Lost in Austen Episode Two
Gentle Readers in the UK, let us know what you think of the second episode of Lost in Austen (or feel free to liveblog–post comments during the broadcast–if you like.)
Professor Kathryn Sutherland wrote a bit about LiA in The Guardian:
I don’t mind if Elizabeth stays out of it, but I wonder how she will cope with the 21st century. What happens when she goes into Boots for some birch twigs to clean her teeth?
She’ll probably just ASK FOR A TOOTHBRUSH. (Bring the dead horse over here and let us beat it some more! more! more!)
I’m worried about how they will deal with the deeper parts of the novel – the relationship between Jane and Mr Bingley, and Lydia’s elopement with Wickham.
Erm…clearly somebody hasn’t read the spoilers. 
Thanks to Alert Janeite Laurel Ann for the link!
Comments are closed.
Those impatient to see how the story develops can take a peek at the preview trailer for today’s episode:
I can’t help but notice a certain draculean air in the appearance of Mr. Collins… At least he’s tall enough, this time.
I fear they are alert this time and we might not be able to watch this week’s episode, because they won’t even allow the trailer link posted by Hunsford Parson.
There goes my chance of ever watching it, because buying the DVD is out of question.
What do you mean by ‘they won’t allow’? ITV? YT?
The trailer link has been there for a week. At this time I don’t think they even bother, considering what free publicity they’ve gained through the YT links.
“Mr Zeal of the Lord Collins!”! So much to discuss and so much to argue about but it is wonderful – better than episode 1, I think! Very witty. Love the cast- and Wickham is very interesting indeed!
No! That cannot happen!! But it happened!! (Jane is married – to COLLINS!)
I will have to lie down. But I cannot wait to see how that is resolved!
(it will be resolved, won’t it? She can’t stay married to him can she? And Charlotte’s becoming a missionary?
Here are some scenes with Mr. Collins from this episode:
Agree with Hunsford Parson–they’d be really dopey to pull these because it’s the only way a lot of us will see them, and possibly purchase the DVDs.
A preview of episode 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eln7LyT4Jg
ITV is missing a great marketing opportunity by preventing those outside the UK from being able to watch the behind-the-scenes bits. If they are doing the same with the YT videos, they’re are compounding their dullness. It makes me less desirous of buying their DVD one day. Hope someone at ITV reads this.
(Just had to express that.)
Two quotes that my viewing party died laughing at:
Bingley’s line, “punting the boat from the Cambridge end” in reference to Miss Price’s “lesbian preferences”
and
one of the women saying, “behind as a duck’s tail-feathers”
I am still in shock at Jane’s marriage to Collins. Creepy man who touches himself and sniffs his fingers. ::shudder:: uuuuuuughggh.
But overall, interesting twists in the story and I’m excited to see where it goes!
Gentle readers, I have the pleasure to announce that the horse has left the barn again:
I assume the other parts won’t be far behind…
Episode 2 part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSasqMkE3sA
Thanks for posting it, Sylwia. I just tried to do it myself, but I keep running into the spam filter here at AustenBlog and I have no idea why.
Probably because you’re posting a lot. Don’t take it personally.
I rescued everything and deleted the doubles. If you get caught in the spam filter, don’t try hitting the button again, it just makes it worse. (You can call the spam filter “Hal.”)
Well. I like Bingley. Darcy still looks like he ate a bug.
The rest of the episode is up, but search “LIA episode 2″ instead of the full “Lost in Austen”
Lyndsay,
I just tried typing in LIA episode 2 in right not, but nothing came up. Did it work for anyone else?
I’m an idiot, that wasn’t quite right. Here, I’ll be less lazy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CIctYWI50E
Ahhh! Thanks so much for the link Lyndsay – I was completely daft and forgot that I should have put it in code as E2 instead of Episode 2. Off to watch!
I did enjoy Amanda telling Caroline that she had “27,000 a year”, and then Caroline gleefully repeating that to Mrs. Bennett.
