Web Series Wednesday - The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

If you're new to this YouTube world, or simply to web series, you might not know about this amazing channel. However, it's definitely one of the best and most famous web series out there, and for many reasons.

I discovered this web series, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, from Hank and John Green's YouTube channel, vlogbrothers. Hank posted a video back in 2012, when I wasn't subscribed to their channel ( or to anyone's, to be honest, because I didn't know YouTubers were a thing. Can't imagine living without YouTube now!). When I did subscribe to their channel, after having finished The Fault in Our Stars later in 2013 and discovering that John posted videos with his brother, I started watching all of their videos before I subscribed, because of how good they were. I wasn't that fast, so it took me a while to get there, but in late 2014, I watched this video and wondered: "does this really exist?" I was thrilled to find out that the series was entirely posted by then and I immediately started watching every single episode - which surprisingly didn't take that long, since I was so obsessed I preferred watching these to sleeping. I still do, to be honest.

The first reason why I like this series so much is that it's inspired by an amazing novel, Pride and Prejudice. It's the first Jane Austen novel I read and the first classic I actually chose to read, so this book has a special place in my heart. In Austen's book, there is an amazing romance, even though there's absolutely nothing explicit in it. It's just the fact that you know how the characters feel and you feel their love with them, which is just amazing. I watched as many adaptations of it as I could, so this series was no exception.

My second reason for loving LBD is the way it's adapted into a modern life story. I loved seeing all the little détails altered to make the story realistic and as dramatic in our society, because many things that were considered bad in the 19th century are simply normal today. The amount of work that must have been put in the creation of this web series is insane, which is why I admire it even more. If you've read the books and then you watch this web series, you'll realize how smart its writers are.

My final reason for watching this series instead of sleeping is how they represented each character. When you read a book, you create a precise idea of the characters and their surroundings that can be completely different from another reader's idea, which is why adaptations can be tricky sometimes. You could think a character's a real sweetheart, while someone could think he's actually calculating and evil. Sometimes, the author's writing or the main character's opinion influence our thoughts about a character, like it did for me in Pride and Prejudice. I thought Lydia was an annoying, irresponsible and self-centered girl because it's kind of how Elizabeth sees her little sister. However, in LBD, Lydia's character is taken very differently, which made me realize many things about her I had simply ignored. Her character in the web series quickly became one of my favorites, especially with the amazing actress who plays her, Mary Kate Wiles. I loved her videos, since she creates a channel of her own during the season, and I wish there had been even more of them. She's endearing and her way to talk and move cracked me up so many times that I wouldn't have believed you if you had told me I would react this way to her character before watching these videos.

I also loved the chemistry between the characters, the decoration, the music, the concept and the extras. I think this is a wonderfully well organized web series and I am glad I discovered such a universe. I read The Secret Diary of Lizzie, which is more personal than the videos, and I really liked it. I'm incredibly excited for the new novel that the writers are publishing, The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet, since it's about a character I grew to love. I can already recommend both novels!

 

 

I highly recommend this series!