Emma In Triplicate

All right, well, I did kind of promise not to give you more of what the internet doesn’t seem to need – i.e. reviews, evaluations, criticisms, or summaries of Austen content.

But alas, poor reader, when you’ve watched as many rounds of Emma as I have over the past grumblemumble years, then it really does seem a waste, and since this lovely little site is as much for my entertainment as yours (that’s right, suckers! I’m not the altruistic American you must have been assuming I was…), well, then. Here we are.

So over the past few weeks, I have watched each of the best Emmas produced in the last twentyish years and I’m going to break them down here – by character and plot, mostly, but also in rankings using a specially designed, highly technical algorithm informally known as “Shtuff I Like in the Order I Like It.” (insert expletive as per your desire).

(P.S. – or let’s call this M.S. for “Mid Script” – we will not be addressing Clueless here, though it is thoroughly delightful and I highly recommend it. As a teenager, I swear I watched that movie nearly every single day for months – #whereweremyparents #screentime_what’sthat? #itdoesn’tcountifit’shistorical #wherecanItakeaworkshoponhashtags??

As depicted above, these are the victims of the cogitations of an obsessed Austen brain:

Before we get started, I’m going to give it all away. Which one is the best? Well, each take a very different look at Emma as a person and the society which has shaped her, but across the board, as a hardcore Janeite and thus a strict adherent to the texts, the best adaptation of Austen’s Emma is…

The PBS version of course! Tomorrow, I’ll tell you why in the first of 273 upcoming posts comparing this delightful triad.

(Just kidding. But, yeah, probably like 7 or 8 of them. I won’t be hurt if you ditch me. Just come back when I do something fun like singe my eyebrows off roasting a leg of mutton or spill a tray of perfectly coiffed syllabubs across the floor of my kitchen.)