Watch: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Just discovered this new vlog (video blog) series on YouTube titled The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (which just started earlier this month, April 9th). At first, I thought this looks like another typical YouTube video parodies about P&P (and other Austen related viral videos on YouTube such as Jane Austen’s Fight Club), but being a P&P fan and all, I watched it anyway, as the idea of seeing one of my favorite fictional literature characters Elizabeth Bennet in a video diary (would love to see Mr. Darcy Video Diary...now that and with Mr. Darcy would make me an instant avid watcher, lol) like this Lizzie Bennet Diaries is a great idea. It got me curious and piqued my interest. I was pleasantly surprised that it was really well-done. I thought it was an interesting and brilliant idea to start a modern version of Pride and Prejudice, vlog/YouTube style...and it's something quite different, fresh, entertaining, and very funny. With episodes uploaded on Mondays and Thursdays, it's becoming popular (in such a short time too) with lots of fans and subscribers (over 37k and counting) and over 128k views (and that was just the first episode) on its YouTube channel.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (a professionally made scripted web series) starring newcomer Ashley Clements (as Lizzie Bennet) is a modernized  YouTube adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel, Pride and Prejudice. The story is told primarily through Lizzie Bennet's Video Diaries, while being supported by her and other characters social media streams.

The series was created by  Hank Green and Bernie Su.

Watch My Name is Lizzie Bennet - Ep:1 (and read my thoughts about each of the 6 episodes) below...



(source: LizzieBennet)
Watch All of Lizzie Bennet episodes here!
 
Here are my thoughts on the 6 episodes (they're short episodes about 3 minutes long each) that I've seen (thus far)...


My Name is Lizzie Bennet - Ep:1
In the first episode, Lizzie Bennet (Ashley Clements) introduced herself ("a 24 year-old grad student with a mountain of student loans" studying Mass Communications) in her first video diary entry (which her BFF Charlotte does the video editing thing) with a nice intro music and graphics and a cool t-shirt (interestingly, given to her by her mother, lol) and a reference to the famous opening line from the Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice novel: "It is a truth universally acknowledge that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Introducing herself, her traditional mother (Mrs. Bennet) and impersonating her mother as well, her father (Mr. Bennet),  her best friend Charlotte Lu (short for Lucas...I guess she was supposed to be an Asian girl here, so the "Lu" last name made sense, lol), and her ‘energetic’ and oddly 'double jointed' ("whaaaat?" LOL!) sister Lydia Bennet (played by Mary Kate Wiles). I thought the first episode was brilliant, clever, and hilarious. Lizzie and Charlotte's impersonations of Lizzie's parents, Mr. & Mrs. Bennet was pretty funny. But the one that made me laugh the most was Lydia's "accidental" appearance, hahaha! She mention a "Bing Lee" (at first I was like, who's Bing Lee? did she mean Bingley? The caption seemed to have misspelled it or it was probably intended that way to be funny, lol.) and when Lizzie tried to guess if he's single (after she said that he was "rich, hot, and..."), Lydia was like "Jackpot! Right?!? Whaaaat!" and Lizzie was like, "No." LOL! Then, she started to high-five (surprising the viewers, myself included, with her 'double jointed' elbow and her memorable one-liner: "Whaaaat!" ahaha!)  Lizzie, but when she shook her head, she looked like she was about to high-five the screen...but it was Charlotte (who fortunately, high-fived her back, lol). Great and hilarious first episode! Ashley Clements did a great job as Lizzie Bennet. It got me interested in watching the next episode and more!

