: Yeah, she's so awful in this. She's more awful than the original, i think. And it really captures that essence of the mean girl that we all know and loathe. Totally. In the next video, we get a slight debate from Lizzie about the ethics of online video when she decides to post a video with Bing Lee in it without his permission.
Speaker: The setup is that Jane is unwell and is recording a short video message to Charlotte on Lizzie's vlogging camera. Bing walks in. and he's adorable. Lizzie decides to post the video given how much her viewers have been clamoring to see Bing. But next video, she realizes that there are some big ethical dilemmas that come with that decision. Yes, there are. So she goes to Caroline to ask what she thinks.
Speaker: And Caroline says to keep it online. Your loyal viewers will be upset if you take it away. And besides, Bing knew he was being recorded. There is a whole discussion here about filming and consent, which we do not have time to get into. But suffice it to say, no, that is not informed filming consent.
Speaker: No, it is not. And that's super weird and icky. Yeah, and Caroline is clearly trying to undermine Lizzie and Jane's status if Bing finds the vlog. During these videos, we get several of the events that make the Jane Sick at Netherfield arc so great.
Speaker: We do get a turn about the room scene, thanks to a reminder from Caroline's new fitness band, telling her to get some movement in. We get Darcy's list of what makes an accomplished woman, which Lizzie turns into a game show with Caroline as the contestant. And in a few videos, Caroline actively encourages Lizzie to vent about Darcy and what he's done that day.
Speaker: This is your diary. You need to be honest with your viewers. Caroline continues to coax the rants out of Lizzie until Lizzie is on camera saying how much she hates his stupid judgy little laugh.
Speaker: And Caroline makes eye contact with the camera and smiles so sweetly. She is so manipulative and is the perfect way to adapt Caroline into the modern day. It's really interesting to see a Lizzie who not only falls for Wickham manipulating her, but also falls for Caroline doing this as well. think it's a really interesting sort of evolution of the original Yeah, and she does think Caroline isn't great to start with, but Caroline just kind of worms her way in and, yeah, ends up being friendly. Oh, yeah, she's evil. She's like a real snake in the grass, and it's super interesting to watch.
Speaker: Jane continues to defend Darcy in her small appearances, but Lizzie refuses to see it. And in the next video, Bing comes to Lizzie and asks... Is Jane okay? She's been a bit distant. Lizzie says it's probably because she misses home.
Speaker: Bing asks if that means he hasn't been a good host and Lizzie says he's been amazing. Totally the wrong thing to say to our lovelorn golden retriever. But Lizzie is projecting. She's worried about overstaying their welcome.
Speaker: And then Jane comes in to say that she drove by the house today and it looks fine. The contractor says it's been livable for a week and we realise it was clearly a scheme by Mama Bennett to keep Jane at Netherfield longer.
Speaker: Ew, no. Jane is still a bit withdrawn with Bing, and when the sisters get home, we find out why. Now, this is only revealed in the book, but Jane tells Lizzie that her period was late.
Speaker: So for the time she was distant with Bing in their last days at Netherfield, she thought she might be pregnant and was panicking. She tells Lizzie, but says she's not going to tell Bing because she doesn't want to burden him with that secret.
Speaker: I have many, many thoughts about things like this. These kinds of storylines, this trope is one of my most hated. Anyway, we don't have time for that rant. I think it's used really well. She's just late and it explains her pulling away.
Speaker: i think it works really well. I'm sure it does in terms of the context of the story. It's just one of those things that pops up so often in things that are just, yeah. The family reunite at home and Mama Bennett is furious that her eldest two daughters are already home. So fun fact, every time Lizzie is away from home, Lydia runs her own YouTube channel called The Lydia Bennett. Sadly, the official videos seem to have disappeared from YouTube, but you can find some of them in re-uploads.