Just in case you’ve missed any of the episodes, itv is doing catch-up online (only available for 29 days)
got somewhat annoyed when my sky plus box refused to play the 2nd episode 19 mins into it!
http://www.itv.com/CatchUp/Programmes/default.html?ViewType=1&Filter=1839
Probably because you’re posting a lot. Don’t take it personally. I rescued everything and deleted the doubles. If you get caught in the spam filter, don’t try hitting the button again, it just makes it worse. (You can call the spam filter “Hal.”)
“I’m sorry, Hunsford Parson, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Oh dear. Thanks for clearing it up & sorry for causing you any trouble, Mags. I’ll try to restrain myself and not jeopardize this mission, er… I mean Austenblog. LOL
- – -
However. I really have to admit i’m starting to like the series! I’m still not very fond of Amanda but she’s growing on me. The singing bit was just great. And Jane’s wedding kiss was probably the single most gruesome thing ever to happen in a Jane Austen adaptation. Hilariously horrible!
“It was badly done, Bingley, badly done!” Great quote!
What about this episode’s ratings? Have any numbers been published yet?
Don’t know the rating, but it’s in a very tough slot in the UK up against “Who Do You Think You Are” which is massively successful. Beats me as to why it isn’t on a Sunday evening. The kiss was hilariously horrible!
Second ‘Lost in Austen’ was even better than the first. I totally cracked up at Amanda’s ‘fortune’ of £27000 a year.
! agree that Mr Collins was draculean, and his finger-sniffing was truly disgusting – i’ll be having nightmares about him pawing poor Jane!
I also loved Captain Wickham offering to help Amanda out if Collins wasn’t up to much in the way of ‘marital relations’.
Is last night’s episode on youtube yet?
Did amanda tell Bingley she was a lesbian (I must have missed that bit)?
POSSIBLE SPOILER
Just wondering whether anyone else picked up on what Wickham said at the end of the second episode – “we see the world in the same way…we have the same scent….
…i can smell myself on you”
Creepy?!
Soooo, guessing that leads us to assume that Wickham could also be an imposter from the “real world”, possibly there to manipulate the story for worse.
Sorry i had to voice my theory before someone else did,(yes i’m childish).
Thoughts?
I am probably in the minority here, but I’m coming to the conclusion that watching LIA is kind of like eating a dessert that looks delicious, but leaves a bad taste in your mouth when it is over.
I was loving Hugh Bonneville’s take on Mr. Bennet, until I got to his remark about whore mongering; that is just sooooo OTT uncharacteristic of Mr. Bennet that it blows the character for me. I start thinking that Mr. Collins is an interesting interpretation, and then we get to his self-fondling in public, and instead of Mr. Collins, he becomes for me a man who should be a registered sex offender. (Amanda kneeing him in the middle of the ball is so absurd that it ended up being not funny at all for me.) And Bingley’s remarks about the punt and the Cambridge end might be a cute line….but it’s just not Bingley. For this to really work for me, Austen’s characters have to remain essentially true to who they are, even when the plot is wildly changed. I end up wishing that I was watching some of these actors in a real P&P.
Maybe I am just not viewing this in the right spirit, but for me the script is hitting far too many wrong notes. You can either choose to make a clever and witty parody of Austen, or have a crude 21st century romp through P&P; I don’t think it works well when you try to have it both ways.
I am not finding Mr. Darcy remotely attractive, but Bingley is a cutie. Wickham I think, they’ve got right. I do want to see Lindsay Duncan’s take on Lady C, so I’m going to have to swallow my indigestion and try again.
PS, I just saw the post above mine; yup I heard it and I definitely could have done without Wickham’s little double entendre also.
Can I just stick up for ‘this’ Mr Darcy and say that he smoulders very well! What I think is so good about this show is that it is very funny(at least I found it funny) but it also makes you care about the characters. I felt so sorry for Jane last night. I f it was just played for comedy it would get pretty boring, but this has enough emotional depth for it to work on lots of levels.
