Death Comes To Pemberley - General Discussion

[roomtorome]

Great cast - dreadful writing and directing which produced lethargic and boring results, for me, anyway.  Good grief - this should be a lesson in how to squander talent on dreck.  

[magdalene]

This was very disappointing. I found Wickham and Lydia more compelling than this Darcy and Lizzie which just feels wrong to me. Zero chemistry between the leads. And the costuming was awful, especially for the leading lady.

 

I was completely confused too by the characterization of the colonel.

[shipmate]

I was also confused that Wickham has a sister but Darcy is unaware?

[Quilt Fairy]

I was also confused that Wickham has a sister but Darcy is unaware?

That made no sense at all. Wickham grew up at Pemberley, his family worked there (possibly for generations) but now there's a heretofore unknown sister? And I have to say, when Mrs. Younge was speaking of the 'strong bond of love' between her and Wickham, I got an unclean feeling from it. As in, if they really were brother and sister, there was some incest going on. Mrs. Younge's desire for Wickham's son Charlie also struck me as slightly off.

[peeayebee]

I also couldn't understand why Will - the guy who was dying and couldn't even get out of bed - was suddenly able to get to the front door, bash Capt. Denny with his stick and then run into the woods after him. Really? Really?!!

I thought he was ok at that point, but contributing to Denny's death filled him with guilt, esp when Wickham was accused, and that led to his wasting away. 

[kassygreene]

I just finished the book, which was disappointing enough.  It sounds like the "improvements" are even worse.  So I'm passing.

 

Too bad, this had a great cast and those lovely British production values.  But the book is pretty thin for P.D. James.  I'm going to rebook the three hours of my life I'd intended for this to something else - a rewatch of Lewis, probably.

[SomeTameGazelle]

I can't help but think my reaction to the ending wasn't supposed to be rolling my eyes at Lizzie's arrival to save Wickham, saying to myself, "Or course they save the aristocrat! " 

 

 

But -- Wickham isn't an aristocrat. He's not Darcy's social equal. He has no land. His father worked for Mr Darcy's father; his complaint against Mr Darcy is that Darcy Sr had intended to give him a "valuable living" in the church -- not a cash inheritance but a parish and an income.

 

In fact I thought Matthew Goode seemed far too patrician and haughty for the role. In P & P Wickham is supposed to be charming and easy to like.

 

I hated the book but I wanted to see if the TV adaptation was somehow more appealing. It looks fine but it's so joyless and humourless (except for the occasional mockery of Lydia and her mother)! The grim flashback to Darcy's insulting proposal to Lizzie just made me sad.

[dialyn]

I didn't mind the actress playing Elizabeth (though her wardrobe seemed sadly lacking in variety).  The point of Elizabeth in "Pride and Prejudice" (to me, a plain girl and now a plain woman) is that there could be other attributes to attract Darcy other than surface beauty and money (a radical notion for those times and, obviously, these times).  I think making her a standard beauty would undermine that message, and the actress herself is attractive in her own way.  If she isn't as witty as she could be, blame the writers and not the actress.  Darcy was stiff in "Pride and Prejudice" so any actor stuck with playing him has very little latitude with the character. I thought the actor who played Darcy in this version was pretty true to the character (and it seemed to me he loosened up as he went along). As for Lydia not advancing....there is a scene between Lydia and Elizabeth where Lydia not only gives awareness of how she appears but why she continues to act that way.  It is how she manages in the world,  and she pulls as much joy as she can despite having a husband who is thoroughly untrustworthy.  The mystery here was not very well developed, and I am not a fan of the way the reveal was managed (but I'm not a fan of P.D. James in the first place) but I don't have a problem with the casting.  I suspect no cast can compete with the images of the characters we carry in our heads.  Each to our own.

[backgroundnoise]

I will devour anything and everything associated with P&P, but I think very few adaptations or sequels deal with the fact that P&P was exquisitely funny.  Even Lydia's disgrace served up some hilarious moments from Mrs. Bennet.