Speaker: Lydia's videos aren't scripted or edited and are much shorter, but in those we do get to meet their cousin Mary and Kitty, Lydia's cat. Wait, this is the second adaptation where Kitty's been an actual cat.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. I love it. Okay. And now our arc with Mr. Collins begins. Mama Bennett invites him over for dinner and is very clearly trying to set him up with Lizzie. But Mrs. Bennett won't be successful because in this adaptation, Mr. Collins has a fiancé living in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada, who he goes to visit every so often.
Speaker: Now, there is at least some debate between the characters and the wider LBD fandom as to whether this fiancé is even real. We never meet her or hear her name, but it's a fun mystery. There's like this ongoing thing in like American teen movies. It's like, yeah, I have a girlfriend. She just goes to like a different school or she like lives in a different state. So I love that they brought that in. It's iconic. Yeah.
Speaker: Now, Mr. Collins' adaptation in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. This Mr. Collins isn't as cruel as many of the other ones we've seen in modern adaptations. He's an annoying, clueless, over-eager mansplainer who is really excited about his business and his venture capitalist partner, Catherine de Bourgh. Watching him trying to explain what web video is and its importance in creating community with younger audiences who are leaving traditional media channels behind to Lizzie,
Speaker: who has not only built a community but also studies communication, is so frustratingly real and hilarious. We have all been there. Oh yeah. So I think he's more like the original Mr. Collins. He's not evil in this one.
Speaker: And in this adaptation, Mr. Collins' proposal is actually a business one, given he's engaged and all. He's been looking out for a partner to help him run his business, and he asks Lizzie to join him.
Speaker: Naturally, she won't be able to finish her degree, so she can take up this lucrative opportunity, but that's a sacrifice he's willing to make. He had imagined someone with a higher degree level, but he can more than make up for her lack of business acumen.
Speaker: Oh no. Oh no. Lizzie rejects him, which he mistakes for her negotiating and starts trying to sweeten the deal. Classic. He doesn't take her no seriously. He's well-connected and offering her a respectable position.
Speaker: Why would she say no? Lizzie refuses to compromise her principles. She wants to create and not be stuck making soulless corporate videos. It maps super well onto the original Collins proposal.
Speaker: It does. It does indeed. But just like she does in Pride and Prejudice, after running interference for her bestie, Charlotte swoops in and offers to help Mr Collins work on his pitch on camera.
Speaker: She points out that his values don't align with Lizzie's. but starts subtly hinting that she would be a great fit. She's seen the video, so she waits until Mr. Collins gives her his largest envelope and she takes the deal.
Speaker: Lizzie confronts Charlotte on camera the next day, declaring that the internet will stop her from taking the job, and Charlotte tries to turn it off. Lizzie calls her a sellout. You are going to be a great documentarian and you're going to do corporate instructional videos. And Charlotte absolutely slams her.
Speaker: I need financial security and this is a huge opportunity. Being offered a partnership at a startup having not finished grad school? She's taking it. We get a massive flash of Lizzie's prejudice saying that Charlotte is making a stupid mistake in selling out.
Speaker: And Charlotte snaps back that it's not like she's working on her own creative projects right now. She's working on Lizzie's. It's a huge fight and Charlotte walks out. And Charlotte's in the right. I'm sorry.
Speaker: Yes, he's annoying, but it's great experience and a great job when you haven't even graduated yet. I remember you showing me this and at the time being really annoyed with Lizzie. The Lizzie is right about everything and everyone else is wrong all the time. Gets very frustrating at times.
Speaker: And I know that's the point. Yeah, totally. So just like in Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte throughout the series is shown to be way more practical than Lizzie. Way back in episode 16, Lizzie tries to pump up her best friend, saying she'll be hugely successful one day. Charlotte says, no.
Speaker: There is no way you can predict that. Success takes a lot of hard work, but mostly luck, luck, and more luck. Charlotte calls herself practical and sensible, and Lizzie calls her cynical and robotic.
