Jane Austen – Co-Geeking

New Trailers for the New Sense and Sensibility

October 7, 2026October 18, 2026Eppu2 Comments

The new Sense and Sensibility adaptation directed by Georgia Oakley has gotten two proper trailers:

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY – Official Trailer [HD] – Only In Theaters October 16 by Focus Features on YouTube

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY – Official Trailer 2 [HD] – Only In Theaters October 16 by Focus Features on YouTube

Oof. I had such high hopes, but: OOF.

My problem in one word: hairpins.

(Hair. Pins. Argh!!! I don’t think of myself as a Regency purist, but OMG, the hair!)

This doesn’t look like Jane Austen at all. It looks sloppy. Slovenly. Slatternly, especially Marianne! The Dashwoods are gentry, but they’ve been made so dishevelled (especially Marianne!!!) one wonders whether they own combs or are reduced to wearing other people’s castoffs. (The 2008 miniseries was bad enough, disregarding the story and, instead of a house in cottage style, stuffing the Dashwood ladies into a ridiculously humble cabin in Devonshire.)

Other than that: on one hand, the colors and sets are so very drab; some scenes are so dark it’s impossible to see what’s going on. Almost everything is incredibly beige, be it clothing or building. Even the supposedly fashionable and dashing Willoughby looks like an unkempt, uncouth farmer. Yuck. Fortunately I have seen some other pics that aren’t quite so dismal or devoid of color; we’ll have to see what the whole is like, though.

On the other, the character work might be better than the visuals. This Marianne seems true to form, i.e., intent on abandoning Elinor to follow the social norms and polite manners (and herself making an escape every single time to do very little except amuse herself). Also John and Fanny Dashwood seem bang on, repulsive and odious in their avarice. We saw Miss Steele(s) not at all, and barely a glimpse of Colonel Brandon (played by Herbert Nordrum, who interests me by virtue of being a Norwegian); sadly, he basically looks like a highwayman. Perhaps the full story will be better; after all, trailers always lie.

Clearly, though, there’s a trend in recent years to make period pics look more lived-in and less polished. Why does that mean using mud for dye and things of feeble quality is beyond me, though. (Actually I do know: it’s what most modern audiences feel is historically accurate. I do not agree or approve.) The only exception I’ll make is seeing more scenes in (supposed) candlelight; that’s nice. (But it’s exactly because candlelight is so weak that period textile colors were much brighter than we’re used to thinking on the basis of museum artifacts. There should be more color, not less! Gah! Anyway.)

The second trailer seems to focus more on Elinor and Marianne. But it’s actually Mrs Jennings (played by the awesome Fiona Shaw) who steals the show: she looks like an absolute hoot! I’m so looking forward to seeing her! The very end of trailer two also has a great, tiny character moment where two dogs are enjoying the breeze at a carriage window.

Oakley’s S&S opened in the UK on September 25, 2026. According to IMDB, the US release will be on October 16, but here in Finland we’ll have to wait till October 30.

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On Sam Gamgee and the Value of Everyday Life

August 7, 2026August 9, 2026Eppu5 Comments

Back in 2002, Canadian journalist and Senator Paula Simons published a column on storybook romance vs. real-life expectations. Since then, her column is shared semi-regularly, particularly around Valentine’s Day.

Here’s an excerpt from the Senator’s Facebook post with the text of her original newspaper column:

“Sam isn’t a warrior by training or inclination. He isn’t looking for glory or adventure.

“He gets dragged into danger because of his love and loyalty for his gentle master, Frodo, the soulful hobbit who’s been given the great task of destroying the Dark Lord’s ring of evil.

“As Frodo’s squire, Sam travels all the way to heart of the Dark Lord’s kingdom, battling orc-goblins, giant spiders and his own fears and frailties. He fights as bravely as any of the story’s flashier knights—more bravely, because he’s no superhero with a magic sword, just an ordinary guy overtaken by extraordinary circumstances.