 

This movie, like the Keara Knightly version, was so cheerless and dour, as if it had been an adaptation of a Bronte novel.

[psychoticstate]

I have not read P.D. James' book but I liked the concept.  I liked this miniseries well enough but I felt the actress playing Lizzie was so miscast that it bothered me in many scenes.  It's not her appearance - - although she looked SO much older than the 27 I've read Lizzie is supposed to be here.  It was her absolute lack of wit and charm and personality.  There was nothing about her that I thought would attract Mr. Darcy initially.  This Lizzie I could never imagine standing up to him as she did in P&P, nor to Lady Catherine.  I couldn't imagine a single zinger coming out of her mouth. 

 

On top of that, the way she was outfitted made her appear more a member of the staff or one of Pemberley's tenants than the lady of the manor.  Would Lizzie really wear the same freaking dress for days on end?  I don't think so.  Georgiana looked lovely (as we would expect) and even Lydia looked more put together. 

 

Speaking of which, the scenes of Lizzie with Lydia looked more like mother and daughter than sisters.  It was terribly distracting.

 

I liked Wickham as he did appear charming and rakish.  Darcy was fine here as I did see certain aspects of his character that Lizzie would have fallen in love with.

 

I hated what was done to Colonel Fitzwilliam, who came off as a brute and pompous asshole. 

 

Very little of Jane and no Bingley.  Was that true in the book?  I find it hard to believe that Lizzie would not have leaned on Jane more.  And where were Mary and Kitty?  Was any mention made of them? 

 

And no mention of Charlotte and Mr. Collins?  No way would Mr. Collins not wanted to be invited to Pemberley. 

 

Hmmm . . . although I liked it I guess I was more disappointed than I thought too.

[Rosemadder]

I know I have seen Darcy before--but where pray tell?

[ddawn23]

Very little of Jane and no Bingley. Was that true in the book? I find it hard to believe that Lizzie would not have leaned on Jane more. And where were Mary and Kitty? Was any mention made of them?

And no mention of Charlotte and Mr. Collins? No way would Mr. Collins not wanted to be invited to Pemberley.

It really would not have made sense for Mr. Collins, Charlotte, Kitty, or Mary to show up-- in person or in the narrative. As much as I adore Penelope Keith (and for all the terrible casting there is no one more perfect to play Lady Catherine de Bourgh than Audrey fforbes-Hamilton), Lady Catherine de Bourgh showing up was silly and contrived.

This is, after all, a work of fan fiction. And since shoehorning every! character! from the source material into the story is one of the cardinal sins of fanfic writing, I'm glad James had the wherewithal not to try.

[Quilt Fairy]

It really would not have made sense for Mr. Collins, Charlotte, Kitty, or Mary to show up-- in person or in the narrative

Kitty and Mary should have been invited to the ball, and had dinner with the family. To not mention them at all was very strange.

[kassygreene]

Yes, that's it - P. D. James writes a P&P fanfic.  It's not a very good PDJ, and it's not terribly good fanfic.  

 

There is a lot of exposition lifted nearly intact from P&P, which when it happens in "amateur" fanfic is a good indicator of lazy, if not inferior, writing.  

 

There is a massive personality change in Col Fitzwilliam, although as a fan-fiction reader of some forty years standing I can easily fanwank the Colonel's sudden elevation to heir and urgent need to marry and begat sons lest the title die with him being at war with a desire to stay in the army for the duration, i.e. until Napoleon is finished.  Since it's only 1803, that will take awhile, but since it's the British army during the Napoleonic wars, the idea that the heir would not sell out his commission and return home is not plausible - see any number of books by Georgette Heyer.  In my own experience, having unanticipated family obligations land squarely on your neck can and usually does change your demeanor.  But that's a lot of work I had to do while reading the book.

