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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries | guest post from Vonnie of Vonnie's Reading Corner

I introduced a number of you to the Glorious Thing that is The LBD (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) during last year's Austen in August. Now that the entire webshow has run its course - and won over many a newly-minted Janeite in the process - I was hoping someone other than me would want to share their love and their squeeing over this series - and Vonnie of Vonnie's Reading Corner was happy to oblige!





Title: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Cast: Ashley Clements, Daniel Vincent Gordh, Julia Cho, Laura Spencer, Mary Kate
Wiles, Christopher Sean, Jessica Jade Andres, Wes Aderhold, Maxwell Glick, Craig Frank, Allison Paige, Briana Cuoco, Janice Lee
Created By: Hank Green and Bernie Su
Official Synopsis:  Lizzie Bennet Diaries is a modernized adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel, Pride and Prejudice. The story is told primarily through Lizzie Bennet‘s Video Diaries, while being supported by her and other characters social media streams.
MY THOUGHTS

This web series was recommended to me by a good friend of
mine who saw that I was slowly becoming obsessed with P&P. At first, I was not too eager to watch it because I've already seen a few adaptations of Jane Austen's novel (yes, you can egg me) and thought that it would not be any different. Also, I was not too fond of the idea of watching a web series. Luckily, I gave it a chance because I became hooked. I came to love this web series!
Plot: The general story of P&P was the same but the details were modernized to make sense in today's world, which meant there were changes. Instead of five Bennet sisters, there were three: Jane, Lizzie, and Lydia (no worries, the other sisters come out as other characters). Mr. Bingley was turned to Bing Lee, Wickham was a swim coach, and marriage was not the ultimate answer for the sisters. These changes were cleverly done though, which made the web series memorable.

I quite enjoyed viewing the story through Lizzie's point of view. Lizzie documented her life through her video diaries and had her sisters and her friend Charlotte make cameos at first. Lizzie and her "guests" will dress up for "costume theater" to represent the other people in Lizzie's life. We don't come to view the other actual characters until further on in the series.



Each episode was about 2-9 minutes long, which made each story quick and fun to watch. It was also amazing to see how all of the plot was pulled off in front of Lizzie's camera.
Characters: I loved the characters and how diverse they were. Lizzie was the independent one but who liked to over-dramatize her life when representing day to day events. Jane was the sweet and caring oldest sister who worked in the fashion industry. Then we had Charlotte, Bing Lee, and Caroline Lee represented by three Asian actors. They were great. I loved the diversity. Finally, there was William Darcy. He was one of the last characters to appear in the series and it was a huge deal when his face was finally shown.

As much as I enjoyed these characters, I only had two who were my favorites: Lydia and Mr. Collins. Lydia Bennet was still the annoying and very energetic little sister who always got into trouble. Her character developed as the story progressed to become more mature towards the end. Next there was Ricky Collins. His character was a riot! He stayed true to the book’s character. Ricky was constantly talking with too many words and was too busy making himself be the focus of every conversation.  


Overall thoughts: This show had me laughing many times and even made me cry a
couple of times. I laughed with the "costume theater" and  cried when Lydia had her meltdown. Though it only
took me three days to watch the series, I teared up at the thought that the
show was over. I knew the story of Pride and Prejudice had an end but I didn’t want
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries to end. This was a wonderful web series that I am absolutely glad that I took the advice to watch it. I rate it:




Click the pic to be taken to the Austen in August Main Page! Thanks to faestock & inadesign for the images used to create this button.

10 comments:

  1. I started watching this when it was about half way through so had a binge to catch up, and then was catching each epidote as it was posted. I really enjoyed it, loved how they'd modernised it (like the danger George poses to Lydia). I didn't watch many of the spin off videos though, such as Lydia's vlogs.

    The main difference to me was the the change in how likeable Lydia was. Firstly, being loud and flirtatious isn't the disaster these days that it would have been in the 1800s, secondly, Lydia actually feels remorse for the mistakes that she makes and this Lydia is such a fun, likeable girl. One thing I thought that was particularly well done is George's manipulation of Lydia, I thought it was chilling!

    If you haven't watched this series you should really give it a go :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I need to start this. They sound fab.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only note: Do watch Lydia's vlogs. Do. No matter what.

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    2. Agreed! I think they bring an interesting element to the whole thing. =)

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  3. I just recently heard about this series and can't believe I didn't know about it sooner!

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  4. I've got lydia saying WHAAAAAAAT as my text alert. It's pretty perfect. I can't wait for them to release the series as a DVD and to see what they come up with next!

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  5. I started this last night. I have no idea what time it was when I started but I got to about episode 50 or so and realized it was almost 4am. So, reluctantly I put the computer away. I'm trying to do everything else before I start up again because I know I won't be able to stop once I start. I'll have to watch Lydia's vlogs. I think she's hilarious! I saw the DFTBA logo but didn't realize Hank Green was involved in it. Now, that makes sense.

    I would love to have Lydia saying WHAAAAAAT as my text alert!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hank Green loves P&P!! I was so, so, SO happy when I heard he was doing something with it, because I knew he'd do it justice.

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  6. I read this post and immediately went to YouTube to check out an episode or two. Many hours later.....and I just finished episode 100! What a fantastic interpretation and amazing actors. I too loved the diversity of the cast, Lizzy's play acting, and the transformation of Lydia throughout the series. Brilliant!

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  7. I've seen 15 episodes so far. It's OK but not really my thing. I'm not sure I'll watch the rest of the series any time soon.

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