Speaker: It is such a simple yet perfect way to set up the differences between Lizzie and Charlotte's worldviews. Lizzie, despite her cynicism and prejudice, is very rose-colored in her outlook towards some things, while Charlotte is far more practical. It's a fab adaptation of Charlotte's character. She is capable, talented, and it is very clear why she takes the job with Mr Collins.
Speaker: It's a really good adaptation, i think, of Charlotte that isn't looking down on her or like talking down to her character's practicalities.
Speaker: I struggle with the way she's portrayed in a lot of modern adaptations because I think the people writing them have either just decided that they don't like her character or they fundamentally misunderstand what Austen was trying to convey through her character. She's one of the most interesting characters in Austen.
Speaker: I mean, we're on the record as loving Charlotte. They've really nailed her characterisation and modernising it in a way that isn't really, really patronising. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: And with Charlotte out of the picture, it's now time for the arrival of one George Wickham. Boo. George has been texting with Lizzie and they've been lightly flirting, but George is now back in town for some more swim coaching, so the Bennetts meet him at Carter's, and he and Darcy have a dramatic stare down across the bar.
Speaker: In episode 45, we get the first on-camera appearance of George Wickham. In honestly a perfect bit of adaptation, George is introduced to us by his butt as he studies the shelves behind Lizzie for any red flags. Aha, hello, takes one to know one. ah He tells Lizzie he is well acquainted with her videos, but he's super reluctant to share his story with Darcy on camera. It doesn't take much coaxing though before George suggests he tell the hypothetical story of two childhood friends called Dar-vid.
Speaker: David. David and Batman. And it goes pretty much like Pride and Prejudice. David's father liked Batman and promised that he could go study at a very prestigious cave, aka a university, but David refused to give him the money, which stopped him from going.
Speaker: We then get this hilarious moment orchestrated by Lydia where she walks in and spills water on George's shirt and encourages him to take it off on camera. Lydia is going to Lydia.
Speaker: I was just thinking I have zero recollection of what this stale ham sandwich of a man looks like. This part I do remember. I think I was going to show you some of the Wickham videos you were like, no, I don't need to see Wickham. and I think I showed you a screenshot.
Speaker: Yeah, that sounds about right. And you went, oh they've cast him well. And that was about it. Yeah. I've completely blocked him out ah because I've been thinking i don't know why I don't remember him from watching the videos because I remember what everyone else looks like. That explains I've just fully blocked him out.
Speaker: The Bennets are going to Bing's birthday party at Netherfield, which is our stand-in for the Netherfield ball. From Lizzie's perspective, the party is okay, though she does have an awkward dance with Darcy and her mother starts announcing herself at Bing's birthday party as Bing's future mother-in-law.
Speaker: And George stands her up. Lydia asks Lizzie if George had contacted her to explain himself and she says no. And Lydia says, well, he should have called. That's not okay.
Speaker: Jane arrives back from Bing's place. She'd gone to deliver birthday snickerdoodle cookies, but he wasn't home. And then, on camera, Jane gets a Twitter notification from Bing.
Speaker: He's just tweeted, back to the city, hello Los Angeles. And Jane is shocked. Why would he leave without saying goodbye? And now we need to pause the discussion here to go on Melinda's super nerdy and semi-lengthy tangent into a fun part of this show's storytelling that actually won some awards.
Speaker: So when I said that Jane got a notification about a tweet that Bing wrote saying he was back in LA, Those tweets actually existed. There were Twitter and other social media accounts for every character within the show who were tweeting additional storytelling moments live alongside the show.
Speaker: Fun fact, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was the first YouTube show to win an Emmy. It won Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media, original interactive program in 2013. That's super cool. Like that's amazing.
Speaker: The amount of effect that's gone into this, like with all the intersecting like social accounts and stuff is so interesting. It's wild. I feel like it was one of those things that briefly happened in people like, this is the future of media. And then it just stopped.
