Sanditon Group Read: Fabulous Followup!

Although most of us have only seen the combined episodes 1 & 2 of Sanditon so far, that’s all we need to go ahead with our Followup.

These Sanditon Group Read posts have focused on Jane Austen’s 12 chapters, and the show has already breezed through that material. Swish! If you nodded off for a moment, you might have missed it. That’s not necessarily a criticism. Novels and television shows are very different mediums, so a perfect translation from one to the other isn’t possible. And since Austen’s chapters only set the stage for what would follow, it’s natural that the producers of the mini-series would want to cover that material as expeditiously as possible in order to get to the heart of the action.

It was interesting, though, to see what was cut for the show and what was left in. The carriage accident was handled differently, but with appropriate humor and irony, I thought. The Parkers’ time with the Heywoods was, pretty understandably, abbreviated. And Mr. Parker’s mission to find a doctor, which Austen made much of in her chapters, was mentioned only in passing. Even Mr. Parker’s hypochondriac siblings seem to be present just for comic relief. Another thing that didn’t make the cut was the Parkers’ old house and old life  (along with Mrs. Parker’s regrets) versus the new.

It’s possible that these Austen themes (genuine illness versus hypochondria, treasuring the old versus ambitions for something shiny new and supposedly better) may be brought in later. But my guess is that they’ve been largely omitted because that’s not what interested screenwriter Andrew Davies. That’s not the direction he decided to take the story.

Although we know Andrew Davies is very capable of writing a classic Jane Austen adaptation, true to her themes and sensibilities (the beloved Pride and Prejudice 1995 the prime example), that’s not what he’s done here. With Sanditon,  he seems to have been aiming more for the Downton Abbey model instead: a multi-season, prime-time soap opera with family tension, illicit sex, greed, ambition, betrayal, etc.). Again, depending on your tastes, this isn’t necessarily a negative (We all loved Downton Abbey, right?); it’s just not very Jane Austen.

Sanditon is well cast, imo, and the cinematography is good quality. There are of course the usual anachronisms that seem to crop up in every modern adaptation of a period piece done lately (questionable choices for hairstyle, wardrobe, music, dances, etc.), but I try not to get hung up on the details. Most jarring to me were a couple of instances where characters do and say things that just don’t seem believable. Would a lady trained to move in polite society, no matter what her private sentiments, ever say in public the things Lady Denham said to and about Miss Lamb at the luncheon supposedly given in the girl’s honor? Would a man brought up to be a gentleman really lower himself to be as rude and crude as Sidney Parker has so far behaved to Charlotte?

The tact and subtleties of Jane Austen are discarded and gone.

It’s all about expectations, really. If you’re expecting true Jane Austen, Sanditon can’t help but disappoint. If you can set that expectation aside and think more Downton Abbey, you can probably enjoy this series for what it is. It is a piece of JAFF. (With an unfinished novel completed by someone else, it’s impossible it could be anything else!) And when it comes to JAFF, there are as many interpretations as there are authors – as well as consumers with very different tastes. What one person adores, another may think atrocious, and vise versa.

“One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.” (Emma)

One caution, though. The most basic ingredient we expect from any Jane Austen story is a happy ending for the heroine, and rumor has it we won’t get that here. I haven’t seen the whole series yet, but I know many people who have are fuming mad about how it finishes. (Again, I can’t help thinking of Downton Abbey and how angry/betrayed we felt when they killed off Matthew!) Perhaps the crisis, whatever it is, was meant to be resolved in the second season, but now that may never come. The second season has been cancelled in the UK (although I read that they might go ahead with it for the US audience if ratings are favorable enough). So be forewarned.

With my expectations in check, I intend to keep watching for now. What about you? What do you think of the show so far? Do you love it, hate it, or feel ambivalent about it, and why? I don’t really want to see this discussion degenerate into a bash-the-show fest, so please be respectful. Mention the pluses along with any minuses. And there are some very nice pluses, after all. If nothing else, Sanditon does give us Theo James.

Leave your comments below. *** NO SPOILERS, PLEASE! ***