Adaptation Week: Nothing Much To Do

My favorite of all Shakespeare comedies is Much Ado about Nothing.  I've reviewed it, talked about the Josie Rourke production, and immensely enjoyed Joss Whedon's take on it last year.  But when I heard about a web-series adaptation of it over a month ago, I was a bit skeptical [Ok... I think I always start out a bit skeptical about these things].

But after following Nothing Much To Do for several weeks now, I have to say that it's one of my favorite current webseries!

[Via their Facebook]

"Let me explain.  No there's no time; let me sum up."  Here's the synopsis:

Set in a contemporary New Zealand high school. 'Nothing Much To Do' follows the life of Beatrice as she navigates her way through a new city with the help of her best friend and favourite cousin Hero, her school friends, and her ever frustrating rival, Benedick.

The show's creators are "The Candle Wasters" - a team of four young women: Claris Jacobs, Elsie Bollinger, Minnie Grace, and Sally Bollinger.  They write, direct, and produce while their talented and colorful cast carry out the show brilliantly!  Using a very realistic vlogging style, this team is telling the story of Much Ado about Nothing across 3 YouTube channels and some transmedia content - particularly Beatrice's twitter.  But you can catch the whole thing in this one playlist, which makes it delightfully easy.

[Hero and Beatrice - via]

Thanks to Shakespeare's source material and many of the simply genius maneuvers by the Candle Wasters, there is much to love about this adaptation.  For Starters, Americans like myself can't help but love the New Zealand accents!  And I have to say that the "international" feel makes the classic Shakespearean names more palatable.

On top of that, the casting is top notch and the setting of "Messina High" works perfectly!  Beatrice, played by Harriet Maire, is a perfectly believable vlogger - witty, part self-deprecating, more-parts confident of her own perspective.  Benedick, Jake McGregor, is both odd-ball British Whovian and someone desperate to get a laugh from his friends, Pedro and Claudio.  Leo becomes Hero's older brother. Dogberry and Verges have their own Sherlock-styled channel, "The Watch."  And after a successful "Vote for Pedro" campaign (yes!), Pedro Donalson becomes Student Body President of Messina High.  So, of course, he hosts a costume party at his place - cue the masquerade!

Like other successfully transmuted adaptations, NMTD walks the fine line of being self-referential without being self-absorbed.  In one early video, which also serves as the cast's introduction, they have Balthazar quote a line from Mumford and Sons which is in fact inspired by... Much Ado.  They've worked in several of the original lines or at least original arguments - most notably in Benedick's episode "Olives" based on the original lines from II.3.209-210 "but doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age."  This is the type of adaptation that causes Shakespeare devotees to flip back through their yellowed paperback and still inspires new-comers to maybe look into what all this "ado" is about.

[Much Ado - Mumford - Nothing Much To Do]

One of my favorite things about any adaptation is how they will portray "gray areas."  For example, in Much Ado, Pedro famously asks Beatrice, "Will you have me, lady?" - which some play as a jest and others as an honest proposal.  Either way, Beatrice laughs off the question, though, again, her lines can be read either way.  The team on NMTD plays this out excellently in one of my favorite episodes of the series: "All Around Great Guy."  In so doing, they encourage me to think they will handle other moments well.

Another strength of the show thus far has been the high-school depictions.  Up until now, the majority of web-series I've been following feature all post-high school characters with post-high school problems (Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Autobiography of Jane Eyre, Emma Approved, Classic Alice, New Adventures of Peter and Wendy).  But NMTD features intelligent, rather emotionally developed teenagers - which is a refreshing representation.  But it also captures little ticks about teens in a current way:  Beatrice admires pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch, Hero is caught reading The Fault in our Stars, the characters reference several contemporary bands, the slang feels natural, and where Hero wears Top Shop, Beatrice sports a Grumpy Cat T-shirt.  These are tumblr-ific teens.  They are smart. They are aware. And they have wonderful character arcs ahead of them. 

So is Nothing Much To Do all "hey nonny nonny"?  Well, yes.  But while I love it, I have to mention that - being Shakespeare - this adaptation is far from PG.  But for more mature audiences, this is an incredible take on a classic tale.  I look forward to seeing how they tackle certain plot points like Hero's "death" and the "weddings" as those will prove to be tricky.  But I have been loving everything so far.  Cheers and keep up the excellent work.

If I've sufficiently peaked your interest, start here:

And if you're looking for something slightly different, consider one of the other web-series adaptations I've reviewed: Classic Alice and Emma Approved.