“But his real heroism lies in his unshakeable loyalty to his best friend, and in his unshakeable loyalty to his hobbit values, his moral code.

When all the battles and quests are over, Sam returns to his prosaic hobbit life, marrying Rose, raising kids, planting trees and nurturing the community he loves.

“The problem is, our culture doesn’t validate the heroism of the Samwise Gamgees of this world. The romantic heroes every teenage girl is taught to pine for are the Byronic brooders like Aragorn.”

I’d like to compare LotR to my favorite Jane Austen novel, Sense and Sensibility. In a way, Sam is the Elinor Dashwood of Middle-Earth: reliable and considerate—and almost completely ignored and/or underappreciated by most of their respective worlds.

While Marianne Dashwood and John Willoughby are the romantic characters in Austen, the story focuses on the two oldest sisters, Elinor and Marianne. While the fellowship are the main dramatis personae in Tolkien, you could argue that in LotR the most important relationship is between Frodo and Sam (perhaps also to a lesser extent between Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli). In S&S, the romantics (especially Marianne) wallow in the throes of Their Feelings^TM that No-One Else can Ever^TM Hope to Feel^TM as Deeply!!!^TM. In LotR, the men wrestle with Weight of Their Destiny^TM (Frodo and Aragorn, even Boromir to some extent). Behind this turmoil, Elinor and Sam keep the wheels of life turning in the background, quietly and unobtrusively. On one hand, if Elinor hadn’t asked around, the Dashwood ladies might not have found a home (or might have ended up destitute after a few years) after the passing of Mr. Dashwood; if she hadn’t kept up with the demands of polite society, the cash-strapped Dashwood family would’ve been left with even less support than they had. On the other, if Sam hadn’t cooked, carried, and picked up the slack, the ring would’ve ended with Sauron’s forces after Frodo was stung by Shelob at the latest, or it might’ve been left lying on the slopes of Mount Doom (if Frodo even had made that far by himself).

Both Sam and Elinor finish with happy endings, partly because of the conceits of story-telling in the times of their respective creation, but partly because of who they are as characters: down-to-earth, pragmatic people who appreciate the good in what they do have. And they both do have strong feelings, even if we don’t see them paraded. Sam could not have gone as far as he did without some serious courage, nor necessarily carried the torch for Rosie through all the hardships if he didn’t feel strongly. Elinor bore the pragmatic and emotional burdens she did thanks to an enduring love for her family and a firm sense of principles.

You could perhaps try to argue that Elinor and Sam’s happiness stems from them merely being undemanding or indifferent, from not aiming high enough. It’s true that their wishes are more modest in the grand scale of their respective worlds. But I don’t think you can have a satisfyingly grand gesture at the end of your epic story to save the entire world (or whatever) if “the little world” doesn’t exist anymore to be saved. The latter is the foundation of everything else.

Unsplash Andres Iga Underground House Sm

The familiar and the sensational in S&S and the commonplace and the epic in LotR provide a contrast to each other like light and darkness do. It takes commitment to save the world. It also takes commitment to keep it going. The latter takes a deliberate and sustained effort—the same kind of intentionality that makes a hero a hero, really, just channeled into making a peaceful everyday life, something that both Sam and Elinor value. If creating something that endures for decades (or longer) isn’t aiming high, I don’t know what is.

At the end of her post, Senator Simons encourages “celebrating the heroism of real love—not ‘romance,’ but the love of friends and family and community, the ‘ordinary’ garden-variety love that conquers darkness. Don’t worry about loving like an elf lord or a princess. Love like a hobbit.”

I definitely mean to. ❤

Senator Paula Simons’s post found via File 770.

Image by Andres Iga via Unsplash

This post has been edited.

In Character looks at some of our favorite characters to see what drives them, what makes them work, and what makes us love them so much.

Trailers for The Other Bennet Sister

May 29, 2026May 17, 2026EppuLeave a comment

Apparently, The Other Bennet Sister is out already! The series is a tweak on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of the dowdy middle sister, Mary, based on Janice Hadlow’s 2020 novel.