Speaker: Yeah. i think because they realized how much work it is to actually develop the whole thing. Hell yeah. Yeah. If you'll allow me, though you're listening after the fact, so don't have a choice in the matter, I'm going to go full communications theory nerd for a moment. The 2000s was an era where the internet began to change significantly, and many might say for the worse, given where we are today.
Speaker: In the early era of the internet, we had what people called Web 1.0. In this version, the internet was very much... a platform that broadcast messages to audiences in one direction, the way that TV would.
Speaker: Someone would jump online, make a website and publish it, but that was it. They couldn't interact with the people reading it. Web 2.0 began to emerge in the early 2000s. This was the era where the technology evolved, allowing audiences to talk back to website creators. So this is blogs and their comments sections.
Speaker: and the advent of social media. No longer were your audiences or customers imaginary disembodied people behind a screen. Now they could write back to you immediately.
Speaker: it meant that a lot of businesses were jumping on social media, not only because it was the cool place to be, but because they could talk to their customers directly to increase brand awareness, product loyalty, and ultimately sales. That immediate feedback was intoxicating.
Speaker: Side note here, it was in 2012 that I managed my first Facebook page for the magazine that I was working on that Stephanie actually set up. Hey! And that was an experience in experimentation. The business knew that this was an important platform and wanted to be there, but also had no idea what it wanted to do. So I got to play around and see what hit with audiences and what didn't. In some ways, not much has changed with social media management.
Speaker: Oh my God. But also for that audience, it was cat memes and Downton Abbey discussions, which had nothing to do with the magazine I was helping to run, but hey, I got engagement. Mate, the lengths I had to go to, to get them to allow me to make a Facebook page in the first place was truly insane. And then I went to my next publishing job in a different publishing house and the head of sales told us that we didn't need digital anything because the internet was a fad. What? What?
Speaker: So when Melinda says it was the Wild West, believe her, it was the Wild West at this point. And then when the businesses realized what it could do, we had to post ads every second day, which is just the way to drive down people following you. It's really great way to get people to disengage. This was obviously pre-influencers, so it was just a straight up ad copy.
Speaker: With terribly designed graphics. Now, I want you to cast your mind back to 2012 and 2013. Facebook was founded in and Twitter in So these platforms were six to eight years old at this point.
Speaker: They were online places where content was being created and people were hanging out with their friends. And yet businesses were still trying to figure out how to use that. And this is where entertainment companies and fandom culture were starting to collide as businesses realized they could interact with fans directly.
Speaker: Think of all the user generated content that was on Tumblr and MySpace. The audience and fan base are there. How can entertainment companies harness that passion and energy to help fandoms engage more with their show and company content?
Speaker: Cynically, that brings them more money, but it also allows fans to engage with every little scrap of content. It was the beginning of some of those connections which created some of the intense online fandom cultures that we see today. Side note, I'm not saying fandoms are bad. I'm just saying there are bad apples who can take things way too far. Digital technologies were allowing fans to connect like never before.
Speaker: So this concept isn't new. You only have to think about comic books and their accompanying movies from much earlier in the 20th century. But now this concept was coming online. This was called at the time, transmedia storytelling, where the story of a TV show flowed out from the TV screen and onto our desktop or laptop screens. Not so much phones, but that was starting to develop.
Speaker: All of a sudden, the touch points where a fan could consume and engage with a fandom multiplied. One of my early favorite TV shows, Crossing Jordan, had a blog run by resident science geek, Nigel Townsend. Oh, my God, I'd forgotten that show existed. I love that show. It is terrible re-watching it. I re-watched it a few years ago. I was like, oh, no, Woody is an awful human being, which made me very sad. Yeah. I stopped re-watching The West Wing for the same reason. Oh, it's a bit sad sometimes.
Speaker: And as one of my final essays at uni, I wrote a mini thesis on the TV show Heroes, Save the Cheerleader, Save the World, and how NBC was using Web 2.0 elements to boost its storytelling across other digital media.
