Catching Up with Emma Approved

So, now that’s been five months, I guess this is the point where I confess to you that I haven’t been doing a good job of following Emma Approved. I meant to! I honestly think what Pemberley Digital is doing is pretty interesting, and after my epic Lizzie Bennet Diaries catch-up, I promised myself that this was the time I’d stick with it.

And then…I didn’t. I’m currently twelve episodes in—a little less than a third of what’s currently out.

To some degree, this is not the fault of Pemberley Digital or anybody else, except myself: I am terrible at watching videos on the Internet, period. If you are not an awkward college-choir rendition of a choral piece I’m trying to learn, or a meme that everybody else went crazy over six months ago and I’ve been pretending to understand ever since, I probably am not watching you on the YouTube machine. I am trying to get better about this. Internet video: sometimes it’s fun!

But there ARE some choices on Pemberley Digital’s part that I think have helped me keep my distance. First of all, I have to say that the changed-names thing really threw me off. Back when we discussed EA for the first time, a commenter explained that they’d changed a few characters’ names so as not to overlap with characters in LBD: since the two series take place in the same universe, they didn’t want to have a George Knightley and a George Wickham. I get that, kind of; clarity is key, and I can see that picking other historical-sounding names also might not have been the best choice, either. But ALEX? ALEX KNIGHTLEY? It’s a small detail, but it makes me crazy. (Not, however, crazy enough that I didn’t exclaim over Mr. Knightley when I saw him in a car commercial the other day. Good on you, getting TV jobs!)

This brings me to some less-small details: primarily, what’s the deal with Miss Taylor? I see Annie’s value in terms of establishing Emma’s character, but her storyline in the series doesn’t come from the book; it doesn’t even serve a corollary function here. In the novel, the Taylor/Weston wedding is practically a footnote, and a minor bummer for Emma. In the series, Emma creates a circle of havoc trying (sucessfully) to make it happen when Miss Taylor has cold feet. In any case, isn’t Harriet’s story enough to let us know how Emma operates? I hear there are further plot deviations later, and I guess I can’t shake my fist about them until I’ve seen them. (Motivation!)

It’s not that I’m not enjoying what I’ve seen. I think Joanna Sotomura makes a great Emma, and I remain intrigued by the tie-in Internet presence (and surprised it hasn’t simply eaten Pinterest whole). I like Harriet and B-Mart (hee). I just…have concerns, I guess.

What about you all? Are you watching Emma Approved? What’s your take?

Emma…Approved?

Emma Approved, the new adaptation of Emma from the creators of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, premiered yesterday on YouTube. We’re exactly four minutes and twenty-four seconds in…which sounds like Judgmental Conjecture Time to me!

My first thought was, “…Do I like this person? I’m not sure that I do.” Which, of course, is the beating heart of Emma. I assume that I feel like giving her the side-eye because Emma Woodhouse is cutesy and self-important, and I’m watching an excellent portrayal of those elements of her personality, and not because the performance itself is cutesy and self-important. I reserve the right to change my mind. Much like Miss Woodhouse, I accept only the best from my webseries.

Not to generalize too much, but I wonder whether Emma isn’t also a slightly harder “get,” demographically.  In terms of Austen fans on the Internet, nerdy, goofy Lizzy Bennet is Our People, and Ashley Clements is Our People (if you don’t know this, you clearly are not Twitter-stalking her, as we are), and so it was easy to embrace her. Emma, aside from being a less wholly likeable character than Lizzy, is less Us than Lizzy. After all, who feels handsome, clever, and rich—or beautiful, clever, and brilliant, as it’s put here—on a daily basis?

Also, you guys, can we all agree that “beautiful, clever, and brilliant” is no “handsome, clever, and rich”? As with every time Jane brings up money—which was, oh, only ALL THE TIME—I think the “rich” part of Jane’s original equation is important. I miss it, and also I wish “clever and brilliant” were less redundant.

Anyway, all that said, I think their take on a modern Emma is spot-on. She’s a lifestyle blogger, because of course she is, and the Emma Approved tie-in website is perfect (check out the outfit roundup!), not to mention a brilliant marketing opportunity. The modernization of these stories is something I think these folks do really well—I keep going back to my deep relief that, in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Charlotte Lu got a job with Mr. Collins, and not a lifelong relationship built mostly on gardening; the shift makes perfect sense for the modern world without losing emotional heft. I look forward to seeing how they take on a particular mysterious pianoforte.

(I gotta say, though, the name changes totally take me out of it. That dude is adorable, but Alex Knightley? GIRL, PLEASE.)

One down, many many to go.