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Original poster

What was wrong with Emma?

58 replies

ElleRaiser · 25/10/2009 22:20

Argh, each episode got more and more irritating. Emma was so clumsy and unlikeable. But I found myself irrationally hating it all. But why? I can't work it out - I am usually totally undemanding when it comes to anything with bonnets in it...

OP posts:

Katisha · 25/10/2009 22:22

It was the clunky script delivered as if they were 21st century Boden-wearers.

JANEITEPatrickNormanMcHennesy · 25/10/2009 22:22

Awful. So bad I wanted to weep.

The girl playing Emma can't act to save her life and it was all just so DULL.

JANEITEPatrickNormanMcHennesy · 25/10/2009 22:24

And I detest flashbacks in things like this. And Jane Fairfax was too squeaky. And the village was too clean - it looked as if it had been carpeted. And there were all sorts of badly wrong things, like Emma turning up to the ball alone, or walking without a bonnet etc etc. It was shite.

llaregguBOO · 25/10/2009 22:24

I think they made her to be too nice, generally. I imagine Austen's Emma to be quite waspish and superior, whereas this Emma seemed to be pretty amiable and jolly. She was just too nice, really.

llaregguBOO · 25/10/2009 22:25

I usually like Johnny Lee Miller in anything and even seeing him in period costume didn't do it for me. Still, it was a fairly pleasant way to spend a cold Sunday evening.

Original poster

ElleRaiser · 25/10/2009 22:26

Yeeees, I see what you mean...

Even Michael Gambon was a bit, well, weird. But I am going to charitably focus on Tamsin Grieg as Miss Bates...

OP posts:

SixtyFootGhoul · 25/10/2009 22:27

I really liked it
Am going off to fantasise about Mr Knightley right now

roisin · 25/10/2009 22:31

I watched it each week, and now feel hugely relieved that it's over and I can stop watching it, because I didn't like it at all!

I think my dissatisfaction centred mainly around the actress playing Emma and the way the character was portrayed. I was unable to feel any warmth towards her at all, which means the plot doesn't really work. I also thought the script/directing was very condescending in places: too much dumbing down and too much trying to be modern.

Linnet · 25/10/2009 22:32

I really liked it too.

BoneYard · 25/10/2009 22:36

A glance in the wrong direction would be scandalous in those days but they were rolling around each others laps tonight...

And JF looked a little bit too much like Myleen Class....

....and too much lack of chemistry between Emma and Knightly - the actress is in her late twenties and should have been 18. There is a wealth of difference in those ages no matter how much we 'oldies' like to think there isn't .

WobblyPig · 25/10/2009 22:36

I thought Emma was enjoyable. It gave more of Mr Knightley than we usually see and made Emma as human as she should be. Hated Jane who was far to girly and as someone else said ' squeaky'. Thought it made a nice connection in the beginning with the 3 children in Highbury.
I've seen Johnny Lee Miller in Mansfield park before - he was much better in this .

JANEITEPatrickNormanMcHennesy · 25/10/2009 22:36

I think they really did succeed it creating an Emma 'whom no one would like' but suspect not in the way Miss A intended!

WobblyPig · 25/10/2009 22:41

I also prefered it to Gywneth Paltrow's version - her accent was awfully droney. The other one was with Kate Beckinsale but her Mr Knightley was really unattractive.

JANEITEPatrickNormanMcHennesy · 25/10/2009 22:42

The Gwynnie one is dire too. The Kate Beckinsale one is fabbo but I can't remember Knightley in it.

Jux · 25/10/2009 22:46

I only saw this last episode. The first thing I thought was Michael Gambon was still being Dumbledore but in the wrong clothes.

Then I got lost in the number of things that were dreadful about the entire the production. I was glad I had missed the rest of it. In fact, I thought Tamsin thing (?) was good but nothing else was.

Had anyone actually read any Austen, do you think?

Squitten · 26/10/2009 12:36

I didn't think this was totally dreadful. Very much enjoyed JLM being back on screen. Romola Garai didn't quite fit the bill for me but I've seen worse in comstume drama!

What broke it for me was the total lack of chemistry between the two leads. The big declaration bits and the shots of them being "couply" just really lacked spark, which is very disappointing when you've been waiting for it for weeks!

bran · 26/10/2009 12:46

There was so much wrong with it, it would be quicker to say what was right.

I thought it was a very good interpretation of Mr Knightly. He is usually portrayed as stuffy and concerned with propriety and always telling Emma what to do. In fact, in the book he always seemed to me to be more like the JLM version, funny, relaxed (for the era) and only getting angry with Emma when she does things that will hurt other people's feelings or damage their standing in society. Very much like a caring older brother in fact.

Emma was wrong, really so wrong. She should have been very self-assured and rather annoying in a teenage way, it was just too old a personality that was portrayed.

Off to lunch - I'll be back to pick everything else apart later, including Emma's posture which was shocking.

Katisha · 26/10/2009 12:49

Oh yes - the posture! She didn't stand or sit up straight once did she!

fiercebadrabbit · 26/10/2009 13:07

I watched the first episode

The voiceovers killed it for me - such lazy writing.

And Emma was gurntastic and extremely unappealing

It was a disaster. Serves the BBC right for being lazy and trying to fob us off with yet more Austen

BalloonSlayer · 26/10/2009 13:13

The bit that did it for DH and I was in the first episode when Emma uttered that fine Austenian phrase:

"... your exercise regime."

Soupspoon · 26/10/2009 13:15

Think that they tried a bit too hard with Emma to make it her different from the Gwyneth Paltrow version (which I really enjoyed, partly for delicious frocks). Frocks wrem't quite up to scratch in this one.

Alibooobaandthe40phantoms · 26/10/2009 13:23

I really hated last night's episode. The bit on the picnic with Emma and Frank Churchill was sooo cringeworthy, but then to finish with Emma gurning at the sea was even worse!

To me, a great deal of the joy about Austen is her fabulous dialogue, and far too much of it was either massacred or just ignored altogether in this adaptation. Very disappointing, as I think JLM could have been a fabulous Mr Knightley given the right Emma and the right script and director.

Badly done!

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 26/10/2009 13:24

Frank Churchill's head in Emma's lap on Box Hill was the final straw for me.

OrmIrian · 26/10/2009 13:26

It's fucking awful! That's what. I want to smack Emma in her smug little face (and I am not a violent woman!) Vile vile vile adaption. Not my favourite Jane AUsten anyway.

Made me very cross as it happens and I didn't watch the last 2 episodes. Unheard of!

Songbird · 26/10/2009 13:31

Badly done indeed ! Agree with everyone on Romola Garai - much too old. Emma is supposed to be young and not really know any better. Aging her 10 years just made her seem really silly and little bit cruel. Maybe if they'd had another episode for her to grow up in, it might not have been so bad. Instead we have 10 minutes where she says how much she likes Miss Bates, takes some pies round and all is forgiven.

Loved loved loved Jonny Lee Miller as Knightly, if only they'd had more chemistry. I really like Romola Garai usually - great in Atonement and I Capture the Castle - but unfortunately, totally miscast and misdirected here. Not entirely her fault methinks. She tried to make her likeable, but with the direction and script, she came across as frivolous and unfeeling.

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