Speaker: Yes, they had comic books, but they also had websites for in-universe companies that people could interact with, phone numbers you could ring, and online webisodes which extended the storytelling for anyone who went searching.
Speaker: They even had an online game called Hero Survival where you could create your own superhero and play and meet others. Cynically, it's interactive marketing, but it allowed fans to feel like they were part of the story, which is very cool.
Speaker: Editing Melinda here. After recording this episode, the sad news broke that Hayden Panettiere, the cheerleader from Heroes, who I mentioned earlier, died in August, aged 36. Wanted to include this small tribute to her in this episode because we mentioned her work.
Speaker: Rest in peace, Hayden.
Speaker: So coming out of my full nerdy rundown and using the theory side of my degree that I haven't used in many, many years, how does this relate to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries? The production and specifically transmedia producer and writer Jay Bushman used these platforms to create an extra layer of storytelling with LBD in the spaces where fans were discussing and dissecting the show.
Speaker: So, as mentioned, every character had their own Twitter account and would tweet about their parts of the story as Lizzie released her vlog. Lizzie would promote her new episodes, Jane would share Pinterest and lookbook links, and Lydia would tweet about anything, really. Even Kitty Bennett the cat had a Twitter account. The internet has always loved its cats.
Speaker: And other characters did as well. Bing's infamous Hello Los Angeles tweet is online still. You can go see the old accounts if you feel like exploring. Now, we haven't gotten into it yet, but you can imagine the absolute thrill as a fan watching the vlogs in 2012 Live, jumping onto Twitter and seeing that Darcy has posted, quote, sometimes the only way to make sense of something is to write it down, end quote.
Speaker: Right before we as Austin fans know it's time for his letter to Lizzie. That Caroline Lee randomly tags an account in one of her tweets, and that person turns out to be the Georgiana Darcy character, who we haven't met yet. And when you visit her profile, she's been tweeting for months and isn't due to appear on the show for another couple yet.
Speaker: That's crazy. Yeah, it goes so deep. And hilariously, Georgiana and the Colonel Fitzwilliam character, who we'll meet soon, are tweeting back and forth, and you very quickly realise that they are the true captains of the dizzy ship.
Speaker: More on that later. Then, besides all of that, there are then Q&A videos that the actors filmed answering real questions that were left by the audience as comments on the main series videos and on Facebook and Twitter.
Speaker: We won't really go into these videos on the podcast, but as a fan, can you imagine what it would be like to hear Lizzie Bennet say your username a video? Also, in the fourth Q&A video, it's hilarious watching Jane and Lizzie reacting to Bing Lee being the name of an Australian home goods store and saying that no one can tell Mrs. Bennet because she'll get her heart set on Jane as an appliance fortune heiress.
Speaker: Ha ha ha. but also if they had read out my username, I think I simply would have expired on the spot. Yeah, totally right. Like the level of immersion. Yes, cynically, it's to make you watch more and engage more and it's incredible.
Speaker: At least it's cynical, but still giving something to the fans. Totally. So if you'd like to learn more about this area specifically, I've linked Jay Bushman's website in the show notes and it's got a rundown of his other work, but he also goes into the philosophy behind what he did with LBD.
Speaker: And now, after that lengthy diversion, back to the diaries. Next video, Lizzie says Jane is heartbroken and has been posting sad cat photos on Pinterest. Jane comes bustling in and saying, she's been crafting. Jane insists on joining Lizzie for a reenactment of Lizzie's phone call with George, who coincidentally called after her last video went live. Remember, he watches her videos, with a terrible excuse for standing her up.
Speaker: Except, the reenactment causes Jane to relate it to Bing leaving, and she loses it. Why won't he return my calls and have a real conversation with me? Lizzie offers to edit that out of the videos, but Jane says not to.