I must be the only person who finds amanda soo annoying. I for one, completely agree with what Darcy said about her with her wilful manipulation of everyone into matchmaking everyone to fit the book. I was aghast at her treatment of Charlotte at the proposal scene. I just don’t why she doesn’t get it into her thick head that because her mere presence stuffs everything up, that even if she has the right intentions to procure the correct matches, that she ‘nudge’ everyone rather than blatently drag people kicking and screaming to her proposed partners. For her to say Elizabeth is the right one to Darcy when he’s never even met her is just too absurd for words.
Still, I’m enjoying this for the men and the Bennet family. Amanda, to me is insufferable.
For her to say Elizabeth is the right one to Darcy when he’s never even met her is just too absurd for words.
I’d say it is not any more absurd than to etertain the idea of someone walking through a door in his or her bathroom straight into the plot of a novel.
It’s a fantasy! If you try to take it seriously you’ll inevitably end up hating it. I tried at first and it just doesn’t work that way. It is not Austen. It’s just a crazy romp through an imaginary world echoing places & people we all happen to like.
You have to abandon logic to enjoy it and remember that Amanda is supposed to be one step ahead of everybody else. She’s the only one who has read the novel and knows what is supposed to happen. Every (main) occurence that differs from the book is just plain wrong (for her and for us) and to be avoided at all cost. That is what drives Amanda and sets the underlying logic of the plot in LiA. Only if you bear that in mind will you be able to accept it when she resorts to even the crudest of measures in ‘emergency situations’ like the proposal scene and how she treats Charlotte.
In a way Amanda through her course of action seems destined to learn a lesson similar to the one Emma Woodhouse did.
And let’s all just hope that the process of ‘purification’ will last forever or at least until someone can save Jane. Come on, everybody: for Jane!
I thought it was fabulous – and think it is great that there’s really no knowing how Amanda is going to resolve this…
I wonder what is happening to Elizabeth, I mean, it’s not like she’s going to stay in the bathroom…
I think my main issue is not the implausibility of the ‘swap’ and I’m definately not an Austen purist, but that Amanda treats these people like book characters and not real people. At every turn she expects to predict their reactions and is dumb-founded (and irritated!) to why they don’t respond in the way they’re ‘suppose’ to. She’s obviously worked out that they really exist so why can’t she show them more respect? Being one step ahead of everyone doesn’t mean she can play God. Therefore, I have concluded I dislike not what she’s doing, but how she’s going about it. Abit more tact from her would be nice
Having said that, I still am enjoying the series as a whole and look forward to the 3rd episode..the preview was quite delicious!
I’m with you, Mary! I can’t stand Amanda either. Yes, I know she wants well, and I know it’s her job to screw everything, but I simply can’t stand her case by case reactions. Telling Darcy that he’s going to be charmed up by Lizzy is the surest way to turn him off of Lizzy for ever. Kneeling Collins was as crude as snogging Bingley. It’s as if one moment we’re led to believe that it’s a kind of Blackadder parody, only to find ourselves watching Benny Hill the next one. I’d feel embarrassed if I met Amanda in the 21st century, in the early 19th she’s multiplying my cringe factor.
I liked Wickham a lot! Not just their characterisation of him, but he’s my favourite character in this so far. One that is clever and well-behaved in general. What can’t be said of this Bingley who snubbed Jane. I didn’t mind Wickham’s remark to Amanda, because frankly, I think he recognized she’s a woman who’d go for it with pleasure, and I can easily imagine she would had she married Collins. Of course her telling him to stay away from Lydia was the stupidest thing ever. He’s supposed to elope with Lydia. What’s wrong with Amanda’s memory?
I agree that they present the characters well at first, and then ruin them. My problem is that I could never laugh watching Benny Hill. I have the same reaction here. So far Darcy behaves pretty well. I don’t think he’s a jerk. Amanda is, and she fully deserves the treatment. Unfortunately they’re going to ruin this Darcy as every other character. I still can’t see what’s the point. Even if the jokes are funny the first time we see them, what is the point in making a series that isn’t interesting enough to keep us wanting for the story to proceed? Because, frankly, we’re half the way and I can’t see the crowds cheering Amanda&Darcy pairing. Now everyone watches it to see what else they’re going to spoil, but once it’s known would anyone wish to rewatch it? I know I’ll wish to forget the bad taste as soon as possible.
