Unpersuaded
So did anyone else watch Persuasion on Masterpiece Theater last night?
I did, and oh how I wish it could have been better.
For starters, PBS nearly lost me before we even got started. Apparently they have changed the name to simply "Masterpiece" which meant that my TiVo nearly missed the first episode because while it loyaly records every Masterpiece Theater that is broadcast, it can't intuit name changes and, but for a stray blog mention that I happened upon last week, I have seen no publicity regarding the name change and would likely have missed it (with much cursing and swearing) otherwise. (More on these changes at the Boston Globe.)
Next, they have returned to having a narrator at the beginning of each episode. This, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. I really loved the old Alasdair Cooke introductions and even the Russell Baker ones and wasn't a huge fan when they got rid of the introductions. But Gillian Anderson? Scully? Am I the only one who finds her wooden and unlikeable? And boring, too? (Is the writer's strike hitting Masterpiece Theater?).
Anyway, I was surprised to hear that they were redoing Persuasion at all, since the 1995 Amanda Root/Ciarian Hinds version has been broadcast on MT before and is generally pretty good. But I was excited about the prospect of a longer adaptation over a couple nights. That's why I was so surprised when all of a sudden there was Anne, reading Captain Wentworth's letter, and the whole thing was done. In under 90 minutes (!). It was like Austen on fast forward. This is a real shame because Persuasion has never been done justice. The Root/Hinds version is good, but was shown theatrically which has its limitations. The only prior version that I know of was produced by ITV in the UK in the 1970s. IT's awful, complete with wooden performances and bad tv makeup. It would have been so nice to see the story play out over three or four hours (or dare I dream, six...).
Another problem: the screenplay wasn't, I thought, particularly good. In places it was a little heavy handed and I thought the characters were (unsurprisingly, given the length) underdeveloped. Sir Walter Elliot came across as merely mean and stupid, not vain and title obsessed. Lady Russell and Mrs. Smith also got shortchanged, I think, and none of the attractions (Anne to Wentworth, Louisa to Bennick, Elizabeth to William Elliot, William Elliot to Anne) were ever really fully explained. I wondered why Andrew Davies had suddenly lost his touch (but then I realized it wasn't a Davies screenplay). Davies isn't always the most faithful screenwriter, but he's always entertaining.
So, we'll see how the others go. P&P and Emma are old adaptations of quality. P&P I've seen dozens of times and the EMma they're showing isn't my favorite, but it'll be good to watch both again. The Sense and Sensibility adaptation is at least in two episodes, which means we get at least two hours. Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and the new biopic Miss AUsten Regrets remain to be seen.
Meanwhile I've pulled out my copy of Persuasion and am giving it another read. It's been too long. And I'll dream of the day (maybe next decade during the inevitable Jane moment of the 2010s) when we get a proper adaptation worthy of our Jane.
I did, and oh how I wish it could have been better.
For starters, PBS nearly lost me before we even got started. Apparently they have changed the name to simply "Masterpiece" which meant that my TiVo nearly missed the first episode because while it loyaly records every Masterpiece Theater that is broadcast, it can't intuit name changes and, but for a stray blog mention that I happened upon last week, I have seen no publicity regarding the name change and would likely have missed it (with much cursing and swearing) otherwise. (More on these changes at the Boston Globe.)
Next, they have returned to having a narrator at the beginning of each episode. This, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. I really loved the old Alasdair Cooke introductions and even the Russell Baker ones and wasn't a huge fan when they got rid of the introductions. But Gillian Anderson? Scully? Am I the only one who finds her wooden and unlikeable? And boring, too? (Is the writer's strike hitting Masterpiece Theater?).
Anyway, I was surprised to hear that they were redoing Persuasion at all, since the 1995 Amanda Root/Ciarian Hinds version has been broadcast on MT before and is generally pretty good. But I was excited about the prospect of a longer adaptation over a couple nights. That's why I was so surprised when all of a sudden there was Anne, reading Captain Wentworth's letter, and the whole thing was done. In under 90 minutes (!). It was like Austen on fast forward. This is a real shame because Persuasion has never been done justice. The Root/Hinds version is good, but was shown theatrically which has its limitations. The only prior version that I know of was produced by ITV in the UK in the 1970s. IT's awful, complete with wooden performances and bad tv makeup. It would have been so nice to see the story play out over three or four hours (or dare I dream, six...).
Another problem: the screenplay wasn't, I thought, particularly good. In places it was a little heavy handed and I thought the characters were (unsurprisingly, given the length) underdeveloped. Sir Walter Elliot came across as merely mean and stupid, not vain and title obsessed. Lady Russell and Mrs. Smith also got shortchanged, I think, and none of the attractions (Anne to Wentworth, Louisa to Bennick, Elizabeth to William Elliot, William Elliot to Anne) were ever really fully explained. I wondered why Andrew Davies had suddenly lost his touch (but then I realized it wasn't a Davies screenplay). Davies isn't always the most faithful screenwriter, but he's always entertaining.
So, we'll see how the others go. P&P and Emma are old adaptations of quality. P&P I've seen dozens of times and the EMma they're showing isn't my favorite, but it'll be good to watch both again. The Sense and Sensibility adaptation is at least in two episodes, which means we get at least two hours. Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and the new biopic Miss AUsten Regrets remain to be seen.
Meanwhile I've pulled out my copy of Persuasion and am giving it another read. It's been too long. And I'll dream of the day (maybe next decade during the inevitable Jane moment of the 2010s) when we get a proper adaptation worthy of our Jane.