Andrew Davies' failure.

[deleted]

Davies does not hide his views on Austen's men in SnS.

Davies says:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/austen/davies.html

I think there are some big problems with the male characters in the book, the one who get the girls in the end. And I think these problems are there in the book. I think it's her least successful book, in a way. But it's easy to...well maybe not easy to fix... I think she should have done another draft. And what she should have done is make Edward more interesting. And the other thing she didn't do is convince me, at any rate, that Marianne, the very romantic one, could make the change from being passionately in love with Willoughby to being happily in love with Col Brandon. She never quite did that work in which we see Col Brandon winning her heart towards the end of the book. So there was work to be done on the men. In effect, what I felt I had to do was butch the men up a little bit.

I wrote for Edward quite a number of scenes where he's riding horses and being manly and being physical. And I actually wrote him a log splitting scene in which he takes his jacket off and really...it's like a scene out of a Western with a great big axe...to relieve his feelings. He [Edward] can never say what he feels because he's trapped in this engagement. So anyways, there he is splitting logs and Eleanor comes and finds him (and they look at each other as if to say) "Why are you doing that, there are servants to do that." "I like to do that it relieves my feelings." So that helped a lot, I think.

And with Col Brandon, I wrote a falconry scene in which he's got this great hawk coming down and clamping on his wrist and he strokes its feathers gently, so it shows power and gentleness at the same time. Just as Marianne is coming across the field to see him. And we're supposed to imagine he'll stroke her feathers tenderly like that, as well.

So I hope these things work...

Perhaps another part that was grating was the apology scene. NOT having known the book well, I, for a time, did not mind the apology scene. It flowed well with the Elinor's character as Davies wrote her. But as it turns out that he didn't write Austen's Elinor nor Austen's apology scene.

In the book, Elinor is truly affected by the apology scene. Look how it ends up. She forgives him, pities him, expresses concern for his happiness and even gives him gentle words of advice how to gain it, and shakes his hand. She was involved and listening to him. Shortly after that she's even contemplating the benefits if Mrs Willoughby would die! Despite the candid things Willoughby confides during the apology which might've put off someone else, Elinor was not put off. She scolds him at times, but hears and understands him. She even has a pleasant moment of thought when she recognizes why he is the way he is...the world made him that way by thrusting him adrift with too much money and too little guidance (or something like that). Regardless, in the end, she understands. THAT is why she pities him and forgives him. That is what Austen implied she told Marianne two weeks later that made Marianne weep, clutch and pant with emotion. That is why Mrs Dashwood felt sorry for him, felt him vindicated and wished him well. Elinor felt Willoughby had truly repented. He was selfish to be sure, but Elinor now understood why he was selfish.

But in the 08 miniseries, despite the opportunity and time to "do it right," Davies does it wrong. The apology scene he wrote bore no similarity at all to the one Austen wrote. His tells us nothing we didn't already know and discloses NOTHING significant about Elinor's personality. The apology scene was supposed to help us not only understand why Willoughby was the way he was, but also inform us further of who Elinor was. As I read the apology scene, I believe Willoughby was to act desperate, emotionally distraught, passionate and actually concerned. He was candid, not careful, in what he divulged. He was opening up as if to an older sister or some one he respected. It was critical. Now, of course this also means SnS95 failed in this regard because it didn't even try to include it. That IS a defect in the 95 version, IMHO. But, I'd rather it be left out than to include the travesty Davies inserted.

The earlier version did a credible job of the apology scene. In it Willoughby truly looks distraught and disheveled. He was an emotional wreck, Elinor listened. She even admitted later to Marianne that she did forgive him. So I got from that adaptation most of the essence of the book version. But nothing of that showed through in what Davies wrote and how the actors were directed to act.

You are explaining scenes to me again. You were not the director, you were not the screenwriter. Their work should be able to stand on it's own two feet without someone who had nothing to do with the production of the series trying, and failing to explain all the holes in the production.

As you have no idea of what ladies in 19th Century England did during their leisure time. I find it staggeringly beyond belief that you are telling me what they did and didn't do. Yes ladies went on picnics and gathered leaves/reeds/flowers/insects and fossils. They gathered seashells like Margaret is actually pictured doing in this series. They did all kinds of handicrafts and some gardened. The Royal Horticultural Society was established in 1804 and had lady members. Ladies read, played cards and musical instruments. They hunted and some were what was referred to as 'bruising riders'. They had a lot of time on their hands and they passed it doing things like that. I know all this because I visit the stately homes and I've seen the evidence. It's all still there, so do not tell me what ladies did to pass the time in the 19th Century. What they didn't do was beat carpets, and carpets were not slung across tree branches to be beaten in the first place.

And again you are explaining something that is not shown in anyway in the series as if you had actually seen and heard the explanation for Anne Steele's accent. You didn't see anything or hear anything in that series about that character's accent. You have your imagination and that's it. I don't find your imagination to be great exposition in the actual series.

_____________
I am the Queen of Snark, TStopped said so.