 

There is the slightly too scientific detecting going on.  I don't easily accept that proto-Sherlockian detection methodology existed pre-Doyle, and I seem to remember that Sir Robert Peel's bobbies were urban, and didn't exist for at least another thirty years.  Again I'm taken out of the story.

 

While I haven't watched it, I did view previews, and Trevor Eve is always Waking the Dead, which made his casting less inspired and more distracting.  I consider it stunt casting, although if I had been able to watch the series I might have had an easier time.  Since I started reading the book just before part 1 aired, I was stuck with envisioning the cast as the characters.

 

I could write (and did, and deleted) inarticulate screeds about this, but I'm reducing it to PDJ wrote a fanfic, probably a decade too late in her life - not knocking her, but she set a much higher standard with the entirety of her earlier works.  And then PBS/Masterpiece et al took the few gritty PD James elements in the book and apparently changed them - Lizzie stopping the hanging at the gallows?  The baby kept by its mother, on the estate?  I'm going by what I read here, but these people were tough 18th century Georgians, not treacly 19th century Victorians, and certainly not "Gothic" (old meaning, before black lipstick & nail polish) or sickly sentimental.

 

I'm just annoyed.  The book should have been better.  And it seems the production should have been better too.  

Edited November 4, 2014 by kassygreene

[M. Darcy]

 

I know I have seen Darcy before--but where pray tell?

Probably either from Brothers and Sisters or The Americans.  Or a few years ago on MT, he was in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

[treeofdreams]

Am I the only one who thought putting in a sex scene with Elizabeth and Darcy was not a good fit for a Jane Austen story?  I can't imagine her approving of such a thing!

[Tippi]

Colonel Fitz acted so creepy I thought for sure he was the killer.  Lizzie looked more like Demelza Poldark than what I expected the runner up to Jane Bennet in the family beauty sweepstakes to look like.  There wasn't much to the mystery at all; I wasn't very impressed with who the killer turned out to be since I could never figure out who he was anyway.

[peeayebee]

Am I the only one who thought putting in a sex scene with Elizabeth and Darcy was not a good fit for a Jane Austen story?  I can't imagine her approving of such a thing!

It did seem out of place, but at the end of the show when she told Darcy she was pregnant, I could see why they included the sex scene. However, it doesn't seem like enough time passed for her to known she was pregnant if it was from the sex we saw.

[Eliza422]

I've not read the book, but what was the dying guy dying of???

Edited November 5, 2014 by Eliza422

[attica]

That dread disease, Plot Device.  

[proserpina65]

Am I the only one who thought putting in a sex scene with Elizabeth and Darcy was not a good fit for a Jane Austen story?

 

It was, and, given what I've learned about sex in Georgian England (from research for my Horatio Hornblower fanfic - don't judge me.), Darcy got entirely too undressed for it.  Although at least Lizzie appeared to still be wearing her shift in the aftermath, so there's that anyway.

Edited November 5, 2014 by proserpina65

[CloverTracey]

I have been a fan of bbc productions for decades. This production a real clunker. Well, I guess everyone deserves a mulligan...

[JudyObscure]

I don't have to see a sex scene to know how Lizzie got pregnant and neither did Jane Austen's original audience.  Maybe we're dumber now.

 

 

Kitty and Mary should have been invited to the ball, and had dinner with the family. To not mention them at all was very strange.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the family invited everyone but Mary.  The family didn't mind standing silently while the younger girls ridiculed her for not being asked to dance and her father wasn't averse to embarrassing her in front of an entire party.  The two sets of sisters left her out of most things, and I was always surprised that the two older ones didn't seem to try to help "the only plain one," learn a few social graces.  Mary's treatment is the reason P&P is my least favorite JA novel.

[M. Darcy]

Mary did get a happy ending though - after her sisters left home she came more into her own.    And later, she married a clerk in her Uncle's law office (it was nice of JA to tell her family what happened to Mary and Kitty). 

