GrSo it’s a long hot summer – or maybe a freezing cold winter, depending on what hemisphere you’re in. In any case, it’s the kind of weather that demands some entertainment, because you can’t be expected to be productive in this kind of heat/cold, right? Clearly option #1 is reading (Momentum books all highly recommended, obvs), but if you’ve exhausted your TBR pile, here’s another option.
You might have become aware of a trend that’s been taking YouTube by storm in the past few years – web series based on classic literature. Ever since The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, these modernisations of the classics have been popping up everywhere, and they are perfect for either binge-watching (if they’re finished) or getting addicted to so you can wait anxiously for every new update (if they’re not). So here are ten of my favourites, if you’re looking for something to do this summer/winter.
#1: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Based on: Pride and Prejudice.
Status: Completed.
The original and the best. This current fad for literary web series probably would not have occurred without Pemberley Digital’s award-winning web series. 24 year old Lizzie Bennet is a grad student in mass communications, and when she encounters digital executive William Darcy, things get interesting and intense very fast. This is also the web series that has been responsible for inspiring a kind of re-reading of Lydia Bennet: its sympathetic portrayal of Lizzie’s vivacious younger sister is outstanding.
#2: Emma Approved
Based on: Emma.
Status: Completed.
The follow up from Pemberley Digital to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, this series casts its heroine Emma Woodhouse as a lifestyle expert whose expertise is matchmaking. Her business partner is Alex Knightley (he does the money stuff, she does the creative stuff) and their friendship, which gradually blossoms into love, is just gorgeous. And the crossover they do with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries – casting Caroline Lee (the Miss Bingley of the piece) in the role played by Mrs Elton in the book Emma – is perfection.
#3: Nothing Much To Do.
Based on: Much Ado About Nothing.
Status: Completed – but a sequel, based on Love’s Labours Lost, is coming!
This adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing set in a New Zealand high school might be my favourite of all these web series. Seriously, it is so, so charming and clever. The way it modernises Shakespeare is completely naturalistic and brilliant – it’s Shakespeare, yet somehow also exactly the way Kiwi teens speak. Beatrice and Benedick are perf, Hero is cute as a button, and OF COURSE Dogberry and Verges are “the weird year nines” – but my favourite subplot might be about Pedro Donaldson (Don Pedro in the play) and the growing relationship between him and his friend, shy muso Balthazar.
#4: The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy
Based on: Peter Pan.
Status: Completed – but Season 2 is filming right now!
This oh-so-charming take on Peter Pan is set in the slightly magical town of Neverland, Ohio. Wendy works for her family’s newspaper doing an advice column, and is dedicated to her career – but she loves to hang out with and indulge her inner child with her best friend Peter, a charismatic man child who refuses to grow up. It’s populated with a cast of wonderful characters – Wendy’s straitlaced brother John and his complete opposite Michael, and her entrepreneurial friend Lily (Tiger Lily) – and is just totally adorable. I can’t wait for Season 2, where Captain Hook will come into the picture…
#5: Green Gables Fables
Based on: Anne of Green Gables
Status: Ongoing
This adaptation of the beloved Anne books has really hit its stride recently. 17-year-old orphan Anne Shirley is adopted by ageing brother and sister Matthew and Marilla in Avonlea, Saskatchewan, and she soon charms the pants off everyone in town. She meets her best friend Diana over Tumblr, and quickly forms bonds with her fellow high school students Jane, Ruby and Josie (even if the last is more of a frenemy). Her friends are really beautifully developed by the series, particularly if you follow them on Twitter (seriously, this show’s Twitter game is so strong). And then there’s Gilbert Blythe (AKA everybody in the world’s book boyfriend), who is so, so good. “This should be on Pinterest,” he tells Anne about her hair, which is one of the greatest compliments EVER.
#6: In Earnest
Based on: The Importance of Being Earnest
Status: Ongoing
I’ll be honest – I’ve only just started watching this one and I’m not entirely up to date. I am planning to binge watch the rest of it pretty much immediately after I finish writing this article, though. (Algernon and Cecily have just met! I need to see what happens!) While I think it relies a little too strongly on Oscar Wilde’s actual dialogue sometimes, it is a great modernisation of the play and manages to maintain its original humour and charm – particularly through the character of Algernon, a rakish music major who is almost impossibly charismatic and watchable.
#7: From Mansfield With Love
Based on: Mansfield Park
Status: Ongoing
This English adaptation of Mansfield Park is relatively new. Only ten episodes have been released so far, so we’re still in the very early stages of the narrative and not a lot has happened yet (the Crawfords haven’t even arrived!) But I think it has the potential to be really great. Frankie (the book’s Fanny Price) lives in and works as a cleaner under her aunt Mrs Norris at hotel Mansfield Park. The hotel is owned by the Bertram family, with whom Frankie is close – particularly with Ed, who is training to be a history teacher, clearly adores Frankie (platonically… for now), and wears some truly hilarious jumpers.
#8: The March Family Letters
Based on: Little Women
Status: Ongoing
This one is extremely new, so if you want to get in on the ground floor, this is one to jump on. There have only been four episodes so far, but it promises to be good. The March sisters are making vlogs for their mother Marmee, who is in the armed forces and has been deployed overseas. This project is very much driven by Jo, and I can’t wait until she (and Amy, I guess) meet Laurie, who has already begun talking about their videos on Twitter…
#9: Kate the Cursed
Based on: The Taming of the Shrew
Status: Completed
This one was agonising (AGONISING) to watch if you were doing it in real-time, because funding problems meant that they sometimes went huge stretches of time between episodes, usually leaving things on a mega-cliffhanger. But now that it’s done it’s ripe for binge-watching. I would have liked it to spend some more time on Bianca’s storyline – it’s certainly not as perfect as the quintessential modernisation of this play, 10 Things I Hate About You – but Kate, who is about to leave for college, and her antagonistic friendship/romance/thing with James (AKA Petruchio) is pretty great.
#10: Classic Alice
Based on: a bunch of stuff
Status: SAVE ALICE
Classic Alice is a bit different to the previous nine series I’ve listed here. After getting a bad grade on an English paper, college student Alice Rackham decides to live her life emulating figures from classic literature, something which her friend Andrew Prichard decides to film for his senior film project. So far, Alice has drawn on Crime and Punishment, Pygmalion, The Butterfly, Macbeth, Rip Van Winkle, The Wind in the Willows and A Christmas Carol to make her decisions – often with completely unexpected results. The current run is just about finished, but they’ve just begun a kickstarter to do a whole new bunch of episodes. I hope, for my sanity, that this gets funded, because I need Alice and Andrew to make out. I need it.
Do you have any favourite literary web series? Tell me about them in the comments!