After the miniseries’ first episode ended with modern-day Amanda racing off in the rain after Jane Bennet, the second picks up with Jane doing exactly what she was supposed to do in Pride and Prejudice: become trapped in My Bingley’s house, too ill to go home.
Amanda takes Elizabeth’s place, looking after a sickly Jane (with the help of some paracetamol she brought with her from the future) in between ignoring Caroline Bingley’s snobbery. Here’s where the anachronisms became a bit hard for me to ignore: Mr Bingley hangs out in Jane’s bedroom.
Hell, even Mr Darcy pays a visit!
This would have been a big, big no-no in Regency society. Sure, the extremely anachronistic 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie did it, but that should hardly be used as a handbook for how to “do” Austen!
However, Bingley still has his sights set on Amanda, a problem she solves in a way I didn’t expect. There’re a few fairly embarrassing scenes here, when Amanda doesn’t know how to perform the way a Regency woman is expected to…
Of course, things can’t just go smoothly, and the book dictates the next thing that happens is Mr Wickham swoops in. In this version, he saves the day.
This is closely followed by Mr Collins’ arrival; he is certainly the most disgusting incarnation of the character yet.
Yet again, nothing goes to plan:
This was another fun episode. Not quite as fun as the first, but that’s because Collins is disgusting and most of the characters are acting like total idiots.
When episode two ends you’re going to be left wondering how anything can ever be resolved – which is why I watched the next one as soon as I had a spare few minutes!
In Times Gone By... 