I feel like a lot of my favorite web series have wrapped up or are on hiatus... But! I have at least one mainstay to see me through right now and that is:  From Mansfield with Love.  I mentioned it briefly here, but now I can do one better.  The creators just released their own trailer:

I hope this hooks you and that, if it does, you'll share your thoughts below :)

This is happening :D

It is based on the paper I wrote last term.  Here is the abstract:

Adaptation Theo(re-) and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

My paper examines the current environment of adaptation studies as applied to new media forms of storytelling.  Evolving from a word vs. image debate, the adaptation theories produced by Robert Stam and Linda Hutcheon are opening a space for dialogic exploration, with Hutcheon suggesting adaptation is about “repetition, but repetition without replication.”  Both suggest that the aim of re-telling a story is not direct translation, but re-interpretation and re-creation, and are interested in viewing these re-creations as palimpsest, investigating how adaptation allows people to see the original work in a new way.

After a review of the shift in adaptation perspectives, this paper turns to look at The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a transmedia retelling of Pride and Prejudice set as a vlog in modern day California.  Across platforms including YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest, this Emmy-award winning web series spent a year re-working the 200-year-old novel in “real-time.”  While completely re-interpreting certain concerns—the Bennet’s entailed estate is now a faulty mortgage; Collins “proposal” is for a job, not a marriage—the creators of this series simply update others.  In this paper and PowerPoint presentation, I argue that far from detracting from the core narrative, these changes were made in order to better explore the question at the core of both Jane Austen’s novel and the web series.

In the final turn of my paper, I examine how centering the climax of the story on their interpretation of the Lydia-Wickham scandal, the creators of this series take Lizzie’s empathetic lesson a step further, extending her repentance to include both her misunderstanding of Darcy and of a fully realized Lydia Bennet.  In doing so, they not only work against stereotype, but also encourage viewers to re-examine their assumption of Pride and Prejudice, creating the type of palimpsestuous learning moment adaptation studies strive for. 

Currently watching...

Being that it's my passion, I feel a compulsion to every once in a while update you on the web series I'm following.  I'm really happy that there seems to be a pretty constant flurry of activity in this exploding format--new projects starting up, others finishing one season and pursuing funding for another, etc.  So in the midst of the many that I hear about, here are the series I've been watching over the last few months:

Title: Classic Alice
Creators: Kate Hackett
About: "It chronicles Alice Rackham's life -- lived according to classic literature."  See my review of Season 1 here.  Season 2 just wrapped and stories included: Pygmalion, "The Butterfly," Macbeth, "Rip Van Winkle," The Wind in the Willows, and A Christmas Carol.  Whew! Range.
Of all the adapted web series I've watched this one has been the most innovative and also--with funding--could be the most sustainable. They are currently campaigning for funding and would so appreciate your support!

Status: Finished Season 2, campaigning for Season 3

Title: In Earnest
Creators:  Taryn Cole, Carly Straight, and Rachel Pullen
About: "'In Earnest' is a modern, web series adaptation of Oscar Wilde's famous play, 'The Importance of Being Earnest.'"  This is a quite delightful rendition of this story set at an East Coast University.  I am amazed how seamlessly Wilde's 120 year old wit can be repeated word-for-word today.  Favorite performance is John Laurie as Algernon Moncrieff

Status: Current.  New videos air Wednesdays and Saturdays

Title: Elinor and Marianne take Barton
Creators: Emily Nabney and Olivia Cole
About: "'Elinor and Marianne Take Barton' is an updated online adaptation of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, produced, filmed and created by students at the University of Warwick (England)." I'm aware there are a couple S&S adaptations going on currently; this has felt the most life-like to me.  It's also delightful to finally watch a web-series based off a British book created and performed by British people :D

Status: Current.  New videos air Friday (usually)

Title: From Mansfield with Love
Creators: Foot in the Door Theatre
About: "'From Mansfield With Love' is a modern adaptation of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park." Another British series!  The pretense under which we get these videos is, I think, a perfect set up.  Though I found neither Frances O'Conner (1999) nor Billie Piper (2007) convincing as Fanny Price, Holly Truslove seems to have struck a balance.

Status: Current.  New videos air Wednesday and Sundays

Other series I'm aware of, but haven't checked out yet:
March Family Letters
East and West
Carmilla
Green Gables Fables
The Misselthwaite Archives

Are there others you've been watching? Any of these look particularly interesting to you?  Any I should review? :)

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.