BTW I like witty original lines, but I hate it when in fanfic authors steal the lines of other characters to make their own original characters cleverer, so I didn’t laugh at “Badly done, Bingley” or “your good opinion once lost is lost for ever”. I liked the one with Cambridge though.
BTW2 I don’t think Amanda is going to resolve anything. The point of the series seems to be exactly the opposite. She’s going to ruin the book irreversibly. It still seems that “it was only a dream” is the only possible ending.
it was a very good one, but I miss Lizzie. I wonder what is going to happen to Jane, now that she is… well you know :S
@ xAchoox – I’m afraid you’re more creative than the producers of the series. I think Wickham just meant that like him she’s manipulative and doesn’t play fair.
There’s a funny book blog about LiA on the Guardian site: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/sep/11/lost.in.austen.classic.books?gusrc=rss&feed=books
Bingley would never, never, never, be so cruel to any woman who was a guest in his house as he was shown being to Jane. Would anyone believe that Guy Henry is actually quite a good-looking man? At least the recent tendency for Mr Collins to be very short is broken, though Mr H is (as I am sure he would be the first to admit) well over five and twenty and definitely not heavy.
Sylwia, Amanda might conceivably have worked out that if she told Wickham to stay away from Lydia he would do the opposite, thus getting at least plot development right. Though that would be unusually subtle for her.
Thanks for the link, Cate! I laughed out loud!
Kathleen, you’re right of course, unfortunately on both accounts.
P.S. I noticed that I made a mistake in my 33 post. I meant to concur with both Mary and Maria L.
What I hated about the beginning of this episode is that while Jane is supposedly about to catch her death at Netherfield, this version of Darcy is reading a book – what?! If that had ever happened, Darcy would never have been so unfeeling and cold as to ignore Jane’s health!
I did however like Amanda’s response to Caroline about 27,000 a year – I’m guessing this is her own income in 2009.
I’m thinking they are going to kill Mr. Collins off(heartattack perhaps)in order for Jane to marry Bingley – unless of course this adaptation goes completely crazy and time turns back in order for the events to be as they are in the book.
That Guardian blog was quite funny…thinking about a world in which we have a bunch of these literary adaptations colliding with the real world sounds like something out of the Thursday Next series – and that would be excellent
I don’t think I’ll ever think of the song “Downtown” in the same way again. (This scene had me in stitches).
Quite enjoyable and I liked it very much. I’m enjoying the love/hate (or maybe hate/hate) interplay between Amanda and Darcy. Bingley is adorable as always – Tom Mison is the perfect Bingley, in my eyes. Christina Cole makes for a devilishly witty and yet detestable Caroline.
And poor Jane!! My heart went out to her and Bingley in this episode. I hope her lots improves in episode 3.
And speaking of episode 3, looks like we’ll be seeing more of Darcy. I’m still ambivalent about our supposed hero. So far Bingley has been stealing his thunder.
For once I have to agree with Amanda “What a bloody mess?”
I enjoyed the first episode because there was anticipation which the going back in time brought on.
The second episode is clumsy. I’m not laughing at all, just smiling in a few places, like the £2700 annual income.
All in all;
The idea of a modern character going back in time and messing up the whole story is full of hilarious possibilities – but I repeat it’s not fun. They expect one to laugh at the finger sniffing Mr Collins. This has revolted me no end. Did the writer take lessons from AD to show Mr Collins thus?
He should better have read the book to sketch out his character.
Then we are supposed to think Bingley’s dialogue “punting the boat from the Cambridge end” as witty.
A fast paced, intelligently witty film it’s not.
The characters though are all very good and resemble the ones in the book – but I can’t stand Amanda!
She should have come across as a hilarious person making us all laugh.