The teasers and trailers give you a rough idea of the production, from the short clips…

Your first look at The Other Bennet Sister | OFFICIAL TEASER – BBC on YouTube

The Other Bennet Sister | BritBox Original Teaser by BritBix on YouTube

…to one with a little more length:

The Other Bennet Sister | BritBox Original Trailer by BritBox on YouTube

Okay, then! Lydia is as ~~horrible~~ thoughtless as ever, Jane as thoughtful and kind. I’m having the darnest time telling who’s Lizzy on the basis of these clips; very obviously, the focus is elsewhere.

I remember reading The Other Bennett Sister and liking it; I hope the script is as good. The cast looks wonderful as far as I can tell: Ella Bruccoleri as Mary, Richard E. Grant as Mr. Bennett, Indira Varma as Mrs. Gardiner, and Tanya Reynolds as the shudder-inducing Caroline Bingley. Production values and locations look lovely as well. According to Wikipedia, location shots were pricipally done in Bristol and Wales, so refreshingly new scenery should be in store. I’ll have to look up how to get access!

Have you seen The Other Bennett Sister yet? Any thoughts?

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New Pride and Prejudice Teaser Trailer

May 6, 2026April 12, 2026Eppu1 Comment

Aha! The new Pride and Prejudice adaptation by Netflix is far enough along to have released a first trailer:

Pride and Prejudice | Official Teaser by Netflix on YouTube

Oh, boy… that really wasn’t much, was it?

The editing of the trailer does remind me of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights trailers—and not necessarily in a good way. (I haven’t seen the movie, but I’ve gotten the impression that Fennell foregrounded the characters’ passions at the expense of the plot.) While people in Regency England has strong feelings, of course, the polite society was all about controlling them, and that’s a part of Jane Austen’s writing. Furthermore, at its core P&P is about a meeting of the minds, not looking for a romp in the hay. In this trailer, touch and intimate gaze feature heavily, making it appear the story is about the bodies more than the brains.

And why on earth is Elizabeth Bennett sitting up on the roof in the first place? To highlight her rebellious spirit even to the slowest of viewers???

I am fervently hoping any future trailer(s) will be more illuminating.

At this writing, IMDB doesn’t list a release date, but Deadline claims “launching in fall 2026”.

A New Version of Sense and Sensibility Is Coming

December 3, 2025November 30, 2025Eppu1 Comment

2025 saw the beginning of production on another new screen adaptation of a Jane Austen story besides Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice—a remake of Sense and Sensibility is also in the works.

The film is directed by Georgia Oakley (who is, sadly, completely unfamiliar to me both as director and writer), and bestselling author Diana Reid wrote the screenplay (ditto).

Elinor is played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, Marianne by Esmé Creed-Miles, Margaret by Bodhi Rae Breathnach, and Mrs. Dashwood by Caitríona Balfe. Outside the Dashwood family, we’ll have George MacKay as Edward Ferrars, Frank Dillane as John Willoughby, and Herbert Nordrum as Colonel Brandon.

I’ve seen Balfe in a few random episodes of Outlander, but otherwise the core cast is unknown to me. (Well, technically I have seen Dillane as a 16-year-old version of Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 15+ years ago, but don’t remember a thing of such a fleeting experience.) It’s actually rather refreshing to get to see a production without preconceptions.

Also starring will be Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Jennings, whom I really like as Mrs. Croft in the 1995 Persuasion and as Maarva in Andor. (I always forget her truly excellent performance as Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter adaptations because the character is so repulsive.) The ~~funny~~ marvelous thing is that Shaw has also been cast in Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice as Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Her performances alone should be worth seeing both new versions!

The new S&S adaptation by Focus Features and Working Title Films is in post-production at this writing. The shooting started in July 2025 and, according to IMDB, the U.S. and U.K. release dates are set in September 2026.

