Sanditon - episode 1
Aug. 26th, 2019 12:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI am so far behind on Poldark that I’ll catch up with it in my own time, finale or no.
So, ITV are airing an adaptation of Sanditon, started by Jane Austen but mostly made up by Andrew Davies. I read the novel completed by ‘A Lady’ years ago, which I didn’t like, not seeing much of Austen in it. I don’t even know if I kept the copy.
Anyway, this is fun, even if it borrows too much from Davies’s past work and you have to think of it as Austen…adjacent instead of the dark surprise that was ‘Love and Friendship’. (I WOULD LOVE LOVE LOVE TO HAVE SEEN ANNE REID’S CATHERINE DE BOURGH, UNIVERSE.)
We have an ingénue of a heroine. Charlotte is introduced hunting with a gun, which is…unexpected in an Austen heroine. At first, she seemed like Catherine Morland mixed with Kitty Bennet, and in danger of being a Lydia, but she listened to her dad. Through her, we were introduced to Sanditon, a created seaside resort venture and its denizens, some of whom were not what they seemed to be, some of them were weird, and one or two seemed to think they were in a Regency Agatha Christie thing. The actress played our eyes and ears nicely, more innocent than us, but not without sense to judge what she was taking in.
Feminism falls on Charlotte’s side, because how very dare Sydney of talking down to a woman who is more or less confined to the domestic sphere (Lady Denham seems to be the only woman not thanks to having married into a fortune). Okay, she’d been overly frank about his family, but you can’t judge a woman on the same grounds as men when she’s so not given the same opportunities. (Nonetheless, he might as well be called Darcy, for all the differences. Theo James is easy on the eye, even if the Parkers don’t look like they’re related, and he’s more relaxed than he was in the Divergent series because he’s clearly not Concentrating Very Hard on His Accent.)
Kris ‘BT ads/Death in Paradise’ Marshall plays the property developer (who seems nice really) desperate for Sanditon to be a success. He made a good impression at first, his relationship to Lady Denham a touch Collins to her de Bourgh. Even when the script lumbers her with exposition, Anne Reid is terrific as the doyenne and no. 1 investor in the venture. Mrs Parker seems like the most sensible person (apart from in the matter of footwear, I mean the blue boots were pretty, but Charlotte’s feet were so going to be blistered.)
The promised ‘scenes of a sexual nature’ and ‘nudity’ that weren’t in Austen’s mind when she embarked on this project emerged. It got a bit Carry on Sea Bathing, which seems typical for Davies. Interesting that the bathers the ladies wore seemed to be in the same colours as the Handmaidens wear. And then there was the Forehead (Sir Edward) and the Chin (Miss Esther), and Davies seemed to be repeating his War and Peace trick of inserting sibling incest, while the Forehead flirted with Charlotte until everyone warned her off, and forced Clara into those scenes of a sexual nature. Clara, is being played by Hannah from Summer of Rockets, who looked better as a redhead.
I liked the use of carriage back windows, and the introduction of characters via vigorous carriage rides was…typical Davies. The seaside location and inorganic Sanditon make for an interesting backdrop for a comedy of manners (woe that Austen could not write it out herself). The episode built up to the ball, which was luscious (but also reminiscent of W&P).
Enter Miss Lamb (ooh, they’ve cast an actress of colour) who had unfriendly history with Sydney. And even if we hadn’t clocked the fact that he doesn’t seem to be a grasping sex-addict perv (that’s good) and is loyal to his family (also good), Sydney did the decent thing and danced with our heroine, though I then overthought ‘IS THAT AN ANACHRONISTIC WALTZ? HOW FAST!’ while giggling at James’s head movements. And then Clara danced twice with the same man. FAST. And the last, hand-clappy dance was just weird, but I had stopped snarking so hard after the second ad break (after cracking Scarlet Pimpernel and Virginia Woolf jokes) because Charlotte seemed to have a decent core while her innocence did play off well against others. It also helps me not think of that Ghosts send-up of period dramas that I don’t have very strong feelings about this unfinished piece of Austen, so I’m not coming to this fanfiction as adaptation already worked up.
So, ITV are airing an adaptation of Sanditon, started by Jane Austen but mostly made up by Andrew Davies. I read the novel completed by ‘A Lady’ years ago, which I didn’t like, not seeing much of Austen in it. I don’t even know if I kept the copy.
