Gen Z P&P Is Here

We just got done fighting about Wuthering Heights and now it’s time to fight about Pride and Prejudice as Dolly Alderton’s adaptation for Netflix has a first-look teaser to be picked apart and judged. Are you ready to rumble!!!

The teaser is just that, a very brief cinematic mood board to establish the style of this new P&P. It looks fine! There’s lots of hands touching stuff, Lizzy Bennet’s boots in a puddle, Lizzy sitting on a roof(?), pounding horses’ hooves, suggestive breathing, and a glimpse of Lizzy through a narrow door opening—maybe a deliberate homage to Joe Wright’s 2005 Pride & Prejudice with that last one. There is a lot of nature and a suggestion of repressed emotion, mainly via the breathing. I don’t hate it, the Georgian/Regency era in which Jane Austen wrote was very repressed and hinting at earthy emotions beneath social polish is a valid exploration of desire in a very socially constricted era.

In this new adaptation, Emma Corrin stars as Lizzy Bennet and Jack Lowden of Slow Horses fame is her Mr. Darcy. We briefly see him sat atop a dark steed, I don’t hate that, either. These are two great actors, I look forward to seeing what they do with iconic literary duo Lizzy and Darcy. This is why I will never reject new adaptations of Austen out of hand—every generation deserves their Lizzy and Darcy. I like to see how different actors approach these characters, and this is really good casting.

It’s good casting throughout, actually. The teaser doesn’t show anyone else, but Corrin and Lowden are joined by Olivia Colman as Mrs. Bennet (my nerves!), Rufus Sewell as Mr. Bennet, Fiona Shaw as Lady Catherine De Bourgh, Louis Partridge as Mr. Wickham, and THE Jamie Demetriou as the silliest of vicars, Mr. Collins. You know I am stoked for Jamie Demetriou as Mr. Collins!!!

We will probably have to Do Discourse, though, because this adaptation does feature inclusive casting, with Siena Kelly starring as Caroline Bingley and Daryl McCormack, fresh off Wake Up Dead Man, as her brother, the affable Mr. Bingley, and We Are Lady Parts star Anjana Vasan stars as Mrs. Gardiner. Frankly I don’t give a sh-t about the casting as long as the acting as good, and these are, continuing the theme, good actors. But you know The Times We Are Living In, and you know people will complain about rural England in the early 19^th century being depicted as anything other than lily white. So let me just say it now—who cares, it’s not like we’re living there, and people of color existed in the past, too.

Anyway! I am sure as we get closer to this limited series, expected later this year, opinions will grow stronger as we see more from the production than a moving Pinterest board. But I really, REALLY like Emma Corrin and Jack Lowden, I think we need to give them some space and let them cook. And hey, people cannot possibly get as mad about a new P&P that at least looks reasonably Austen-authentic as they did about Emerald Fennell’s party girl Wuthering Heights, right? Right??

RIGHT??? Let us know what you think at The Squawk after watching the teaser. (App link here)