Highlights of Emma Approved & LBD
Ah. So. Lately my reading has been more about sword & sworcery fantasy.
For a break from that, I thought it’d be good to go back & look at some of the
highlights from Lizzie Bennet Diaries & it’s sister show Emma Approved.
(I tried watching some of their other shows; Frankenstein and Little Women,
but they’ve just not been worth watching. Sigh).
Emma Approved
I hadn’t known Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ before this series came out! I’d say Emma, at least as I understand her character, has to be a favourite of mine.
So, favourite videos from ‘Emma Approved’, in order-of-release:
#24. Elton clarifies to Emma that he digs her, while Emma thought Elton was after Harriet. But what I love most about this is the familiar intimacy Alex shares with Emma. Upset, she tries to hide her tears from Knightly; he notices she’s organising, and knows her so very personally to know what that means.
#47.
Elton comes in to belittle and bully Harriet. Alex shows up, and rescues
Harriet’s dignity.
<3
#64.
After Emma acted like a jerk at Boxx Hill, Jane comes in and gives her setdown.
(“I didn’t communicate how upset I was before, but now that I’m telling you,
it’s too late and nothing can be done about it.” Oh Jane, you’re totally not a
bitch at all). Sigh.
That aside, Alex comes in and puts Emma down as well. – I’ve
written previously that
they didn’t give enough credit to Emma here about this.
#68.
Harriet reveals that she likes Alex. Emma isn’t excited about that.
This is pretty catty. But the whole “Ha. Oh, wait, I wanna bonk Alex” thing is
fun.
#69. – My favourite, favourite thing about ‘Emma’ is that you have this fantastic, amazing, proud character who fucks up, realises they’re fallible, and then improves themselves. I don’t think “Emma Approved” quite gives justice to this aspect of Emma. Or maybe I enjoyed ‘Clueless’ a bit too much:
Everything I think and everything I do is wrong. I was wrong about Elton, I was wrong about Christian, and now Josh hated me. It all boiled down to one inevitable conclusion, I was just totally clueless. Oh, and this Josh and Tai thing was wigging me more than anything. I mean, what was my problem? Tai is my pal, I don’t begrudge her a boyfriend, I really… Ooh, I wonder if they have that in my size. What does she want with Josh, anyway? He dresses funny, he listens to complaint rock, he’s not even cute… in a conventional way. I mean, he’s just like this slug who hangs around the house all the time. And he’s a hideous dancer, I couldn’t take him anywhere. Wait a second, what am I stressing about? This is like, Josh! OK, OK, so he’s kind of a baldwin, but what would he want with Tai? She couldn’t make him happy. Josh needed someone with imagination, someone to take care of him, someone to laugh at his jokes… in case he ever makes any. Then suddenly…
Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Well, uh. Pride & Prejudice is always going to have that special place.
And the Lizzie Bennet Diaries did a pretty good job of it.
The videos with Lizzle, only Lizzie, are probably my favourite:
#7, “Most awkward dance ever”,
wherein Lizzie fantastically narrates the dance with Darcy. It’s adorable to
see Lizzie so flustered by Darcy’s insults.
#96, “Conversation with Myself”.
Utterly, totally adorable to see Lizzie in the costumes of her friends.
Also very cute:
#78, “The Lizzie Trap”,
referenced in the above video, which has Gigi Darcy acting all adorable.
#83, “Interview”, which has
Darcy costume as Fitz.
#15, with Charlotte and Jane hosting the videoblog. After Carter’s dinner/party. “Pleasure a pair of fine eyes”. (& Lizzie saying this in the next video!). But, also, the adorable:
Caro: Are you Fake texting? Darcy: It’s super important.
I’ve also gotta give credit to the first video, which takes a moment to examine the oh-so-famous first line of P&P. Particularly in terms of it’s hard to tell if Jane Austen is being serious or not about what she writes.