Adaptation Week: Emma Approved

Hello!  So... "Adaptation Week" got hijacked earlier - sorry about that.  But I am really excited to jump back in with a few more.  The types of adaptations I am highlighting will be the actual focus of my Master's research.  I've started following quite a few adaptations and keeping tabs on others.  In this digital renaissance, there are so many exciting possibilities in storytelling.  So, back to it:
 
See previously featured adaptations: Mansfield Park and Classic Alice.

Ok, so if you haven't started watching Emma Approved yet, it's time to get on it!  Pemberley Digital's 2nd full-length series recently returned from hiatus and 57-episodes in feels stronger than ever,

Emma Approved is: "A lifestyle brand and documentary of life coach and matchmaker Emma Woodhouse."  When the series begins, Emma & her long-time family friend Alex Knightley have recently formed a subdivision of the "Highbury Group" to focus on match-making, event planning and lifestyle excellence. 

This modern day Emma is no Cher Horowitz. She's more a combination of ruthless Kardashian business skills meets Mary Fiore's event coordination. She is talented but unwilling to compromise one ounce of her vision of the world. She goes to great (questionably illegal) lengths to accomplish her plans. 

This series, even according to its creators, started a little weak for a couple reasons. The biggest issue was fans adjusting to a very different format than it's predecessor, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Where Lizzie shot vlog-style videos & knowingly posted them on the internet where other characters could find them & viewers could interact with them, Emma Approved videos (minus the Q&A) are told almost "mockumentary" style. While the in-world reasoning for this didn't make much sense, anyone familiar with the story will know that telling Emma the way PD told Pride & Prejudice wouldn't work. Aside from the risk of in-world characters viewing the episodes, it would be highly implausible for high-society Emma Woodhouse to vlog.

One of the stronger parts the show has been Brent Bailey's Alex Knightley.  He is the perfect Knightley - counteracting Emma's (sometimes misplaced) enthusiasm with doses of reality and delivering his lines with a blend of humor and care.

And there's just something to love about a grown man who can still look like a five year old when the occasion calls for it:

They've done rather well with the rest of the casting, too, with highlights being Harriet Smith, Bobby "B-Mart" Martin, Annie Taylor-Weston, and Maddie Bates.  In addition, Frank Churchill has made a few appearances and Jane Fairfax just re-joined Highbury.

Thus far, Emma Approved has taken 2, month-long hiatuses (hiati?).  Though it's sad to go a month long without Monday and Thursday pick-me-ups, both times the team has returned to take their game up a notch.  After January's hiatus, they achieved an Emma Approved-Lizzie Bennet Diaries crossover that just blew me away by combining/replacing the character of Mrs. Augusta Elton with the LBD's Caroline Lee.  Brilliant move!  And following the May hiatus, they had not only the long-awaited reveal of Jane Fairfax but introduced a both in-world and real-world charity drive to fight modern day slavery.  These kind of game-changers combined with the heightened anticipation have made the hiatuses more than worth it!  So, Pemberley Digital, while I hate to be without you, take all the time you need to make it awesome!

The show has had a few detractors - mostly the ones I mentioned early on.  Some things, like Jane Fairfax's character development, will just take time or others like myself, who initially disliked Emma, will have to be won over.  Personally, the two biggest obstacles for me have been the format and certain production choices.  As I mentioned earlier, I understand that vlogging wouldn't work for this story, but full-time surveillance in an office doesn't make sense either.  I also felt that the strength of LBD's transmedia was really missing from the first 1/3 of this story, though I feel that's improved recently with twitter conversations about Knightley offering to carpool with Jane Fairfax and especially with the charity drive. 

My second - and even bigger - frustration has actually been with the costume department for Emma herself.  I understand that she is in event planning and that she's supposed to be trendy.  But more often than not I inwardly cringe at her costumes because they are so not office appropriate.  Short shorts, mini dresses, and midriff just do NOT belong in her world of high-profile clients.  I know they are working with sponsorships from trendy places like mod cloth - which is great!  But even Harriet looks more trendy-but-appropriate than Emma does and honestly I find it distracting.  Okay.  Personal rant over.

Overall, I do love the show, but not nearly as much the Lizzie Bennet Diaries.  That is probably due to the fact that I love Pride and Prejudice far, far more than Emma.  But if the LBD was a 5/5, this is still 4.5.   I really enjoy the interaction between these actors and several of the modernizations they have made with Bobby Martin, Mr. (Senator Scum-bag) Elton, and especially with the Caroline Lee - LBD crossover.

And I can't review it without mentioning that the show has received an extra spark thanks to a very "Emma Approved" real life pairing: Joanna Sotomura and Brent Bailey, who play Emma and Knightley in-world, are in a real-life relationship.