Speaker: Because if Caroline still watches, maybe she can pass on how much she's hurting. Oh, honey bear. Caroline doesn't care. I remember watching this bit and the actress who plays Jane is fantastic because this is genuinely heart-wrenching.
Speaker: Oh, it's episode 48, everyone. Bring the tissues. Bring the tissues. It's it's the snickerdoodles. Every time I hear the word snickerdoodle now, all I can think about is her being upset. It's crazy.
Speaker: Welcome to the life of an LBD fan. For someone who's like barely sidelined involved in this, there's like so many things that just like appeared in my life.
Speaker: Yep. Lizzie suggests Jane follow Bing to LA to get closure. She deserves that. Jane chats to her work and they have a position opening in the LA office that is a really good career move for her.
Speaker: So she decides to take it and try to talk to Bing. Lizzie gets more and more paranoid that Darcy had something to do with Bing leaving. Well, she's actually right there. And then George rocks up to say that he's leaving town too.
Speaker: The nature of an itinerant swim coach. He's got a new gig consulting for the Meritan Marines and has come to say goodbye. LOL. This causes Lizzie to have a bit of an existential crisis. Everyone is moving on with their lives except her.
Speaker: It's exacerbated by the fact she's approaching the end of her degree and has no idea what she's going to do next. That existential crisis I remember well. Charlotte then calls Lizzie and they reconcile. Lizzie decides to go visit Charlotte for a while because maybe it's time for her to move on as well.
Speaker: Oh yes, the end of university crisis. I have a degree. What am I going to do with myself? Me. You know what I should just do another degree. Yep.
Speaker: The next set of videos are recorded from the offices of Collins and Collins, and Lizzie gets to see Charlotte being a boss and thriving in her corporate environment. Then look, there's a little bit of yada yada stuff that we just accept to make the rest of the story work.
Speaker: Lizzie convinces her university supervisor, Dr. Gardner, that she can spend her last semester doing independent studies. She'll shadow a bunch of new media companies and write up a thesis project on all of them.
Speaker: It will allow her to graduate with some industry contacts. This means that she gets to stay with Charlotte for a little longer and do her uni work while there. Love that for the context of the story. i think it works really well.
Speaker: Lizzie then gets invited to her first dinner with Mr. Collins' famed venture capitalist, Catherine de Bourgh. Mr. Collins hands her a multiple-page list of the do's and don'ts in Catherine's presence and her preferred topics of conversation.
Speaker: The dinner goes about as well as it does in Pride and Prejudice. Catherine de Bourgh decides to quiz Lizzie on her ability in every possible life skill and has some terrible opinions like rich people just work harder.
Speaker: Ew. Ew. She also has a super creepy dog named Anikens. So yes, Anne de Bourgh is replaced by a sickly dog. And Lizzie also discovers that Darcy is Catherine's nephew and Catherine believes that Darcy will eventually marry Caroline because Caroline is perfect.
Speaker: Gross. Charlotte informs Lizzie that Catherine is insisting a consultant be brought on to assess how the company is running. Charlotte thinks it's payback from Catherine because she didn't like Charlotte's operating plan, and this could have major ramifications for her job.
Speaker: Charlotte insists Lizzie come and say hi to the consultant because they can't afford to have him off-site. Why would a consultant want to say hi to the unpaid grad student? Oh, it's Darcy.
Speaker: I did enjoy this was quite a fun way to bring him in to this situation. Yeah. Lizzie says the meeting with Darcy was okay, but still calls him a robot with buggy programming.
Speaker: She also meets Darcy's business partner Fitz and warns her viewers that before anyone starts writing fanfic, Fitz is gay and very happy with his boyfriend. But again, she's confused why another nice outgoing guy is friends with Darcy.
Speaker: Girl, come on. She gets there eventually. Fitz walks in while she's recording her next vlog and insists on being in it. Lizzie says, fine, as long as he doesn't tell Darcy about the videos.