I’m glad this very sensible Mrs Bennet has asked her to leave -but as far as i could make out, she’s been invited to Pemberley… or is it Netherfields??
hello have loved it so far, think all the cast are great, bingley is brillian, still not sure about darcy yet. I wonder what happens in episode 3? anyone have any ideas?
Jah (and others, building guessing theories), what happens in the next episodes, is not a matter of ideas, but just a matter of reading episode synopses on ITV1 Press Centre website:
Episode 3 Synopsis:
http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/LostInAusten/Ep3Wk38/default.html
Episode 4 Synopsis:
http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/LostInAusten/Ep4Wk39/default.html
thank you Boris, have just read them both. Now they sound a little silly and a bit strange, but then the whole concept is. Hopefully it will end with darcy and elizabeth.
As far as I’m concerned it’s going from bad to worse. I find this whole thing quite tasteless and I wish they didn’t build it all around P&P. Couldn’t they or whoever made this mess up come up with their own characters and do whatever they wanted? They clearly don’t know the first thing about the era they are depicting or, should I say, mocking. It’s also very patchy, all the time jumping from one scene to another. Are they rushing it to hide the fact that they haven’t thought it through? I’m surprised and not a little disgusted that so many people enjoy it and find it funny and actually witty. And I do not believe for one minute that Mr. Bennet would let Jane marry Mr. Collins. As for Amanda and the majority of the characters, I don’t even want to go there. I even started liking this version of Mr. Darcy when compared to them.
‘You are abomination, madam.’ Hear, hear.
Episode 3,
>Darcy cannot marry her, for she is not a maid.
But he changes his mind in 4th, doesn’t he?
Frankly I don’t want a Darcy who could madly fall for such a… to end up with Lizzy. If he ever offers for Lizzy I hope she’ll kneel him the way Collins was assaulted. At least in this case it’d be justified. Lizzy deserves better than that.
Is it just me, or has anyone else wondered how Amanda can maintain that perfect helmet hairdo in the absence of blowdryer, styling gel and hair straightener?
LOL I wonder how she can show outdoors since they were taking bath back then like once a week. Maybe her hair is so dirty now that it remains the helmet on its own?
Ok… so who let the fanfictionistas loose on prime time TV? This series reads, so far, like a mary-sue crossover of harry potter/dr who proportions.. and since we have RiverSong turning up as the mother from hell who knows?.. malfoy & wickham doing Brokeback Austen?
That said, and although Rooper is, as ever, vaguely annoying in a ‘I want to slap you’ kind of way.. it did make me laugh. And the ‘Cambridge End’ comment had me in fits of laughter – I soooo need a T-shirt with that printed on it.. come back Shawn, all is forgiven.
Oddly though – lil miss blonde in the bed heard nothing of this conversation…? that could have been a interesting femme-slash moment….
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that an annoyingly wooden typecast lesbian on £27k a year, must be in want of a wife…”
Love to see them say *that* with a straight face. Mind you at least she didnt swap with my ex – four legs better is all I’ll say.. bring on the Miss Bennett in chavette mode… I plead lol
All they have to do now is crossover with life on mars series 1 & 2 and I will be in heaven
My feelings on this episode have surprised me. At the beginning, I was ready to be entertained and take whatever came without getting too picky about it. By the end of this episode, I was rooting for Wickham to bring Amanda down. (I can’t call him Captain Wickham. As if he could stick with anything long enough to become a captain.) It’s all very well for Mr. Darcy to get on his high horse and tell her to stop ordering them all around, but Mrs. Bennet and Wickham are the ones doing what needs to be done to purge the evil from among them. I know something is completely out of whack when Wickham and Mrs. Bennet are my heroes.
@Jemma – I thought it was a mary-sue crossover with Benny Hill.
@Tina B: “I know something is completely out of whack when Wickham and Mrs. Bennet are my heroes.”
I share your sentiment!
For everyone interested here’s The Lake Scene:
“It’s kind of not reeeaaally in the novel,” Oh, really? And… wherefore?
LOL!! If this is supposed to be the parody of Collins/lake/wet shirt then for this moment I may forgive them for the rest.