Anyway, this is fun, even if it borrows too much from Davies’s past work and you have to think of it as Austen…adjacent instead of the dark surprise that was ‘Love and Friendship’. (I WOULD LOVE LOVE LOVE TO HAVE SEEN ANNE REID’S CATHERINE DE BOURGH, UNIVERSE.)
We have an ingénue of a heroine. Charlotte is introduced hunting with a gun, which is…unexpected in an Austen heroine. At first, she seemed like Catherine Morland mixed with Kitty Bennet, and in danger of being a Lydia, but she listened to her dad. Through her, we were introduced to Sanditon, a created seaside resort venture and its denizens, some of whom were not what they seemed to be, some of them were weird, and one or two seemed to think they were in a Regency Agatha Christie thing. The actress played our eyes and ears nicely, more innocent than us, but not without sense to judge what she was taking in.
Feminism falls on Charlotte’s side, because how very dare Sydney of talking down to a woman who is more or less confined to the domestic sphere (Lady Denham seems to be the only woman not thanks to having married into a fortune). Okay, she’d been overly frank about his family, but you can’t judge a woman on the same grounds as men when she’s so not given the same opportunities. (Nonetheless, he might as well be called Darcy, for all the differences. Theo James is easy on the eye, even if the Parkers don’t look like they’re related, and he’s more relaxed than he was in the Divergent series because he’s clearly not Concentrating Very Hard on His Accent.)
Kris ‘BT ads/Death in Paradise’ Marshall plays the property developer (who seems nice really) desperate for Sanditon to be a success. He made a good impression at first, his relationship to Lady Denham a touch Collins to her de Bourgh. Even when the script lumbers her with exposition, Anne Reid is terrific as the doyenne and no. 1 investor in the venture. Mrs Parker seems like the most sensible person (apart from in the matter of footwear, I mean the blue boots were pretty, but Charlotte’s feet were so going to be blistered.)
The promised ‘scenes of a sexual nature’ and ‘nudity’ that weren’t in Austen’s mind when she embarked on this project emerged. It got a bit Carry on Sea Bathing, which seems typical for Davies. Interesting that the bathers the ladies wore seemed to be in the same colours as the Handmaidens wear. And then there was the Forehead (Sir Edward) and the Chin (Miss Esther), and Davies seemed to be repeating his War and Peace trick of inserting sibling incest, while the Forehead flirted with Charlotte until everyone warned her off, and forced Clara into those scenes of a sexual nature. Clara, is being played by Hannah from Summer of Rockets, who looked better as a redhead.
I liked the use of carriage back windows, and the introduction of characters via vigorous carriage rides was…typical Davies. The seaside location and inorganic Sanditon make for an interesting backdrop for a comedy of manners (woe that Austen could not write it out herself). The episode built up to the ball, which was luscious (but also reminiscent of W&P).
Enter Miss Lamb (ooh, they’ve cast an actress of colour) who had unfriendly history with Sydney. And even if we hadn’t clocked the fact that he doesn’t seem to be a grasping sex-addict perv (that’s good) and is loyal to his family (also good), Sydney did the decent thing and danced with our heroine, though I then overthought ‘IS THAT AN ANACHRONISTIC WALTZ? HOW FAST!’ while giggling at James’s head movements. And then Clara danced twice with the same man. FAST. And the last, hand-clappy dance was just weird, but I had stopped snarking so hard after the second ad break (after cracking Scarlet Pimpernel and Virginia Woolf jokes) because Charlotte seemed to have a decent core while her innocence did play off well against others. It also helps me not think of that Ghosts send-up of period dramas that I don’t have very strong feelings about this unfinished piece of Austen, so I’m not coming to this fanfiction as adaptation already worked up.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-26 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 08:17 pm (UTC)Must admit I noticed the beautifully cut grass for the coach and four to drive along by the coast, and how the horses, despite still being driven too fast weren't sweating in the least by the time they arrived.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 07:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 12:33 am (UTC)I haven't read the Austen book/chapters yet so my only prior exposure of Sanditon was through the web series from the Lizzie Bennett Diaries people. Will have to go and check out the original material even if it represented only the first part of this episode.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 08:00 am (UTC)Was what the LBD team did with Sanditon worth watching? I liked the LBD, but as I wasn't that fussed about Sanditon as published, I never followed it up.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 12:52 pm (UTC)It might make more sense now if I go back to LBD version and rewatch it. What they did was have Gigi Darcy go to Sanditon (Georgiana Darcy instead of Charlotte). It was a pretty short webseries and I don't remember if they decided to resolve Austen's unfinished plot with their own.