I watched 'Sanditon' a year or two ago when it was live streaming on PBS online, more out of curiosity than for anything else. Then when Jane Austen's unfinished novel became an unfinished mini-series, I thought it rather ironic and moved on with my life. Then my husband left for a two week trip legally requiring me to binge watch Jane Austen or other movies based on classic novels: Jane Eyre, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, all those shows he only watches when forced, but one of the kids is currently going through a 'has an anxiety attack the minute I go downstairs to watch anything' phase, I hope it's a phase, so much for that idea. Being stuck upstairs with a computer, my choices were rather limited since we don't subscribe to any streaming services, but I happened by PBS's website just to see what might be interesting, perhaps Father Brown was still being produced? Only to find that Sanditon had been renewed for two seasons and the premier was coming up and you could livestream the first season the whole week, binge watching it was!
The first season, upon second viewing, was actually pretty good, especially when I reviewed the source material they had to work with. So I was rather looking forward to the new season, so much so that I threw a Jane Austen party in anticipation, it was only me and the kids and some stuff we had around the house, but it was fun and gave us something to do while daddy's gone. And last night it premiered, and all I can say is I feel like I've been run over by a freight train composed of every classic novel ever written with a hearty dose of progressive agenda to make it even more painful. Just a note to the BBC, people don't watch period dramas to get yet another taste of 'wokeism,' they like the stories, the characters, the settings and costumes and music, don't we get enough liberal approved worldview lectures from every other form of media every other minute of the day? Do you have to ruin Jane Austen too? I guess Amazon is doing the same thing with Tolkien so why should this surprise me? This wasn't quite as bad as the transgender ball featured in an episode of the Netflix Anne of Green Gables remake but it is only the first episode. Also, don't pull a Spiderman 3 and have 27 plot lines going on at once which might take 50 separate episodes to resolve or The Hobbit and make an epic out of a children's novel.
Basically, every character now has their own modern socially approved plot to pursue while also following a plot line stolen from other Austen works or classic novels. There is no more cohesive story, no more character growth or interaction, the whole thing seems to be devolving into an infomercial for various modern causes and concerns: a modern sitcom in period clothing. So here's the plot thus far along with the characters' alter egos from other classic movies/books, obviously there are spoilers ahead:
We start with a soap opera-esque murder of Mr. Sydney Parker in Antigua and slip briefly into Mansfield Park mode with a dash of Father Brown. It was bad enough when he basically married for money last season and was going away forever, now you have to kill the guy too, definitely a soap opera! Now we have Charlotte and her sister Allison going back to visit Sanditon, but instead of mourning her lost lover, Charlotte has decided to renounce marriage altogether and become a governess after about two days back in town, uh huh? So Jane Eyre/Charlotte goes off to hang with Mr. Rochester and his trans-daughter and early feminist niece while Allison stays in town and somehow manages to be both a Lydia Bennett (a whole camp full of soldiers!) and a Charlotte Lucas (mercenary marriage here we come) and later even shows her Marianne side by having an accident only to rescued by a cute guy, but Elenor/Charlotte is off at Thornfield Hall hoping there aren't any mad wives lurking about.
Meanwhile, Miss Lambe is going all Amazing Grace and boycotting the sugar trade to oppose slavery, which at least is a realistic subplot for the era, but sadly I must agree with Lady Denham and wonder what good it will do for this jumped up fishing village to protest thus, sort of like modern activists thinking their social media posts actually do something productive! Just go watch Amazing Grace instead, it is a far better movie and exploration of the subject.
Then we have Edward turned soldier who has brought his whole regiment to Sanditon for the summer, not telling them that his real name is Wickham and he doesn't have any money and wants to get revenge on the evil rich people that ruined his life. While his stepsister is apparently doing a horrible job trying to make us all feel sorry for the plight of women at the time whose only value is as baby machines or maybe it's a nod to the 'infertility community' or something, but whatever it is supposed to be, it is dreadful. Esther was an interesting character last season, warm hearted but wounded, manipulated and desperate but fierce and strong willed but suddenly she's all 'I want to give my husband a baby' even if she dies for it, deciding she has no value whatsoever without a child? Maybe we're just wandering into the Soap Opera weeds again as apparently everybody needs a plot line.
Then we have Lady Denham complaining that she isn't invested enough in Sanditon when she couldn't be bothered to help out during last season's various disasters and set backs which makes no sense, not that anything does at the moment, but apparently if she's that concerned about it, why doesn't she just repay a little bit of that owed to Mrs. Campion? They shipped off Mr. Stringer and Lord Babbington apparently, some of the best characters in the batch. Tom Parker seems to be a minor character this season, another interesting character benched. His other brother, who is so memorable I can't think of his name at the moment, is probably going to be the token gay character. Lord Byron is also in town, guised as an eccentric and temperamental artist. Dr. Fuchs is back but I don't know if it is a different actor or just a poor scene, but he is hardly the bold, polite, quirky little German dude of last season, he's bland as lukewarm tea and about as interesting as a chorus member in a greek tragedy. The pedantic reverend now has a strident sister, apparently we need not one but two bumbling, backwards, retrogressive token christians. Anybody else feel like this season is full of 'token' representatives instead of actual unique characters? And there certainly isn't any unique or interesting plot going on. I guess they'll get a black out on their progressive agenda bingo card but as far as making a good story, I'm afraid they should have left it at one season and leave the rest to our imaginations. There's just too much going on, the characters are taking a backseat to agenda, and I'm starting to feel like the entire show is a Mr. Collins for the progressive movement's Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and we all know how much people like to hang out with him for any length of time: desperation makes people do funny things but anything short of that and they'll flee the room in droves!
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