The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Of the fanfiction variety, Pamela Aiden's trilogy is definitely the best. I would avoid Linda Berdoll's books - I wish I could unread them. I like Abigail Reynolds' stories, which are what-if's and she tends to choose a point to deviate from the original story and go from there (and if you have Prime, a few of hers are available for loan).

I didn't like Death comes to Pemberley, which I felt had too little dialogue to make a good Jane Austen style-story, although I've liked other books by P.D. James. For mysteries, I like Carrie Bebris' series, each of which has a punny Jane Austen title.

For the most part, if they're published by Sourcebooks, they're well formatted and edited.

I've caught up with watching all the videos and I want more. Now.

Darcy is cute but he was never going to match my expectations.

Maybe I can't see beyond the red hair but the actresses playing Lydia and Jane look so alike. Though all 3 Bennets look believably like sisters.

Saw Fitz in the latest episode of Up All Night.

I guess because I expect everyone who is watching to be familiar with P&P but I was surprised to see some YT comments that indicated they had never heard of the story before.

Thanks puddingcup and Algae. Though am dying about spelling grammar incorrectly whilst complaining about it.

I mostly meant the fanfic-y type, though I do like BJones and have Austenland unread. I ended up buying Darcy's Diary cause it was on Audible.

Last time I looked for thee kind of books it was the 90s and the only book available was called The Bar Sinister and was apparently utter shit.

The Bar Sinister is Berdoll's first book - she republished it with a new title. When it comes to JA fanfiction, it's a good idea to read the comments because they'll tell you if it was called something else.

I may have squeed and clapped my hands at today's video. Also, Gigi is awesome.

punzy wrote:I may have squeed and clapped my hands at today's video. Also, Gigi is awesome.

Gigi is great. I want her and Lydia to become friends and team up in driving Lizzie (and Darcy) insane.

I love this series. I wish they would ramp up the Twitter, but I think in concept the videos + Twitter (the Tumblr is dull) are really pioneering how stories get told. All of the real time tweets around NYE! Make things really come alive. Plus it's a lot of fun. I love all of the inside Austen bits.

Just been catching up on Lydia's videos, and I'm curious as to what they're going to do with her and Wickham that will need Darcy's intervention. I like that fact that she's now more angry and bitter at Lizzie then just young and silly as it gives her character a bit more depth.

I squeed the whole time! The awkwardness was adorable! And Darcy really is really tall.

epudom wrote:Just been catching up on Lydia's videos, and I'm curious as to what they're going to do with her and Wickham that will need Darcy's intervention. I like that fact that she's now more angry and bitter at Lizzie then just young and silly as it gives her character a bit more depth.

At first I thought it was going to be running up some crazy debt that Darcy could pay off. I read in some of the Youtube comments people were guessing sex tape which seemed a bit intense for this series but I guess I could see it going somewhere there. I'm curious as to what Wickham did for Lydia in Vegas, and what he did to Gigi that was bad enough she quit swimming.

I thought they were going to get married in Vegas, and Darcy was going to have to persuade Wickham to get un-married, to contrast with the book, where Darcy had to persuade Wickham to marry Lydia. Since that didn't happen I have no idea either re Wickham and Lydia and Wickham and Gigi. The only things I can think of are too dark for the tone of this series. I love that Pemberley is a corporation. I like Gigi, but I wish they had cast her younger. So much of Georgiana's vulnerability in the book was due to her age, though I guess if they can pull it off in plot developments it doesn't matter.

Lizzie and Darcy's meta-conversation was adorable. And enlightening.

And he dressed like a Newsie!

epudom wrote:And he dressed like a Newsie!

Oh my gosh, yes! I laughed out loud! More heart-to-hearts! More banter!

I'm really enjoying this, I think even beyond my tendency to like all things P&P. I am so curious as to how they are going to resolve things since, not only is it a different time period, but all the information is out there for all the characters to see.

ETA: Not sure if it is my love of all things P&P but I am really feeling Darcy's line deliveries. They've gone from adorably awkward to kind of sexy...

Catching up on recent episodes and I'm really intruiged by the twist on Wickham in this version - with Lydia he is definitely showing signs of emotional abuse, and the way he treated poor Gigi was atrocious. I wonder how he's going to explain away that behaviour to Lydia (assuming she's still watching Lizzie's videos pf course)

It will be interesting to see how the Wickham arc plays out, especially since it's due to come to a head any minute now.

