Emma (part 4)

Another nosedive this week, so much so that I really can't be arsed to review it in any detail. Mr Knightley still far superior, Emma still gurning, Jane Fairfax still swinging wildly between timid and outgoing. First half hour had too much crammed in, the last half hour not enough.

However, I do think I've been overly harsh in my scoring; it wasn't TERRIBLE, just a disappointment given that it was a) 4 hours long - long enough to explain things properly and b) a BBC production.

The Gwyneth Paltrow / Jeremy Northam version still, for me, sets the standard by which all other Emmas shall be compared. Perhaps that's because it was the version I saw first.
At any rate, it was half as long and twice as good.

Fourth episode: if judged on how many times my heartstrings were tugged on during the sixty minute programme:
2 out of 10.

More realistic overall grading of the series:
5 out of 10. Could have been better, could have been worse.

Comments

[Teresa]

I liked the KB/MS version much better. But that's just me. Actually, if they could have been combined the two some way (Still with KB as Emma) I would have been well pleased.

I just finished watching part 4 (ah, the miracle of the Internet) and I must say I liked that last part a good deal better. Of all the versions of Emma I have seen, this is not the best nor the worse, but I kept saying to myself that the screenwriter missed "the point" on several occasions.

The entire Jane Fairfax/Frank Churchill part of the story was mishandled. It was off! I agree with you, Jane's role was so weak and wimpy. I wanted to shake her the entire time just to say, "Wake up and say your lines. Stop being so bipolar!"

[Kirsty]

Was the Kate Beckinsale version the one you saw first?
I seem to remember we were living in London when that aired (so it must've been the first half of 1996) and something else we wanted to watch was on the other channel (don't remember what though!) but I wasn't that impressed with the little bits of it I had seen. Then when we moved to Boblogville in late 1996 I remember Emma was the first thing we saw at the cinema there because we were easily the youngest in the audience by a couple of decades.
However, I shall give it a second chance and let you know what I think, seeing as you rate it more highly than the GP/JN version.
I think it was KB's darker hair that I found off-putting. To my mind Emma should be blonde, but then that might be because I actually saw Clueless first (but that doesn't count as a proper Emma adaptation) which is what made me want to READ Emma. It was the first JA book I read, because I didn't get into P&P until having seen it when it was repeated on the BBC (1996? 1997?). As you know, I'm not one for reading the book until I've seen the adaptation first ;-)