Lauren Hoffman

If you love British drama, run for the hills.

It's supposed to be a British drama and so you expect.... ya know... drama. Especially compared to the 2007 version, which captures the absolute misery and pining of Anne, the new Anne just doesn't seem miserable enough. They spent more time trying to have her come off as witty but just ends up kind of an asshole. In general, her character also doesn't have any particularly compelling qualities to win you over, so when she's supposed to be all miserable I'm kinda just thinking, "Well.... sucks to suck?". Similarly the 2007 Elliot comes off as strong, competent, authoritative, and sexy and man do you feel for Anne. Like damn, you really screwed up Anne but like I feel really bad for you at the same time, we're in this together hun, let's go wallow. By comparison when the new Elliot comes back, you don't really feel like she's missed out on much. He's basically an average bro, like initially kinda cute if you look hard enough, but the personality of a thumb. His wanna-be Darcy brooding just comes off as constipated.

I think a lot of the problem is the writing, which spent too much effort trying to add comedy (which it failed at), but Persuasion, while it has funny moments, is mostly supposed to be a DRAMA and TRAGEDY and reflect how yeah sometimes people make absolute shit decisions and you are going to pay dearly for your mistakes and it doesn't always get better with time, and that shit suuuuucks. You don't get much of a feel for that.

My biggest beef is that they BUTCHERED one of my all time favorite romance quotes... and with no obvious purpose.

The original in the book and the 2007 movie: "There could have never been two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement"

The new version: "There could have never been two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, they were.... ex's."

Just WHY. It was the wrong moment to try to modernize this. Do they think their watchers can't handle words like "perpetual"? How patronizing. It really ruined an already mediocre movie for me. The real tragedy is that someone paid money to produce this Bridgerton (which I also hate) knock off. I recommend watching the 2008 BBC Sense and Sensibility for some proper misery and pining to help flush out all this garbage from your system if you failed to read this review before watching.

I definitely binge watched it, so it was good, but I can't say I absolutely loved it. It had so many lovely qualities that you hope for out of a period piece romantic drama. Hot people, nice scenery, good costumes, very accurately and realistically written characters, emotional nuance, but it had a few issues. With so many characters in only a 6 hour series, it never really feels like you get to know any of the characters experiences and thoughts intimately enough. You watch everything as an outside viewer and you might as well know as much about Charlotte as some random person at one of these balls who watches things play out. For how much it sucks for her, I don't empathize nearly as much as I would expect to. Enemies to lovers is a marvelous trope but Sidney's character is pretty much a shallow asshole from start to finish under the guise of familial duty; there is nothing redeeming about him. In fact, I'm glad she doesn't end up with him because I imagine if she did marry him, it would only be a few years before she has a couple babies, he gets caught up in gambling, addiction, whoring, and affairs but she's trapped with him and is absolutely fucking miserable. Good riddance.