For any and all fans of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice who were hooked on the online adaptation called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries the next question is now: “What’s next?”
Although the showrunner Bernie Su mentioned that there are a few ideas out there – but won’t say what exactly – it is up to the fans of web series to speculate what could work in a similar format.
If we are looking at specifically Jane Austen’s novels…
– Emma: This is (what I believe to be) a strong possibility, Emma is so confident in herself that maintaining vlogs in a similar fashion as to Lizzie Bennet is not entirely impossible to see (far from it in fact). Not only that, but for her to pull Harriet into the action and possibly drag others to do so (like Frank Churchill) also a strong possibility. Yes… I do think this can be done.
– Northanger Abbey: This could be a lot of fun, particularly if it plays out as a bit of a horror story that has backfired. The heroine could use the vlogs as a way to keep tabs on her adventures in “Bath” and “Northanger Abbey”. So yes, this would be completely doable.
– Sense & Sensibility: This could work if only for the fact that the original form for this was as an epistolary novel as in written in a series of letters… only this time as vlogs or video letters from one character to the other
– Persuasion: The most difficult obstacle with this is the fact that Anne Elliot is a very private person. Sure they could possibly stretch it to make it work, but she is entirely too private for this to be a real possibility… Unless (and I have commented as such before) she actually has created a series of personal vlogs that she has kept private and are posting them in hindsight due to the change in her situation. To me, that is something that could work… but then again I am not imaginative enough to see otherwise (well… maybe).
– Mansfield Park: Unfortunately I do now know enough about this particular novel to be able to wage whether this would work or not. From what I do know, it is a possibility, albeit a little bit like Persuasion and less like Sense & Sensibility if that makes sense. How could it work? I haven’t the slightest idea.
What about outside of the Jane Austen novels? Well for me it is difficult to say… granted there is Jane Eyre which could be interesting, if dark and dreary to an extent. Someone via a YouTube comment mentioned the possibility of doing one based off of Treasure Island I believe… which made me think of Swiss Family Robinson (except the latter might not work so much, though it could be fun!).
Lots of possibilities and once The Lizzie Bennet Diaries ends I am sure I will be waiting to see what happens next. 🙂