Speaker: Fitz says that as Darcy's friend, he totally gets it because Darcy does not make a good first impression. And we get the famous line, Darcy has the social skills of an agoraphobic lobster. ha ha yeah which I used in another episode, completely forgetting where I had ever heard it from.
Speaker: yeah and it's LPD. Fitz helps Lizzie re-enact their latest dinner at DeBerg's and is super excited to pretend to be Darcy. Fitz thinks Lizzie should meet Darcy's sister, Gigi, because she's really nice.
Speaker: Darcy then unexpectedly turns up at the offices when he knows that Charlotte and Mr. Collins won't be there and ends up chatting with Lizzie. Charlotte is now very alert to what is potentially happening, that the man has a crush and Lizzie is in denial.
Speaker: And then, in true Colonel Fitzwilliam fashion, Fitz absolutely fumbles the bag. Yes. Lizzie asks Fitz to help her make a care package to send to Jane.
Speaker: Jane still seems upset, and after sending Lizzie multiple care packages herself, Lizzie wants to send her one back. And as they add stuff to the box, Fitz starts trying to talk up his bro Darcy.
Speaker: Darcy is all about the love. And yeah, your first impression of him is bad, but he's a super loyal dude to his friends. Just recently, he warned his close friend Bing Lee off this girl he was seeing.
Speaker: You should really meet Bing, he's really nice. Oh, Fitz. Fitz, our lovable himbo. Messing it up in every universe. It's also funny because in this one it is very clear he's trying to talk Darcy up. Almost like they've conspired and been like, yeah can you talk me up to her please? And he just... Put in a good word for me, buddy. Bro. Pow. Make this girl that I really like think that I'm a cool dude. He's like, yes, I know what I'll do.
Speaker: I'll tell a girl about the time that he broke up his friend and another girl. Even if she didn't know the other girl. That's still not the story that you tell. Super weird example, my guy.
Speaker: And episode 59 opens with Lizzie hiding in her office from the company Halloween party. Mandated office fun, how horrendous. I get in trouble at work all the time for being like, oh, great, corporate mandated fun. And was like, Stephanie, you never know, you might enjoy it. And I'm like, I won't enjoy it on principle. Yeah.
Speaker: Yep, it agreed on that front. Lizzie's been trying to avoid Darcy because she knows she'll explode at him and doesn't want to risk Charlotte's career. She hasn't told Charlotte what Fitz revealed, but says she can't talk with Darcy right now.
Speaker: Charlotte tells Mr Collins that Lizzie has a headache and they leave to attend the party. Lizzie goes into full rant mode. She gets so wound up she calls Darcy a slimy,
Speaker: unfeeling, sociopathic robot. And as she finishes, there's a knock on the door behind her and someone with their face out of frame says, excuse me, Lizzie. And Lizzie responds with Darcy and looks dead eyed down the camera.
Speaker: And just like everyone watching live in 2012, we will end our coverage of the first part of LBD right here on this cliffhanger. Yes, I'm sorry it's mean, but it's a great place to stop.
Speaker: Such a good cliffhanger. i believe it was called Torsogate at the time. ah Now, before we get to the rating, just a few adaptation points to discuss.
Speaker: One of the things that the Lizzie Bennet Diaries does incredibly well is it centres the women of the story. We're at episode 59 and one of the main romantic leads is just being introduced.
Speaker: This is firmly Lizzie's story. It's about her relationships with her family, her sisters and Charlotte, which are far from perfect. It's about her studies and her prejudicial viewpoint, which we will discuss more in episode two.
Speaker: This adaptation does what Stephanie and I have been saying from the start of the podcast. Pride and Prejudice is more than just the romantic story between Elizabeth and Darcy and Jane and Bingley.
Speaker: It's about pride. It's about prejudice. It's about young women finding their way in the world. It's about reputations, learning which people to trust and which ones not to. It's about family, growing up, taking responsibility for your actions and learning to be a good human.