In the second episode, Lizzie introduced her eldest sister Jane Bennet (another red-headed....the Bennet sisters in this version, interestingly...all have red hair color and they all look-alike...very cool).  Oh, and there are only three sisters (poor Mary and Kitty were excluded... to quote Lydia,  "whaaaaaat?" LOL! I'm reading lots of "Where are Mary and Kitty?" questions in the video comments...one of them said, "you killed Mary?" haha!). I guess it made sense that there were only 3 sisters since this was set in a modern times (in America too) and there aren't many kids nowadays with 5 kids (but in my family, I have 4 siblings, with myself included, that makes us 5, but with 3 girls and 2 boys...and we're living in America in a modern world too, lol. Still, I missed Kitty & Mary...poor Mary, she's always ignored and forgotten, lol). Reminds me of the 4 Bakshi sisters in Bride & Prejudice (the Bollywood version of P&P), but at least on that one Mary (Maya)'s included and the hilarious one in the movie especially with her hilarious "snake dance" scene, while Kitty was omitted with Lakhi (who wears a"Lucky" t-shirt, lol) as a combination of both (as they're practically twins anyway even though Kitty was 2 years older than Lydia...). The audio on Jane in this episode was not very good (like she was whispering or mumbling something, lol) and I could hardly hear nor understand what she was saying even with turning the volume up. The actress who played Jane (Laura Spencer) looks like the younger version of Glee actress Jamayma Mays. Nice reference and mention of Colin Firth and Sense Sensibility! Though, it would've been nice if Matthew Macfadyen (my favorite Mr. Darcy) is mentioned too on this one (this series would definitely gained more avid viewers and at the same time make both the '95 and '05 P&P fandoms happy, don't you agree? lol...Nice to see Charlotte in the flesh with Lizzie in this episode.
In the third episode, Lizzie (is starting to sound a bit annoying here) was describing her relationship with her parents with the assistance of Charlotte Lu (played by Julia Cho) and the often interference of her younger sister Lydia was funny, lol...Can't believe Charlotte called Lydia "slut" (lol)...and Lydia heard that and she turned her back (after appearing with Lizzie) from the camera leaving Lizzie's room, haha!

In this episode, Lizzie (is becoming more and more annoying with the way she talks...every episode now...not that I didn't like the actress playing her because she's very good and funny, but at the same time she or rather her Lizzie Bennet is starting to get on my nerves, lol...) talks about how Mrs. Bennet is freaking out about Bing Lee and her going as far as sending Lydia to find out more info on him. LOL at Lydia calling Bing Lee, "Bings," haha. The "Bing" part (in Bing Lee's name) reminded me of Chandler Bing of NBC's popular Friends series.

In the 5th episode, the eldest Bennet sisters, Lizzie and Jane discussed their encounter with the mysterious Bing Lee and Charlotte got creative with the editing. Nice to see Jane in this episode, but there's still a problem with the audio and her "whisper" talk. I get that Jane is shy and modest, but we need to hear her too, you know. LOL, I love Charlotte's editing, voice-over, and evil-drawing on Lizzie's face in this episode, hahaha... Jane and Lizzie's making fun of each other was funny in this episode. The episode's too short though and poor Jane, she gets mocked more by Lizzie. Lizzie would never do that (at least not in Austen's book and other P&P adaptations) and embarrassed her big sister like that in public especially in a vlog...Other than that, very good episode!
In this episode, Lizzie (who looked like singer Kelly Clarkson with a hat, lol) elaborates on her encounter with William Darcy (and her first impression or rather her dislike of his character, but probably not on his looks, since she didn't mention it,  lol) with the help of Lydia portraying Bing Lee. LOL, "The Lee-dee-yeahh!" Lizzie's crazy younger sister was hilarious, once again, in this episode.

Ok, now, I can't wait to see part two of poor Mr. Douchey (LOL!)...would be nice if William Darcy and Bing Lee would appear in Lizzie's vlog....would they? I hope so. I'm curious of what they look like. If not, that wouldn't be cool... perhaps someone should make a "William Darcy Diary"viral vlog of his own. I'd be the first to promote it heavily here, hahaha...

Overall, this series is great and I'm looking forward to seeing more episodes and to see how they progressed.

For more on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries...
check out the following LBD links

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Birthday Rosamund Pike!

Top 10 Favorite Pride & Prejudice Movie Quotes

P&P Movie Script