[poeticlicensed]

I agree, this was a clunker. I'm not sure if it was the weak material, the casting, or a combination. Was it ever explained why Col. Fitzwilliam turned into Col. Dickhead? And part of what I love about Jane Austen is the relationships between her family members.I needed more Mrs Bennett and Lizzie's sisters. How convenient that the culprit should die moments after signing the confession. The sex scene just made me uncomfortable because it didn't fit. 

 

The only redeeming quality of the whole production was the house. The entryway and staircase were gorgeous, as were the grounds. 

[JudyObscure]

I always thought that, "clerk in a law office," thing was just another dig at Mary. Compared to military officers and landed gentry, that was a big step down. 

[Cranston]

Costuming was so unattractive it was distracting to me.  Of course, it was probably more authentic than, say, Downton Abbey's gorgeous outfits are. 

[Oinky Boinky]

I was also confused that Wickham has a sister but Darcy is unaware?

D'Arcy knew of the sister because apparently (and he states it) she was involved in the seduction of Georgina by Wickham.  She delivered her up or something.  Or do you mean prior to the Georgina seduction he didn't know about the sister. 

 

Who the heck was Julia - the babies mother?  Missed that.  

 

This type of ending and shoehorning in the obvious fringe character to be the murderer is the reason I won't read murder mysteries. 

[attica]

I don't believe Wickham and Mrs. Younge are actually blood-related. I think she was in love with him and accepted a sisterly role rather than none at all. That was my takeaway from the book, anyhoodle. I agree the show was less than clear on the subject.

[proserpina65]

D'Arcy knew of the sister because apparently (and he states it) she was involved in the seduction of Georgina by Wickham.  She delivered her up or something.  Or do you mean prior to the Georgina seduction he didn't know about the sister.

 

It's been awhile since I've read Pride and Prejudice, but my impression was that while Darcy knew about Mrs. Young's involvement in the elopement attempt, there was nothing to indicate that Mrs. Young was Wickham's sister.  That relationship seems to have been made up for Death Comes To Pemberly, presumably by P. D. James but possibly by the tv producers or writers instead.

[Primetimer]

Allison Lowe Huff and Tara Ariano ask the tough questions about the miniseries adaptation of P.D. James's Jane Austen-inspired Death Comes To Pemberley

Read the story

[Louise]

There was a lot of complaining about the casting on Masterpiece's Facebook page. I completely disagree with the criticism. Loved both actors as Darcy and Elizabeth. I have a major thing for Matthew Rhys, but I do wonder if I would be attracted to any reasonably handsome actor playing Darcy. My weakness is stern, British men.

[Ace Hansen]

I have to agree with the haters- I've watched the first installment and Matthew Rhys is really unattractive and he's also a charisma vacuum. Every time he enters a scene, it gets measurably more dull while he stand there glumly with that opossum-shaped hair nope on his head.

[Kat]

Fellow anglophile here!

I thought the casting was brilliant. But that's about all the compliments I can give regarding this mini-series.

Eh, that's not exactly right. I thought the acting was great; everyone did well with the story they were given.

I guess I wish I hadn't read the book (which I loved) first. The writers for the mini-series changed SO MANY THINGS.

I'm not talking about just cuts to make it fit into a 3-4 hour series; I don't care about the fact that they cut out most of the Jane stuff and that we had no Bingley; it was good that they made Alveston, Wickham's lawyer and cut out the nonsense with the priest.

My problems were the HUGE changes they made with the main characters in terms of manner, temperament, actions, and feelings.

Darcy and Elizabeth don't fight in PD James' book. They're loving and supporting of each other. Colonel Fitzwilliam was made out to be way more of an asshole in the miniseries than he was in the book. Also, in the book Georgiana does not accept his proposal! There is no proposal; Fitzwilliam just hints that he wants to make one.