Speaker: In the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, we spend so much time with Lizzie, Jane, Lydia, and Charlotte. We learn who these women are and see how talented and flawed they are. This story centers their experience as young women.
Speaker: This is a point that the actor who plays William Darcy, Daniel Vincent Gord, brings up in one of his episodes of The Look Back Diaries, that by centering the female experience, William Darcy is just a part of Lizzie's story.
Speaker: And a slight spoiler alert, Darcy only physically appears in nine episodes out of a hundred, which fun fact is less than the Mr. Collins character. Maxwell Glick, who played Mr. Collins, joked in The Look Back Diaries that this technically makes him the male lead of this series, which is a chef's kiss. That's fantastic. And that's why I love this adaptation.
Speaker: You're right. it's It's one of those things that we have been complaining about consistently while we've been doing this show that, yes, the romance is fabulous, but it's not Lizzie's whole story. And Darcy almost functions as that like reward thing she gets for overcoming her own flaws and growing as a person. And I think this is one of the few adaptations that really, really hits the the nail on the head with that.
Speaker: Yeah, and it's why I love it. And one last point, a quick note on the Pride and Prejudice plot adaptation in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Can I just say how impressed I am that most of the major plot beats of Pride and Prejudice are in this story, and how well they are adapted to the 2012 context? Other adaptations leave plot points behind, but this series adapts the main beats to make sense in the modern day.
Speaker: There are also so many references and quotes. It's incredibly faithful. We even get some deep cuts, like Charlotte saying Jane needs to be more forward in her attention of being, and Darcy's list of what makes an accomplished woman.
Speaker: And those that are missed in the web series are picked up by the book. And the fact that they managed to capture so many events on camera with the restrictions they have in place for the style of vlogging is testament to the incredible writing.
Speaker: It never feels super contrived and the novelisation gets to fill in any gaps. Yeah, it's really well put together and you're right, it's one of those rare examples that really captures every single bit. They've been incredibly thorough and it shows a real love for the original that I appreciate.
Speaker: And now it's time for our rating. Look, we aren't finished yet, but the Lizzie Bennet Diaries is fine eyes for me. This is a story about women. We get to know Lizzie, her sisters, and Charlotte as characters and are seeing their life unfold in the vlogs and on the page.
Speaker: The characterisation is incredible, with Lizzie's prejudice, Lydia's exuberance, Caroline's manipulation, Charlotte's practicality, and Mr Collins' cluelessness on display.
Speaker: The plot adaptation is also incredibly faithful and events are changed to make sense for 2012 and the vlogging format. It's been a fabulous part one episode. And join us in two weeks as we examine the second part of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries saga, including the arrival of our favorite agoraphobic lobster, the Pemberley Ark, and perhaps one of the best adaptations of the Lydia Wickham Ark ever written.
Speaker: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Jane Austen Remixed. We love exploring this corner of the literary world with you. Please share the podcast with your friends, family, literary fans, and other Janeites.
Speaker: And we would love it if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening. This helps us reach other fans of Pride and Prejudice and build our community. You can also follow us on Instagram at janeaustenremixed. If you have a question or a suggestion for a book, movie, or something you'd like us to review, drop us a line. You can email us at janeaustenremixed at gmail.com.
Speaker: And now, Melinda, the most important question of the podcast, though I think we can all guess what the answer is going to be so far, does this Darcy dive into a lake?
Speaker: Well, given we've only seen William Darcy's torso at this point, the answer is no. Boo. There is a Colin Firth mention early on, though, in episode four. Lizzie remarks that Darcy shares the last name with Colin Firth's character in Bridget Jones's diary.
Speaker: yeah But in terms of wet shirts, we do get Dickum in a wet shirt and his abs, thanks to one Lydia Bennett. Shame it's him and not Darcy.
Speaker: Bigger boo. See you next episode.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: you
