A Man. And His Blog.

Okay then. As expected, the episode was weak, and I never found interested in the storylines. I don’t know if EMMA actually works as a 4-part miniseries, where the episodes manage to be interesting and somewhat entertaining, but this episode had nothing of importance. At least not for me.

Sure, this whole thing is a love story, and Emma (Romola Garai) finally knows that Mr. Elton (Blake Ritson) was interested in her, and not Harriet (Louise Dylan). Sadly, this topic was the only story, which brought a bit of drama into the episode. When Emma was telling Harriet all about it, I wanted to have more of it – more of Emma trying to tell herself that she will never be interested in marrying or love somebody, trying to ease Harriet’s pain. Furthermore, I was kinda expecting Harriet for talking to Emma about it, but instead she just took the news, cried about it, tried to forget it, and the rest of the episode didn’t even have Harriet. Dies that mean this storyline is over? And where were Mr. Knightley’s (Jonny Lee Miller) words of Emma being a bad influence for Harriet? I didn’t see anything of it in this episode, and it seemed it was “forgotten” here.

Well, Jane Fairfax (Laura Pyper) and Frank Churchill (Rupert Evans) return. Okay enough for me, since the two of them rock Emma’s world right now. Since Elton is now engaged to another woman, Emma needs a new love interest, and it seems that Frank is the guy to fill this slot. I just hope that this story won’t be over in the next episode, just so that another guy can be Emma’s love interest. In addition I never really got the story around Jane. Now Mr. Knightley is in love with her all of a sudden? Where did that come from?

What I’ve realized during this episode: I will never be friends with Jane Austen. Somebody should try to modernize her stories. Or is that not possible? Not that the episode was terrible, it was just nothing for me. I need more story here. 5/10

If that's a flash forward into the future, I'll shoot myself

A 5-second-relationship between Jane and Mr. Dixon

Well, here I am, having my Golden Globe watch. This time I will get acquainted with the BBC miniseries EMMA, and their Golden Globe nominated Romola Garai. And meanwhile I’ll try something from Jane Austen for a while – it seems like this will be the first TV or movie production adapted by a Jane Austen story, which I will watch as a whole. And yes, I got my answer, why I never developed interest in the older history of Great Britain, where one love story kills the other.

At first I didn’t really know what the story was about. The first episode had a nice introduction, but with the exception of introducing the characters with a narrator during the first ten minutes (which was a good idea, since the narrator wasn’t used heavily), the first part of the episode didn’t have a proper story. I managed to realize what the series is about, when the episode hit the middle part, and when Emma was talking too often about matchmaking her new-found friend Harriet (Louise Dylan) with her other new-found friend Robert Martin (Jefferson Hall). Other than that the whole story seems to be predictable.

Here we have Mr. Knightley (Jonny Lee Miller), who leads in discussions with Emma about her insecurity in life, as well as how she makes friends with other girls. It seems like Mr. Knightley is the possible romance type for Emma – while she is matchmaking her friends, who leave the family after the wedding, Emma stays solo, but doesn’t seem to have interest in men. Luckily the episode introduces three guys for her: besides Mr. Knighton, there is Robert Martin (yes, the guy who wants to marry Harriet) and Mr. Elton (Blake Ritson), the guy she wants to match up with Harriet. I could imagine that one of the three will be kissing Emma during the next three episodes, and, who knows, maybe marry her. After all, this whole thing is a love story, and not much of a drama.

The characters were alright. Emma is the spoiled little rich girl, and she has every scene, where she can show it to her mates and family. Harriet seems nice at first, and is probably just the pawn in Emma’s life, so that she can show herself she is the best matchmaker in the world. Mr. Knightley reminds me of every other role Jonny Lee Miller was playing, while the rest of the cast didn’t have much screentime, or didn’t even had a proper story. Furthermore, the story only seemed to be interested in Emma. Sure, she is the main character of the series (and here I ask myself why Romola was nominated for “Best Supporting Actress”), but it wouldn’t hurt, when the other characters get a story too, and not just have to interact with Emma.

The first part of the miniseries wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really good either. Blame it on my dislike for Jane Austen stories, or blame it on the fact that this is a full-blown romance story without any worth in it. But the first 56 minutes were still somewhat entertaining – and I was expecting for the series to bore me. 6.5/10

Saying goodbye to friends, just married: the Woodhouse's

It's not easy being a statue for a painting