This teaser for Netflix’s Pride & Prejudice came out a few months ago while I was buried in other stuff, and although I watched it at that point, I didn’t get around to post my reactions.

It feels like a synthesis of some of 1995’s quirks (Lizzy’s hair, and her tendency to trot when she’s in a hurry) with 2005’s cottagecore vibes and hand fetish, without necessarily bringing anything new to the table. Corrin’s Elizabeth mostly comes off as yearning and pensive, with only a blink and you’ll miss it nonverbal glimpse of Elizabeth’s more fiery side in what seems to be the Netherfield ball scene. Lowden’s Darcy has a quiet, steely quality that I like, and I suppose over the course of however many episodes are involved I will get used to the idea of Mr. Darcy looking like Audie Murphy. When I saw him on horseback I was half-expecting a cutaway shot to Lee Van Cleef groveling on the ground and begging for his life, ala Posse From Hell. The only visible point of plot adaptation is an abridgement of Darcy’s letter (you can see her hand caressing his signature), with an altered outro. I believe it’s been fairly routine to drop his “God bless you” from adaptations of the letter, but I’m not wild about what they put in its place here. I will say that this seems more promising than the stills made it look, even if it didn’t knock my socks off.

This trailer for Sense And Sensibility was apparently attached to the low budget horror hit Obsession. Elinor doesn’t at all strike me as being the kind of woman likely to sit up with her sister in a barely secured nightgown, but I don’t have beefs with the women’s costuming otherwise. For that and the hair there seems to be a sharp divide between “very casual around the house and grounds” and “dressed for visiting” that strikes me as not unreasonable. I do like the dynamic between the sisters, which is an area where English language S&S’s (and P&P’s) often fall down, even the big name ones. The Dashwoods and Edward are very well cast, with the latter probably being the closest I’ve seen to my mental image of the character. Extra brownie points for presenting Margaret as early teens, and showing Edward as being nice to his poor nephew. I mean, yeah, he’s the child of John and Fanny Dashwood, so his chances of being raising as a decent person are slim to none, but you’ve got to feel a little sorry for a kid with such awful parents.

I think I disapprove of Sir John being swept under the rug in favor of his mother-in-law, although it may just reflect the need to squeeze Fiona Shaw, one of the “name” actors, into the trailer. She is of course very good in the role, as is Catriona Balfe as the Widow Dashwood. Willoughby is not well styled, with something of the same effort to make him look small and childish that went into S&S 2008. What little we see of his performance seems to strike a good balance between charming and shallow, without making him seem like a himbo. The bit with him lifting and twirling Marianne on the dance floor wasn’t really the kind of thing that would be “done” in polite society, but Willoughby and Marianne bend or break a lot of social rules in the book, so I am suspending judgment for now.

I think beardy cowboy guy is Colonel Brandon, which I guess continues the motif from Audie Murphy Darcy (for which, see above). From what I can find, it was not typical for English military men to go around bearded back in 1790s England, whatever they might do at the frontlines. Traditional Indian culture saw a beard as more virile, and there’s evidence for British officers in India adopting beards to gain respect there, but at best it would have been a thing 30-40 years after Brandon’s time in India. I guess he’s just supposed to be ahead of the curve. Trying to nail Brandon is always a complicated dance of trying to reveal his inner romantic without turning him into someone Marianne would fall for with a thud at first meeting. Here, I think they’re attempting “mistaken for villain,” which the 1995 and 2008 versions flirted with but didn’t fully commit to. I approve of him dragging Willoughby around by his lapels. Compare and contrast this highly noncanonical moment from Orgoglio e Pregiudizio’s version of Darcy tracking Wickham down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIIscyjcltQ&t=300s