Death Comes to Pemberley, or at least the BBC

[mariness]

I started reading Death Comes to Pemberley a few years back, and stopped just a few pages in: P.D. James is the sort of author I tend to admire more than love, and her Jane Austen tone felt off to me. But I was kinda curious about what actually happened in it, so when the BBC series popped up on Netflix I gave it a try

Comments

[fadethecat]

Oh gosh. I started watching this on Netflix a few nights ago, and then mehed my way away after about fifteen minutes. I mention this elsewhere, and get multiple people talking about how much they disliked the book and series both. The overwhelming complaint? Character assassination of Colonel Fitzwilliam.

I am deeply convinced I made the right choice in not watching onward.

[mariness]

It's just such an incredible misinterpretation of Colonel Fitzwilliam. I realize the series needed another potential murder suspect, and wanted to clear the way for Georgiana to be able to follow Darcy's example and marry beneath her - but the first could have been solved by bringing in a character not named Colonel Fitzwilliam. With the second, there's no indication in P&P that Colonel Fitzwilliam has any thoughts in that direction, or, if he did, that he would have any problem with Georgiana's scandalous past - he seems to have looked at it the same way Darcy, Elizabeth and the text does: Wickham preys on teenage girls; they wish they had discovered it sooner, but at least they saved Georgiana. No one is blaming Georgiana. So to have this show indicate that Fitzwilliam does have a problem with it is yet another misreading. Grr.

You made the right choice.