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Readers, I feel a bit like mixing business with pleasure today, but business first.  We discussed a bit of Masterpiece back in January, and I want to provide some more information about our viewing habits and intentions as well as an update to that post (aka the pleasure part, I hope at least).  I am particularly interested in Masterpiece Classic and don’t watch much else. I’m not going to tune in for Masterpiece Mystery, as that’s just not my jam, but others adore it. I may watch some of the spring programming, but we’ll see.  World on Fire looks amazing, but as publishers have oversaturated the WWII market, this may not be the right time for me to watch this show.  We’ll see.  

The summer is a very different story though.  Beecham House is the summer show for Masterpiece, and I am SO excited.  What feels like eons ago, I spent several weeks in South India with a study abroad group from my university and it was the most amazing, transformative experience!  I watched and loved Indian Summers when it aired, and even went back and watched The Jewel of the Crown shortly after.  I was super excited, then I found out some of my favorite PBS actors will be starring, and now I am anxiously awaiting the start date!

Now for the pleasure piece, drama first.  There may be slight spoilers, but I do mean them to be slight (at least before the warning) in case you haven’t and plan to watch Sanditon or Howard’s End.   

Social media has been all a buzz with Sanditon and not in all good ways.  Individuals are threatening to pull their funding and not watch new programs because Sanditon isn’t getting a second season, and because of how the first one ends.  This is all the things that are wrong with social media. First, if you’re donating to an organization and don’t like what it’s doing, don’t fund them. If you want to see them change how they operate, have a calm conversation with the staff, realizing that unless your gift is significant (which likely means it includes a comma), then your influence may not be substantial.  My guess is if you’re berating the social media person of a $500,000,000 organization (yes, I looked), your gift isn’t significant and your comments will be ignored, but that’s just a guess.  

Now, for the series itself, this is Jane Austen, so I expected the ending to be more blunt than I wanted.  We’ve discussed how I needed more at the end of Pride and Prejudice than Austen offers, so with her last, unfinished work, I expected more of the same, and that was before reading what there is of the text she wrote.  On the Masterpiece Studio Podcast (which I highly suggest for any show you’re watching – spoilers usually included for that week’s episode), screenwriter Andrew Davies confirms Austen’s text takes up the first 20ish minutes of the eight episode series, so there’s that. 

Here’s the spoilery part in case you need to jump to the next paragraph. Lady Denham’s storyline proceeded mostly as I expected it would. I was delighted we had one couple end up exactly as I’d hoped by the end (oh y’all when Esther screams “YOU KNOW NOTHING” at the Crow, I mean Babington, it is AMAZING! About the two minute mark, if you need to relive it). Our sweet Charlotte is another matter entirely, but I don’t hate it. Sidney did what he had to do for his family, as much as it’s awful, there isn’t another way to save Tom (who doesn’t deserve it) and Mary (who does).  Throughout the show, I actually wanted to see Charlotte with Young Stringer because she seems to fit better with him than with the dark, mysterious Sidney Parker. Stringer has his own issues to overcome now, and he may yet do so.  Will we ever know? Not likely. Just like with Austen herself, she won’t ever tell us what happened with Mary or Kitty Bennett or how the youngest Dashwood sister grows up with her two older sisters guiding her, and I doubt Davies will break with tradition, even if the ratings and funding was there to make it feasible (and they aren’t right now).  Do I like it? Nope. Does that make it wrong? Also, nope.  

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Less spoilery bits:  People have also blasted Sanditon for being too modern, but really, looking at the different film versions of Pride and Prejudice, each one tweaks and adjusts for the audience of its day.  Would Fitzwilliam Darcy come out of the pond in wet clothing a la Colin Firth?  Nope. Do I adore that scene? Absolutely! Would Fitzwilliam Darcy follow Elizabeth on a walk to a secluded garden folly risking both their reputations?  Nope. Is that among my favorite scenes (and handwashing memes)?  Hundop!  Sanditon doesn’t feel off to me though, honestly.  It is modern leaning, but the original text is also more satirical than others I’ve read from Austen, so it makes sense to me.  Austen was older, and it felt like she was going for it, all out of cares to give. Perhaps the screen version is a bit more risque than Austen would have written, but really, they all are, and that’s ok by me. 

The pieces that aggravate me though are the costume and hair. Let me back up. I adore Rose Williams.  She was AMAZING in Reign, as is most of the cast.  (If you like period drama and don’t shy away from a smidge of mysticism and paranormal, give it a try.)  While I adore the actress and think she did a great job, Williams’s costuming was aggravating because historically her dresses were too short for her age and her hair should have been up for the vast majority of the scenes. Her hair was mostly down about her shoulders, and honestly, looked about like mine does on a normal (i.e. lazy) day.  This did not feel like a small budget production, so why we couldn’t or didn’t pay attention to historically correct costumes and hair for this lead actress felt ridiculous, particularly paired with the excellent coiffures of Mary Parker and Miss Lambe.

Bottom line – will I rewatch Sanditon?  Probably. (Ashley agrees as she appreciates looking at Theo James, Mark Stanley, and Leo Suter just as much or more than I do…) Do I feel like it did justice to Austen’s text, what there is of it?  Yes! Do I want a second season? So. Very. Much. Do I think it’s coming? Not even sort of. :::le sigh:::

Now for Howard’s End

I realize I’m late to the game, as Starz did this a yearish ago.  Oh well. I watched Howard’s End on Amazon Prime, although it’s also available through Masterpiece’s Passport.  I enjoyed the film version so very much more than the book!  It doesn’t ramble, it honors the characters as laid out in the text, and I love Hayley Atwell and Matthew MacFayden, and thought the entire cast was amazing!  (If you haven’t seen Agent Carter, starring Hayley Atwell, I highly encourage it, even though there are only two seasons.  Blah blah Avengers, I know, but I like her show better!) I did not appreciate that MacFayden was playing a character old enough to have grown children.  Yes, I realize this is my issue and the actor is old enough, but that doesn’t help.  Just like his IMDB profile, my first thought of him is in 2005’s Pride and Prejudice and no, I will not be doing the math about how many years ago that was (eons, just like my aforementioned time in South India).  Moving on. Like the book, the screen version of Howard’s End is slow and builds into an amazing crescendo then calms into a mostly delightful ending.  It starts off relatively calm and adds drama bit by bit until it explodes then settles.  

Will I watch this again?  Perhaps. Will I be looking into the 1992 version with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson to discover why it won best picture and was nominated for nine Academy Awards?  Absolutely! Honestly, as much as I enjoyed Atwell and MacFayden and thought they did a great job, the age gap didn’t feel big enough.  Henry Wilcox’s oldest son is engaged as the book opens (which to me indicates Wilcox to be late 40s or early 50s) and Margaret Schlegel is 29.  MacFayden and Atwell are 43 and 35 respectively at the time of filming. They make sense together in a way that I don’t think Hopkins and Thompson can to me, even though it does, without having seen this version, seem to fit much better with the text.  
Have you seen other versions of Howard’s End?  What do you find to be your favorite parts?