ITV
17 September 2008
Fantasy, Historical Comedy, Romance,
DVD
B-
This episode introduces Lady Catherine de Bourgh, played by Lindsay Duncan, who was Lady Bellaston in the '97 version of Tom Jones. It has some meta moments, like when, after Darcy proposes to Amanda, she asks him to reenact Colin Firth's wet shirt scene. But I find it a bit hard to swallow that Darcy would invite not only Amanda, but Mr. and Mrs. Collins, and Lydia and Mrs. Bennet, to Pemberley. Note that the romantic entanglements are getting even more entangled, including a pay-off to Amanda in the first episode telling Bingley she's a lesbian in order to speed up the transference of his affections to Jane. And in case you're worried that Darcy won't end up with Lizzy, he has to dump when Amanda when he finds out she's not a virgin, although he does admire her honesty and bravery in telling him.
I think I enjoyed the meta moment with the wet shirt more than I should have! By this episode I was watching because I had to know how the mess was resolved, but I did find a lot hard to swallow too... including Darcy as a gentleman of that time finding Amanda's honesty about being a ruined woman admirable rather than unbecoming and shocking.
ReplyDelete(Oh, I found your blog after rewatching Enchanted April on YouTube, as I was looking for reviews of it online.)
Darcy's character is one of the more misunderstood ones in this series, with Bingley perhaps the most. What did you think of "Enchanted April"?
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