Another big problem I had with the miniseries was that Elizabeth pretty much solves all aspects of the mystery single-handedly. Again, if I watched this without having read the book, I think I probably would've enjoyed this part. I love Anna Maxwell Martin, and it felt like they were working off of the Bletchley Circle success and deciding to put Elizabeth's character in the center of things, which, fine. But her taking Will Bidwell's confession, going to the judge, and then running through the crowd and up onto the excution platform to stop Wickham's hanging? Are you kidding me?! So ridiculous.

If they want Elizabeth and Darcy running around solving mysteries "McMillan & Wife" style, they should have adapted one of Carrie Bebris' awesome 'Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery' books instead. I'm totally on board for that to happen - those books are great and completely perfect for something like this.

[proserpina65]

Playing Darcy definitely didn't make Matthew Rhys sexy. Although, quite frankly, for me nothing would make him sexy. So much was wrong about this miniseries (I guess that would be the right thing to call it), it would be easier to list the only thing that was not wrong - the setting.
 

{oops - sorry for the double post}

Edited November 12, 2014 by proserpina65

[Marianne]

I guess I'm on board with the "haters" of the casting of Darcy and Eliizabeth. I think Matthew Rhys is moderately sexy in The Americans but not sexy at all here. And Anna Maxwell Martin has none of the spirit I identify with Lizzie. She seemed to the the same character she played in the Bletchley Circle. I think Jennifer Ehle has just spoiled me for any other actress in the role. Other than the two leads (!) I thought the casting was great, especially Lydia, Mrs. B, Wickham, and--not least--Colonel Fitzwilliam. I don't know where I've seen the actor who played Colonel F. but I found him very sexy. And Georgiana and Alveston looked like brother and sister.

I agree that the whole Lizzie-saves-the=day-after-a-midnight-ride was ridiculous.

I also wondered about the jury at the inquest. Even though it wasn't the trial proper, wouldn't the inquest jurors still be landowners or "peers" of Wickham?

[Sarah D. Bunting]

"And that head of hair doesn't hurt."

Except it does, as usual. Keratin, boyo. Get the knack.

[Athena]

It's been so long since I watched this since "I travelled to England" for it last Christmas.

 

I have to say, I do think I like the series more than the book too if only because I found the latter very boring. At least the adaptation had visuals, decent acting, and period piece costumes.

 

I enjoyed most of the casting. I didn't mind Rhys as Darcy, but I didn't like the fighting between him and Elizabeth. Very contrived. As for Martin, she's good, but I kinda felt she lacked the Lizzie spirit in a way. Yes, she's older, but I didn't really see Elizabeth there. Matthew Goode is dreamy as always. Jenna Coleman did her job well and impressed me a bit too. 

 

An OK miniseries. Nothing I'd rewatch again, but I've read better fanfiction than either the book or the series. 

[eprime]

I watched this several months ago on Youtube. I kept skipping over parts that bored me, but I I did enjoy it overall. I kind of hated the casting of Elizabeth and was meh on Darcy. But what I really hated was how Colonel F. came across. It just feels like their relationship with him is totally screwed now. Maybe it's a holdover from P&P fanfic, but he's almost always a staunch ally, and it makes me sad! :) I think Wickham and Lydia were well-cast. It was kind of jarring to see Georgiana get all shirty with Elizabeth in the one scene when they were talking marriage stuff. But I suppose that was her Darcy coming through.

[SusanSunflower]

Rhys and Martin did not feel "in synch" very much or very often in the first half, their clothes seems to constrict them, they often seemed tense and/or ill-at-ease. I do not remember finding Rhys handsome or attractive in the first half, but an acceptable (if slightly diminished by life) Darcy. I suspect -- with two able actors -- this was a deliberate directorial decision ... so they could come together, paving the way to a happy ending.

I adore Anna Maxwell Martin and felt very much that her costumers let her down by making her appear child-like or stick-like in figure and almost certainly freezing to death due to a lack of coverage. (No one would have found KK's Elizabeth Bennet "attractive" -- they would probably have assumed she consumptive and and anticipated her early death.)