In other, more romantic news, Gigi live-tweeted a Saturday outing with herself, her brother and Lizzie. The photos are...telling.

Not gonna lie, the one with hipster Darcy staring into the distance and Lizzie checking him out from the side made my heart flutter a little.

Today's video was embarrassingly cute! Darcy costume theater and giggling Lizzie is just too much!

I also loved the Twitter updates on Saturday. I joined Twitter specifically so I could get those live!

I enjoyed the cycling through people Darcy could be, "My Dad! NO! That would be weird." Also that Gigi is represented by Jane's flower + Darcy's hat. I am kind of dreading Lydia's video tomorrow, they have been hard to watch.

Okay, honestly, I didn't really believe there would be a sex tape but the LBD twitter just confirmed it is a real link. It's kind of a weird setup, not sure how they're going to pull it off...

Were there actual rumors that a sex tape would be the downfall? I just saw the link and I'm surprised that's how they're doing it.

puddingcup wrote:Were there actual rumors that a sex tape would be the downfall? I just saw the link and I'm surprised that's how they're doing it.

Yeah, I saw a lot of YouTube comments guessing that would be the scandal. The reasoning was that it had to be something comparably awful that Darcy could somehow fix, and since he works in digital media, people's minds just went there. Like a lot. Like I said before, it definitely seemed like too intense of a direction to go but I could see the reasoning.

I just don't understand how they're going to make this happen. We know George is manipulative and tearing down Lydia's self-esteem but I'm not quite believing he could convince her to go through with it since she still seems to be thinking on her own, albeit with doubts planted, and/or that he's advertising it so far in advance. Like, what's his motivation? Does he expect Darcy will pay him a bunch of money not to sell it since it's obvious he still likes Lizzie? That it would be so involved makes it far-fetched to me, so hopefully the writers have something better than that up their sleeves.

Also, why is Jane sooo inaccessible?

Jane seems to be one of those people is just doesn't socially media. (Yes, I know that's not a real phrase - bear with me) She doesn't have a Twitter, and she abandoned her style blog Tumblr around the time of her move to LA, which makes me think she's just not much interested in the internet as a way of keeping in touch. As a fellow Luddite, I salute her.

nazlan wrote:Jane seems to be one of those people is just doesn't socially media. (Yes, I know that's not a real phrase - bear with me) She doesn't have a Twitter, and she abandoned her style blog Tumblr around the time of her move to LA, which makes me think she's just not much interested in the internet as a way of keeping in touch. As a fellow Luddite, I salute her.

I understand that aspect of her. They certainly like to mention in every other video how busy she is and has absolutely no time for anything. But I meant, for being the kind, caring sister, who actually has a close relationship with Lydia, despite what George would have her believe, I think it's out of character for her to be too busy to talk on the phone for a few minutes. It's hard for me to believe that when her little sister texts her saying she really needs to talk to her about something, Jane would say, oh, I'm so busy at work, I'll have to call you in, like, 8 days.

Jane actually does have a Twitter account, but it's fashion-based and they're mostly the same as her tumblr posts, and like you pointed out, she rarely updates anymore.

Like, what's his motivation? Does he expect Darcy will pay him a bunch of money not to sell it since it's obvious he still likes Lizzie? That it would be so involved makes it far-fetched to me, so hopefully the writers have something better than that up their sleeves.

Also, why is Jane sooo inaccessible?

Well, Wickham didn't really think things through in the book when getting together with Lydia, it's just that he had so little regard for anyone but himself that he didn't care about using her and casting her aside. Then Darcy had to come in and pay to make sure Lydia's life wasn't ruined. I expect the same will happen here, except Lydia will turn out better, because she won't be stuck with Wickham forever.

I saw Bernie's Reddit AMA, and he admitted that some of the characters' inaccessibility is kind of contrived, in order to further the plot (he was talking specifically of Charlotte and Collins, but still). I mean, it's also hard to believe that Bing didn't figure out the existence of the videos until recently.

Aw, Lydia. Poor, poor Lydia. I really, really hope Darcy doesn't just pay George to go away this time but, I dunno, sues the hell out of him instead.

Also, WHERE THE HELL IS JANE? Unless there's some big reveal that she dropped her phone down a well a week ago, it seems so out of character for this version of her to stay so completely out of touch with Lydia, especially given how worried she was before.