Yay! Good times for us Jane Austen fans. 🙂

Images via IMDB, mashup by Eppu Jensen: Esmé Creed-Miles. Frank Dillane by Jesse Grant / Getty Images. Daisy Edgar-Jones by Faye Thomas. George MacKay by David M. Bennett / Getty Images.

Tell, Don’t Show

October 13, 2025March 16, 2025Erik1 Comment

“Show, don’t tell” is one of the old chestnuts of writing advice. Like most such nuggets of wisdom, it has value, but there are also good cases for ignoring it, even sometimes doing the exact opposite.

Telling, as a writer, means giving the reader a direct and straightforward description of a character’s thoughts, emotions, or personality. Showing means providing the reader with tangible evidence of the same things without stating them outright. “She was nervous” is telling. “She fidgeted and took hesitant, aimless steps while her eyes darted about, refusing to focus on anything in the room” is showing.

Showing is valuable in writing because it engages the reader’s imagination. It makes the characters’ experiences more relatable, but also requires the reader to pay attention and figure things out for themselves. When we read about a character fidgeting and taking hesitant steps, we discover her nervousness for ourselves rather than have it served to us. Making little discoveries like this is part of the joy of reading, and that joy is diminished if we have nothing to figure out.

While it’s useful to show your readers things, there is also a good case for telling things sometimes. You don’t want your readers to have to figure out everything for themselves. For one thing, that’s exhausting. For another, it divides your readers’ attention and keeps them from focusing on the elements of the story that you want them to pay attention to. It’s perfectly fine to write “She was nervous,” if the character’s nervousness isn’t the point of the scene.

Jane Austen uses telling rather than showing to excellent effect in her novel Emma. The very first line of the novel tells us exactly who Emma is:

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

As the novel goes on, we get plenty of chances to observe these qualities in Emma for ourselves, but Austen starts by telling us straight out who her heroine is. By giving us this portrait of Emma up front, Austen frees us from having to figure her out for ourselves and allows us to focus our attention on the world around her, discovering the characters who make up her life bit by bit through their own interactions with handsome, clever, rich Emma.

At the same time, the straightforward way Austen introduces Emma may trip us up. As the novel unfolds, Emma discovers that she has misunderstood who her friends and neighbors in Highbury really are. By telling us about Emma instead of showing her to us, Austen lulls us as readers into expecting similarly straightforward introductions to the other characters, and so we get to go along with Emma’s own discoveries rather than getting ahead of her.

Showing is a skill you need as a fiction writer, but knowing when to tell is a valuable skill, too.

How It Happens looks at the inner workings of various creative efforts.

A New Version of Pride and Prejudice Is in Preproduction

May 9, 2025April 27, 2025Eppu1 Comment

Ooh! A new version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is in the works!

Netflix is producing the 6-episode adaptation. Author Dolly Alderton will adapt and Euros Lyn direct. Of the cast so far announced are Olivia Colman as Mrs. Bennet—which will be a fantastic performance, I’m sure—plus Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet and Jack Lowden as Mr. Darcy.

At this writing the new P&P series is only in preproduction, so lots of unknowns remain, including release date. According to Netflix, production is slated to start in the UK this year, but that’s all so far.

Wow, I’ve been wanting another Jane Austen adaptation for a while, so this is great! Not necessarily P&P, though, it’s been done so many times, but I’ll take it. 🙂

As I said, I firmly believe Colman will be great, and I seem to remember good things about Corrin (Princess Diana in The Crown and Cassandra Nova in Deadpool & Wolverine). Lowden, however, is completely new to me; I have no idea what kind of an actor he might be.

Another complete unknown to me is writer Dolly Alderton. However, I’ve seen the work of director Euros Lyn in Doctor Who and Torchwood as well as Broadchurch and Sherlock (the latter with Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch). Broadchurch, especially, was fantastic, and he and Colman worked together in that.

Very promising! Looking forward to hearing more about this adaptation.

