Doctor Thorne is back on streaming!
I did watch the first two of the four episodes ages and ages ago. Remembered absolutely nothing. The book was a completely new experience to me. And by the time I had read the book, you couldn't stream this one anywhere.
I've now rewatched the first two episodes and I'm having a lot of fun.
The adaptation is much more exciting after reading the book. I didn't realize that I'd had a fandom experience with the Barsetshire Chronicles until I found myself getting excited to see the places and characters on-screen. There's Barchester! There's Courcy Castle! There's Greshamsbury! There's Doctor Thorne in the flesh! And so on.
I guess spending six novels in a place means you get attached to the world without even trying.
Apparently when there are no adaptations of a book, getting any kind of adaptation is much more exciting. It helps that this is a pretty darn good adaptation.
Mary is excellent, though they make her less of a class snob. (They do hint at it with her comments about Augusta degrading herself with her marriage, but they soften it by saying it's degrading because she's marrying money "without love".) And that does lessen the irony of her parentage reveal.
Basically all of the casting is fantastic. Special shoutout to Lady Scatcherd--utterly perfect in how lovable and simple she is.
Miss Dunstable is way too pretty, nowhere near loud enough, and she's not supposed to be American! Miss Dunstable needs to know that people are only proposing to her for her money. She can be well-groomed and expensively-dressed, but she should be at the very least average-looking. She needs to have manners that people would find vulgar if it weren't for her money. And her being English is part of the fun--to see that there can be British characters like her, rather than assuming anyone extroverted must be foreign. I'm not mad at the characterization--she's given respect--but she's nowhere near as interesting or lovable as she is in the book.
I don't even watch very many period dramas, but I must see more Regency and Edwardian fashion than I realize, because all the 1850s fashions struck me as conspicuously outdated. Like the equivalent of looking at 1970s fashions today--strange cuts, colors and ruffles that feel a few decades out of fashion. It was so weird.
They got rid of Mary's donkey!
Weird to begin and end each episode with Julian Fellowes providing commentary like it's Masterpiece Theater. I think I can figure out for myself that illegitimacy was stigmatized.
I can't understand why there aren't more Barsetshire adaptations. These would be perfect for the Austen and Downton Abbey crowds. The Small House at Allington would kill with Austen fans who don't need the 500th adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.
Especially since this proves these stories work really well in adaptation. Like, even though I loved all the characters in Doctor Thorne, the plot kind of felt like treading water until we reached the obvious resolution. But seeing all these plots happen on-screen makes those side plots feel more twisty and significant.
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