Wickham and Lydia, in contrast, were dressed in well-tailored garments made of beautiful fabrics, only enhancing their "excessive" attractiveness -- Wickham was handsome and he was a charmer. P&P's Lydia was 'vivacious' but vacuous and immature and rather coarse. I think her qualities would have impeded Wickham's predatory ambition to move in and exploit whatever "better circles" might be at hand. Certainly, like Elizabeth, she was no extraordinary beauty and I would have expected in a "last seen" sense, the interval to have made unhappy changes to her countenance. Instead, she inexplicably became strikingly attractive and (somehow?!?) managed to continue studied denial of their genuine circumstances. Lydia, if she was generous and sensible (rather like Becky Sharp) could have been very popular among the circle of officer's wives, though Wickham's financial transgressions (gambling debts would have been whispered about) I think would and should have created periodic unhappiness and/or tension in the marriage. Lydia was born to be the big fish in a small pond, but to always be recognized as "inferior goods" by more elite society, no matter how many wives admired her husband's trim figure, turn of phase and easy smile. I really couldn't decide what Lydia's married life was like.

I laughed when all-but-forgotten (by me at least) cabin in the woods loomed in as a near deus-ex-machina ... but I love PD James and it provided a suitable and satisfactory ending.

[Al Lowe]

So, what I'm hearing here is: More Matthew Rhys for me? What can I say? I love a kinky-haired Welshman!

Edited November 8, 2014 by Al Lowe

[lark37]

 

 

I know I have seen Darcy before--but where pray tell?

 

Probably either from Brothers and Sisters or The Americans.  Or a few years ago on MT, he was in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

 

Matthew Rhys is a terrific actor in my opinion.  His portrayals of Edwin Drood and the main character in The Scapegoat were excellent, and he gets rave reviews from critics for his role as an Russian/American spy on The Americans.  I think the problem with this production was that the leads were ten years older than they should have been and had no chemistry together. Call me shallow but, but as others have said, I don't get Anna Maxwell Martin's appeal at all.  She seems to be a good actress and likely a wonderful person, but she's not attractive enough to be a sidekick character in most films/TV let alone be given the hard to live up to role of Elizabeth Bennett. These two actors had about as much chemistry as my dog and my neighbor's cat.  Also,  I agree about Lizzie's clothes and styling.  She didn't look any different in styling from Louisa who supposed to be her housemaid.  I haven't read this particular PD James book, although I'm a huge mystery fan and have read several of her other books.  I'll definitely not be reading this one.  I actually hate any author's attempts to recreate the world of Jane Austen.  There's another series of mysteries set in the P&P world that I have deliberately avoided for that reason.  I was looking forward to this, though, because of my love for period productions and Matthew Rhys and Matthew Goode, but this production was very disappointing and a waste of the talents of all involved.

[morakot]

PDJ wrote a fanfic, probably a decade too late in her life

 

I was so excited to read this book -- I've always loved P D James and her three-dimensional characters, and Austen has been a favorite for many, many years -- so I had high hopes. The book was an awful disappointment -- it was turgid and dull, with cardboard cutouts for characters, and a boring plot. At least the show has given me things to look at, and the actors are breathing some much needed life into the characters, but it's... not great.

[kassa]

The actress is capable, so I told myself to get over the lack of fine eyes and just deal with it, then spent the second episiode wondering why, with all of Pemberly's wealth and glory about her, Mrs. Darcy wouldn't brush her hair for a week.

 

It had to be some kind of choice, because Lydia and Georgiana and all the servants looked perfectly kempt.  So were we supposed to think "Ah, Mrs. Darcy is one of us!" or something?  I wanted to hand her a comb and some VO5.

[lucindabelle]

Th was good comfort tv. But all kinds of period details made no sense or were just wrong. I like Anna maxwell Martin but she did seem a bit old for Lizzie.ll because she is. And I can't help thnking of sparkly, busty jennifer ehle. A big bust was considered quite lovely... Without it those Georgian gowns really do a woman no favor. So here anna looked just wrong.