Images via IMDB, mashup by Eppu Jensen: Olivia Colman. Emma Corrin. Jack Lowden.

Trailer for Sanditon

September 11, 2019September 11, 2019Eppu

Emmy Award winning screenwriter Andrew Davies has adapted Jane Austen’s last, unfinished work Sanditon into an 8-episode series. To my knowledge it hasn’t been adapted for the big screen before, so this is rather a big thing!

Here’s the trailer:

Sanditon Preview by Masterpiece PBS on YouTube

Among the big names in the production are Rose Williams as Charlotte Heywood (e.g. in Medici) and Theo James as Sidney Parker (the Divergent movies, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, among others). Anne Reid as Lady Denham is also a well-known career actor (I mostly remember her from Doctor Who “Smith and Jones”—the Judoon on the moon episode).

I heard through the grapevine that Davies will move entirely away from Austen’s material after the first half of the first episode. Wow, that’s soon! I did already notice a number of character names not found in the book in the IMDB listing. I hope Davies will not go overboard, though; I’ve seen a number of his adaptations, and he can be a bit of a hit or miss for me.

The U.S. release set to 2020. Can’t wait!

Found via Frock Flicks.

This post has been edited to update a removed link to video.

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Jane Austen, Mystery Writer

July 30, 2018June 28, 2018Erik1 Comment

The great mystery novelist P. D. James has noted that Jane Austen’s novel Emma has all the essential elements of a mystery novel: the plot revolves around secrets which are revealed at the climax but to which the heroine and the readers have been given clues all along. I think we can extend that idea further and say that most of Austen’s novels are, in spirit, mysteries.

The plots of most of Austen’s completed novels are about heroines becoming wiser about themselves and the world, usually by discovering things that make them reevaluate the people around them. Elizabeth Bennet discovers that Wickham is a scoundrel and Mr. Darcy has an honorable soul under his proud manner. Marianne Dashwood discovers that Willoughby is a scoundrel and her sister Elinor has feelings as deep as her own. Catherine Morland discovers that Northanger Abbey is not a Gothic haunted house. Other discoveries and reevaluations made by the heroines and other characters also propel the plots along. Darcy learns that Jane Bennet was actually in love with Bingley all along. John Thorpe learns that Catherine was not in line for a fortune after all. Anne Elliot learns that William Elliot is responsible for her friend’s financial difficulties.

Austen also leaves some clues hidden in plain sight, unremarked upon in the novels but waiting for the clever reader to put together for themselves. Why is Mr. Darcy in such an ill humor when Lizzie first meets him at the Meryton ball? Austen never lays it out for us, but once you know his history it becomes clear that only a few months have passed since his beloved younger sister Georgiana nearly eloped with the scheming Mr. Wickham. Of course the sight of young women his sister’s age freely dancing with men they have barely met puts him in a sullen mood, and it is this mood rather than his natural character on which Lizzie first judges him.

Austen’s great literary innovation, the “free indirect style” in which the narrator stands apart from the point of view character but reflects their judgments and perceptions in the narration, represents a careful balance between objectivity and subjectivity that is important in mystery writing. The job of a mystery author working in the classic style is to present the reader with all the necessary facts to resolve the mystery themselves, but to obscure those facts in such a way that the reader does not get ahead of the detective in working out what happened. Austen’s free indirect style achieves precisely this goal, letting the readers in on what is going on in the world around her characters but coloring the facts with the main characters’ own perceptions and biases.

Austen framed her social satires and ethical critiques in the genre of romantic novels since those were popular in her day. I sometimes wonder, if she were alive and writing today, would she have chosen to write mysteries instead?

Image: Portrait of Jane Austen via Wikimedia (National Portrait Gallery, London; c. 1810; pencil and watercolor; by Cassandra Austen)

Story Time is an occasional feature all about stories and story-telling. Whether it’s on the page or on the screen, this is about how stories work and what makes us love the ones we love.