I told you he was perfect. :)

Be sure to check out Emma Approved and in the mean time, I'll leave with a recent video from the stars goofing around on the Tonight Show. 

Adaptation Week: Classic Alice

Welcome to day 2 of Adaptation Week!  You can check out Day 1 (BBC's Mansfield Park) here.

Today's featured adaptation is a new web series called Classic Alice [which, turns out, is sadly not a modern adaptation of Alice in Wonderland - still waiting on that one!]  But what it is is pretty cool! The show's synopsis, according to their website: 

It is the story of Alice Rackham, a college student with a huge drive to succeed. When she gets a bad grade on an essay because she isn’t emotionally connecting to material, she decides to take it a step further and live her life according to classic novels. Her friend, Andrew Prichard, uses the opportunity to make a vlog-style documentary about the process, and together they create ‘Classic Alice’.

This "adaptation" is different in a couple of ways. Unlike other adaptations where actors directly assume the characters and attempt to convince you of the life-likeness (or "verisimilitude" ;) of the played out narrative, Alice drops the pretense of meta and just lives it: she is actively emulating characters rather than pretending to be them.  Also, the construct of why they're filming makes this adaptation more believable than many others.  These strengths allow the series to avoid forced plot points, feel more realistic, and (best of all) explore more than one story within the same series.  Their first book was Crime and Punishment - an arc they played out over 7 weeks.  They are currently working on the next book/mini-series, due to air in June or July.  

While it may seem like a weakness to dedicate only a few months to a summarized view of the story, I think this could turn into a show strength in that this team will be able to tackle books that would be much harder to focus a whole series to.  Pemberley Digital, for instance, has chosen stories that adapt rather well across the years.  But Classic Alice has the potential to take less accessible stories (like Crime and Punishment) and explore it's application without forcing certain aspects that wouldn't fit in today's setting (e.g. no down-and-out prostitute, thus far). 

Alice is a fun and engaging character.  [Though, I may be biased because when I showed these videos to my flatmate, she just kept saying "Oh my gosh, she's you!"  I'll let my friends be the judge of that :]  She is played well by the show's creator, writer, and executive producer: Kate Hackett.  The show also has a fun sub-plot in (and many BTS videos dedicated to) her "friendliership" with Andrew.

Classic Alice is currently on hiatus, but you can catch up on both the Crime and Punishment episodes along with a host of additional content here.  You can also follow on FaceBook [source for all of the above pictures] or Twitter.  If you get a chance to check out the show, let me know what you think in the comments below!

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Update: 7/2/14

Classic Alice will return on August 5th with Season 2 / Book 2 - Pygmalion!  Could not be more excited!!

Adaptation Week: Mansfield Park

The winner of the Wait and Hope 1000 Giveaway is my good friend and fellow blogger: Cami!  Congrats, Cami, and thanks for everyone who entered.

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Anyone who chats to me long enough is bound to discover I love adaptations.  I simply love classic stories retold well.  Adaptations serve to introduce some to a story for the first time, others get to relive it and rethink their prior assumptions.  What's more, they often prompt great discussion about characters, plot points, and the way in which we understand a narrative. Being that I love adaptation so much, I thought I'd take this week on my blog to hi-light a different adaptation that is new or currently going on.  So, welcome to Adaptation Week!

[via]

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, the BBC is re-airing a radio drama they recorded initially in 2003.  That's right, before Tennant flew the TARDIS, before Felicity Jones played Northanger Abbey's gullible heroine, and far before Cumberbatch sleuthed in a long overcoat - they all were in a production of Austen's third novel.  Mansfield Park is interesting in that it is the author's most controversial novel as it can be read as exceedingly moralistic or covertly subvertive.  Due to the fact that she sits in the canon between Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse, Fanny Price seems a frail and prudish heroine by comparison - but, this of course depends on how she and the novel is interpreted.

The BBC will be airing 10, 15-minute episodes beginning today, May 12.  You can listen to these episodes within a week of their airing via iPlayer Radio.  The stellar cast includes:

Fanny Price: Felicity Jones  
Sir Thomas Bertram: Tim Pigott-Smith
Lady Bertram: Liza Sadovy 

Tom Bertram: David Tennant  
Edmund Bertram: Benedict Cumberbatch  
Maria Bertram: Kate Fleetwood  
Mrs. Norris: Julia McKenzie  
Mr. Rushworth: Toby Jones  
Henry Crawford: James Callis  
Mary Crawford: Susan Lynch  
Narrator: Amanda Root