Lydia intrigued with her scene in which she revealed she knows more than she lets on.

[kassa]

Responding to question from upthread, Wickham was not a gentleman's son, but he was an officer, and in James' spin on it, a highly decorated one.  So not gentry, but definitely far higher ranking than the other dudes on the gallows, most of whom had their hair done by whoever did Mrs. Darcy's.

 

I'm not well enough acquainted with Regency social rules to know whether a regimental officer was equal or superior in social rank to a lawyer like Mr. Gardner, or a merchant (?) like Mr. Phillips.

[dcalley]

Very little of Jane and no Bingley.  Was that true in the book?  I find it hard to believe that Lizzie would not have leaned on Jane more.

There was more Jane in the book, if I'm remembering correctly. Lizzie wanted her as a go-between with Lydia.

 

D'Arcy knew of the sister because apparently (and he states it) she was involved in the seduction of Georgina by Wickham.  She delivered her up or something.  Or do you mean prior to the Georgina seduction he didn't know about the sister.

Darcy saw her in the courtroom and asked who she was. That's when he found out she was Wickham's sister.

 

The red letters at the end of the second episode: assize.

 

Seeing Anna Maxwell Martin solving the mystery just made me miss The Bletchley Circle.

[HouseofBeck]

Just thinking about this miniseries again--I did enjoy it, putting aside all I could of odd characterizations (I haven't read the book, and from previous comments, I don't think I will rush toward it). Lizzie grew on me. I loved Georgiana and Henry. Yet who comes to mind the most was magistrate Hardcastle, whom I wrote off at first as a slimy bastard and then bam, I realized the dude knows his stuff. I became full of admiration and want to see him/the actor himself again. And the inquest was hilarious.

I wasn't sure and need to look this up: Were these at all the same actors from an actual P&P? The above comments make me think they aren't, it was just that Masterpiece seemed to imply this was a sequel following directly on a specific P&P. I have not kept up on all of them, alas.

Edited November 13, 2014 by HouseofBeck

[Milburn Stone]

Whatever other anachronisms there were, nothing bothered me so much as Lizzy running up the scaffold crying "Stop the hanging!" Shit like that you might expect from an American screenwriter writing for a least common denominator American audience. But English writers writing for an English audience? For shame.

 

I'm not arguing, but I don't understand. As she's running up to the scaffold with the judge to try to stop the hanging, what should she say other than "Stop the hanging!"? Seems like directness is called for in a situation like that.

 

I did enjoy the mini-series. Especially Trevor Eve as Hardcastle, whom I don't think I've ever seen before in anything.

 

Will anyone be able to relate when I say that for some reason, this seemed to me like a three-episode version of The Avengers (the one with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg) transplanted to another era? I mean this as a compliment. Something about the way the mystery really kept me guessing, and then resolved in a way I could never predict but made logical sense. Just the right amount of convoluted without leaving me going "Wait...what?" Meanwhile, Darcy and Elizabeth seemed at times like an earlier-day Steed and Peel, while some of the secondary characters (notably Wickham, Lydia and Fitzwilliam, as played by Goode, Coleman and Ward) would have been right at home in that show.

Edited November 13, 2014 by Milburn Stone

[proserpina65]

Whatever other anachronisms there were, nothing bothered me so much as Lizzy running up the scaffold crying "Stop the hanging!" Shit like that you might expect from an American screenwriter writing for a least common denominator American audience. But English writers writing for an English audience? For shame.

I'm not arguing, but I don't understand. As she's running up to the scaffold with the judge to try to stop the hanging, what should she say other than "Stop the hanging!"? Seems like directness is called for in a situation like that.

 

Lizze shouldn't be running up to the scaffold yelling anything.  She presented the confession to the judge; it was up to him to stop the hanging.  The exectioners wouldn't have paid the slightest bit of attention to her, as she had absolutely no authority whatsoever.  That scene was all very bad Victorian melodrama at its worst.