PBS Masterpiece - "Sanditon"

[MaVolta]

Thanks for the info.

Yes, I remember that Lady Denham was telling Esther about her marriages, etc. Esther looked somewhat surprised to be hearing this, and her expression seemed sympathetic.

[ASTRAEA]

Esther was very pretty; prettier than any of the other young ladies her age. The Jane Austen FanWiki has some background on the Denhams and it says that Esther barely has a dowry to make her a worthwhile catch. If you click on Lady Denham, it gives more details about her marriages. Her immense wealth came from husband #1, Mr. Hollis, a man of property & fortune, much older than her. When he died, she married Lord Harry Denham for his title. Her maiden name was Brereton .. like her niece Clara!

[MaVolta]

True that Esther was no saint. I'm not sure that she ever trusted Edward. There were times that she seemed to have doubts about whether or not he would marry her. She even questioned his coldness toward their aunt. She at least showed some concern for Lady Denham, where as Edward only cared about himself. I think that deep down Esther had reservations about Edward complicated by her low self-esteem. Maybe she thought Edward was her only chance at marriage?

[ASTRAEA]

@MaVolta I thought that Esther, Edward & Clara were equally coniving, in their own ways. Since Esther & Edward had the Denham name, I also thought they felt that they were better than everyone, and that if Edward had been left $$$ & not just his title, he & Esther would have gotten married. Edward was a good-looking guy, and I thought that Esther believed that Babbington didn't measure up to him. I don't think it was until she realized that Edward & Clara had conspired to split Lady Denham's estate, that she began to distrust Edward, and reevaluate her attitudes about people. 

[MaVolta]

@ASTRAEA  - I was also happy about the way things worked out for Esther and Lord Babbington. I think that she always liked him, but held back because of her low self-esteem. She didn't think any good and decent man would really care about or love her, but Babbington truly did. Then she felt free to let go of it all and marry him. The other good part was Lady Denham's recovery, and throwing the conniving Clara and Edward out on their heels without a pence, leaving Esther as her sole heir. That was sweet! 

[ASTRAEA]

@MaVolta Obviously Sidney sacrifices his own happiness, to keep brother Tom Parker & the  Sanditon project afloat, by marrying the now-widowed & very wealthy Mrs. Campion .. who threw Sidney over for a wealthy man when they were young. It did seem that there was a real contest for Charlotte's affections early on, between Sidney Parker & young Stringer .. but that didn't seem to be pursued, after Charlotte realized how caring & responsible Sidney was. I guess the one happy ending was one we didn't expect, when Esther Denham sobers up about the sort of person her step-brother Edward is, and allows herself feelings for Lord Babbington, and winds up marrying him in the end. The one very odd relationship is the one between 3rd brother Arthur Parker & sister Diana Parker. Whereas Tom & Sidney are virile young men, Arthur & Diana seem to be hypochondriacs gloating about all of their illnesses/weaknesses. And when Arthur becomes motivated to be more active, Diana drags him down with warnings about how dangerous that would be. And in the end, we see that she's afraid of him developing a relationship with Miss Lamb (or any other woman, probably), because that would leave her alone! 

[MaVolta]

What a huge disappointment! They build the drama, and then it just abruptly ends.I guess the audience can write their own ending? I've never seen anything like this. I just knew that Georgina would be the one to rescue Sanditon using part of her fortune. Instead, we don't know what becomes of her, or anyone else, or Sanditon for that matter. A real bummer if no S2.

[ASTRAEA]

I just checked the number of episodes (8), then came across an article about Season 2 .. so of course I had to check it out. More than saying there probablt wouldn't be a season 2, it talked about the finale of season 1, which really annoyed me! If you don't want to know the ending, either don't check the link, or read it only as far as the spoler alert.

[ASTRAEA]

@MaVolta I watch Thirteen (NYC), but also get PBS on NJTV and a Philly station. I wanted to watch the show about romance, but fell asleep part way thru it. I watched it the night after watching "Sense and Sensibility", and had an aha moment about the 2 sisters!

[MaVolta]

@ASTRAEA  - Is this on your local PBS?  Lucy Worsley starts with the Georgian period and works her way through about 300 years of British cultural history. In episode one, she has a lot to say about Jane Austen and the early romance novels that influenced her, as well as the social norms of the times. I think this might be exactly what you're looking for. Eps 2 airs this evening on my local PBS.

One thing I found interesting was that "sense" and "sensibility" had entirely different meanings in the 18th century English vernacular. Maybe you already know, but Lucy explains. Here's a link to if you missed Eps 1.

https://www.pbs.org/show/very-british-romance-lucy-worsley/