Wherefore did he jump in?
We’ll have to wait for this part in the episode to find out the whys err…wherefores, and hows etc before I start rejoicing though.
Wherefore did he jump in?
It seems that she asked him to.
And wherefore should she not?
Amanda’s hair is completely distracting, instead of being interested in her character I keep wondering why she hasn’t put her hair up. Maybe she has styling gel in that bag with the lip gloss? I agree with Tina and Sylwia that something is not right, at this point Wickham is my favorite character.
I’m surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying this actually. Well, the first episode anyway–this episode just made me uncomfortable.
At first I was bothered by the ways the characters were inconsistent with how they actually are in the book, and then I realized that this isn’t P&P, it’s Alternative!Universe!P&P. See, that explains why Charlotte is weepy, Mrs. Bennet has more spine and precision in her manipulations, and Mr. Bingley has only one sister.
(Though I do wish those involved had actually bothered to do some research, instead of just looking up cute and random tidbits like how people brushed their teeth.)
The main thing that really, really upset me was: Jane would not ever marry Mr. Collins! Not ever! Not even Alternative!Universe!Jane. And Mr. Bennet would not have let her–he would never have given his permission! But again, maybe the writers didn’t even bother to look up if, gee, I don’t know, daughter’s needed their father’s permission to marry.
I’m also upset by Bingley’s behavior at the ball. Even given Darcy’s tirade, neither of them would have wanted to be so dishonorable as to refuse to dance with Jane when he had already promised he would do so. Again, producers and writers utterly failing to do their homework.
I will say this: Darcy and Wickham are very, very good. Darcy is actually unpleasant and Wickham is actually charming and handsome
Thanks to the miracle of Youtube, I have gotten to see parts one and two. I have to admit, I’m entertained. It’s like a particularly amusing Mary Sue fan fic brought to the screen. In fact, who am I kidding? It’s not like one, it IS one.
The actor who plays Bingley is a more attractive version of Alan Cumming–I confess I like him much much better than the one the theatrical KK P&P gave us (nothing against the actor, I just don’t think Bingley should be portrayed as a borderline imbecile), and I think I like him a wee bit better than the even Crispin Bonham-Carter. Would be lovely to see him in a serious production. I also like the actress playing Jane.
As for Wickham:
“…i can smell myself on you”
In my armpit…I know you…intimately! LOL!
Loved the pilfering of Calvin Coolidge’s joke, and also the pilfered line from Emma. Now, I don’t for a second find the Austen character’s reactions to Amanda credible, but it’s still part of the fun. Who hasn’t imagined their modern self in the pages of a beloved novel?
I guess I didn’t expect much, so at least I’m being entertained. I’m on board for Part III.
Karen
Oh dear, I WAS confused. How can it be a Mary Sue if it was written by a man? But it just seems as if it should be.
Wickham so far is definitely the most attractive actor and so far an interesting character and not what I expected. It’s an odd Austen indeed when I find myself mostly in agreement with Wickham and Mrs. Bennet.
I could have done without the crotch kick. I’m sure we’ve all thought about it, but seeing it actually done wasn’t very satisfying.
I suppose they are going to make him impotent. Some enterprising person should catalog all the various ways fan fic writers have abused and tortured Mr. Collins through the years.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what is “Fanfic”?
Fan Fiction
Wikipedia makes a good enough quick reference, I guess.
Ive just watched episode 3 and OMG i am literally ‘hot-under-the-collar’ after seeing the momentous Darcy in the water scene – with a twist. Things are going very sour and at first i was very sceptical about the whole lack of original storylines but now i see the reason for this as the storyline develops.
Where is Elizabeth?!
come baaack!!
Episode 5 gives quite a conclusion in the whole adventure of Miss Price, are there to be others?????????????
Could imagine a continuance for what happens then on but she is with Darcy, but will Lady Cathrine cancel Mr Collins marriage with Jane if Price stays with Darcy?
Any site we can see all the future episodes if there are none?