silverusagi

Where to even begin with this train wreck. Basically, I went into this so enthused, and so sure that the creators of LBD would turn out another great adaptation that I never even considered that the whole thing would miss the point so badly. First, as osprey-archer said (good discussion on that post, btw): Making matchmaking Emma’s profession - not just something she does in her spare time, but a thing that she’s trying to build a company on - is kind of unfortunate, given that the premise of the story is that Emma is a terrible matchmaker. Everything is corporate here. Nothing is personal. The blending of the P&P story into part personal, part corporate worked very well. Mr. Collins proposal becomes a job offer, etc. But here, setting everything in the corporate world seems to be a huge mistake.

And also, here is my confusion: what is the gimmick of these videos? Are they being posted, as the LBD was 'posted' for an in universe audience? Surely not. Emma schemes and lies and badmouths clients on the videos. Hardly what you want to be putting out there. Yet, the most recent Q&A video seems that there is supposed to be some audience in world? I AM SO CONFUSED. Furthermore, I have no idea what we're supposed to think, or what the writers think. Like that line about Emma having their bank records. It was played off as a joke, but that is some serious shit right there. Also, what the hell kind of matchmaker only has one client at at time? And what is with the recording phone calls? That's a device that never worked for me on LBD, and it's being way overused here.

But okay, let's talk about Anne and whatever-the-hell-name-they-gave-him Weston. This series starts not with a wedding, but with a wedding Emma has to fix. Which she basically doesn't call off because she 'knows' she's right, and then when Anne comes back later, Emma is proved to be right. So everything's okay. Or something. Even Knightley, who is what I assume is the moral voice, is all 'good job'. Huh? Oh, and then there was all that crazy stuff with Frank Chruchill, who is absent in this version for a reason so far unknown.

And I'm going to be nitpicky here: I hate the stupid wink Emma does. I hate her 'Emma Approved' catchphrase. I hate the fact that this has multiple camera angles, because it means her office must look like a fucking studio. I'm actually starting to hate her face, and that's not really the actress' fault, but OMG is Emma annoying. Again quoting osprey-archer: In the book, Emma's a little full of herself, but it's a slightly exaggerated reflection of her actual abilities: not only is she rich, clever, and beautiful, but she's of central importance to her social circle and has clearly been running her father's social life for years, in such a way that he enjoys himself and his companions also have a good time, despite his gentle selfishness. Of course she believes she knows best. But here, without the background competence that underlies Emma's self-assurance, her egotism almost embarrassing, because it's so out of line with her actual abilities. I have no idea why we're supposed to think Emma is good at anything. Except for that blurb in the very first episode, where Emma reads something about herself, thus telling us that she is good.

The main thing I loved about LBD was the way that the same things happened for different reasons. The Bennet girls didn't have to marry to survive, but their mother was one of those mothers. They were middle class and had no things like entails, but the house was severely mortgaged. Darcy doesn't pay Wickham off, Darcy buys the company. Etc. But in EA, who knows what's going on. They're 'shaking it up' from the get go, which seems like they missed the point of LBD's success. Every little thing is different. There's a wedding to fix (still not sure what the point of that whole story line was). Knightley hires Harriet instead of not wanting Harriet. Emma complains about hourly clients when charity work was a huge part of what she did in the book. And Mr. Woodhouse, a constant presence, is nowhere to be seen. He's probably off running a company, too. Knightley and Emma are no longer 'related', they're business partners!

We've finally gotten to the point where Emma is going to adopt Harriet, but I'm sorry, I don't even like Harriet. That scene of her and Martin talking gave me embarrassment squick hard. It was like watching two actors act, not two characters/people. But by removing this adaptation completely to a corporation, they've missed showing Emma's good qualities, as well as losing a central theme to the book, I think. Emma is one novel that has no travel in it for the main characters; the fact that Emma is the head of her circle and is confined by that area is important. Anyway, the only thing I like is Knightley, though even then, I hate that they have removed the family connection between them. In short, I've given this 12 episodes, and I see nothing of the story of Emma that I love here, and as a story on its own, it annoys me to death, so I'll no longer be watching. This sucks as an adaptation, and isn't interesting to me as an original.

Also, here is my idea for a modern Emma webseries, taken from the comments of osprey-archer's post:

I think the 'weblog' format is very hard to pull off, and a webseries can just be a webseries sometimes. But if they were going to do a weblog, I think that Emma herself could just keep one going on about the doings of Highbury. Well, her doings in Highbury. But a young, well to do person who thinks well of herself could just have a random blog with no particular purpose. And Knightley would be wandering around in the background muttering. And Mr. Woodhouse would burst into the room all the time worrying about something, and Emma would take care of him, thus showing us her good side. She could still try to help Harriet, much as she did in Clueless. There would be crushes on the wrong people, etc. We wouldn't actually half to see the incident on Box Hill, but Emma could make a very sad video after it, knowing that she was wrong and that she said things that were uncalled for. And then you genderbend Jane Fairfax, and instead of Emma hating Jane because everyone wants them to be friends, she hates him because everyone acts like they're going to end up together. Excpep James Fairfax is gay, but he's never come out, and of course he already knows Frank Chruchill, whose aunt is extremely homophobic so he can never be with the one he loves. Of course his aunt will die. Then the secret affair is revealed. And there's no reason why Emma and Knightley can't have siblings married to each other. I suppose this doesn't solve the problem of 'what does Emma do?' She's rich, so she doesn't need job, but since we're modern, she should have one. She could be a student, I suppose. Oh! Oh! Going with the theme of 'Emma has never left Highbury', what if Emma subscribed to her classes all online, so she could stay home with her father? So she's at the age where she should be out there doing things, except she's not. She's not bothered by this, except when people like Mrs. Elton make a point of pointing out her lack of familiarity with anything outside her circle. And Emma should be a Psychology major. Because they're always full of themselves.

Emma could be involved in several volunteer organizations, maybe even heading one. And she could approach it with the sort of "we must do for the poor!" attitude. Maybe because she thinks it something you should do, and also because it looks good socially. And yes! Box Hill could be Miss Bates finding out about the blog and all the complaining Emma has done about her. And while she's in the middle of an entry, Knightley could bust in, out of focus and his head cut off, and Emma would turn around and face away from the camera, and we would get the whole "BADLY DONE EMMA" dressing down, and then she'd turn around to the camera at the end of it and just turn it off, end episode.