TV Review - Lost in Austen
Fans of Pride and Prejudice will Relish in This new Mini-Series
Apr 28, 2009
Lost in Austen, a four part mini-series loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, a classical novel by Jane Austen, has had rave reviews ever since its first episode aired on ITV on September 3, 2008, gaining 4.2 million viewers. The remaining episodes which were aired on a weekly basis, thereafter, were received with the same fanfare. Critics pronounced the first episode to the dazzling mini series to be "...a funny, clever breeze...It is a culture-clashing, time-clashing Walnut Whip of frothy nonsense with the intriguing proposition that Amanda may be able to change the outcome of her fictional touchstone."
Episode 1 of Lost in Austen
In episode one to Lost in Austen, we meet Amanda Price, a regular Londoner in modern day Hammersmith. She is infatuated with Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. In love with the love story, Elizabeth Bennett, the manners, language, and courtesy—it’s basically who she is and who she wants to be. When she opens the novel, she escapes into a whole new world, a world of Darcy and a whole different standard of living. But for now she must make due with her ‘unromantic’ boyfriend, Michael, and his rather hapless drunken proposal.
One night while deeply engrossed in her novel, Amanda hears strange noises coming from the other room. To her surprise she finds Elizabeth Bennett nosing around in her bathroom. Elizabeth explains that she had stepped through a ‘secret doorway’. Curious, Amanda steps through this doorway and finds herself inside the Bennetts home, Longbourn, at the beginning of the novel.
Amanda finds herself trapped in this ‘fictional’ world. Meanwhile Elizabeth Bennett, a fictional character, is walking around in 21st century London. Amanda is trying to keep the original plot of the story on track, but try as she might to salvage the original story things just end up all wrong.
For instance, Mr. Charles Bingley winds up fancying Amanda instead of Jane. What follows is a shocking kiss at a ball where Amanda drunk and confused makes the worst mistake she could’ve made. Darcy and Amanda also had just first met, where they had a disastrous first dance, and Amanda gets snubbed by the ever unbearable Darcy.
Episode 1 leaves us with Amanda chasing after Jane. After giving her instructions to leave on horseback to Mr. Bingley’s house, where in the story, Bingley finally does what he is supposed to, fall in love with her. But with bad weather on the horizon, Jane gets caught up in a storm. Amanda learns that this may give Jane a fatal attack of the croup, and runs after to save her.
Actors
Jemima Rooper stars as Amanda Price, Alex Kingston plays the silly and pushy Mrs. Bennet, Huge Bonneville, the obtuse and sarcastic Mr. Claude Bennet, and Elliot Cowan as the ever rude and unbearable Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Fans of Pride and Prejudice will find themselves comparing Lost in Austen to the classical novel. Although the plot does get skewed from the original, the cast and crew have done a great job making this period piece happen. Depicting a meta-fictional world where things get skittered around by a modern age woman, this witty and moving mini-series has the chops to forge a liaison between old and new modern day fans.
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