Strong and Moving!

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

I've always been an Austen fan since I first read Pride and Prejudice at age 9. Since then I've read Pride and Prejudice in two different languages and my favorite adaptation of it is the BBC mini series in 1995. I tried to avoid the "when death comes to Pemberley" as long as possible since first I didn't want to spoil my fondness of the original book, and second the characters on the screen shots just mortifies me. I finally watched it and although the production is good, but like another viewer has mentioned, the script is anachronistic, as if someone is trying to write a Victorian time period drama but struggling with modern and even Hollywood terms. But this is not the worst of it, to me, the worst is the casting. This is a version with finally a handsome enough Wickham, but other main characters are just good actors with great voice performance and way too disappointing and falling far short for such iconic roles. Even supporting characters are rather odd choices, I had to re-watch some of it to understand what their positions, roles and characters in it. I'm sure it's not the worst portrait for Elizabeth and Darcy (and even colonel Fitzwilliam and Georgiana), but they sort of ruined it.

The premise of DEATH IN PEMBERLY is a twentieth century murder mystery set in the milieu of Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Many scenes are set in Pemberley. In the Austen novel this is the birthplace of Darcy and Georgiana and the home to which Wyckham was brought as a child and Elizabeth Bennett upon her marriage. Several other novel characters appear among them Fitzwilliam,Denny, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her daughter, Lydia, Jane, the Bennett girls' mother and Mr. Bingley's sisters. Many quotes from the novel are said by characters at least six years after Austen intended them in the novel an anachronism to be appreciated by some and not by others. Within this context the murder mystery which is quite good in itself is set six years after the novel bringing in events unrelated to the novel which may please some and disappoint others.

I was quite excited to watch this new series. However, after watching the show, one word comes to mind - disappointment. I have to be honest, I could not get over the fact that Elizabeth Darcy (nee Bennet) looked to be closer to fifty than to mid-twenties. I have no issues with aging actors - as I too am closer to fifty than to mid-twenties - but the role should have been cast to a more age-appropriate actor. Given that Elizabeth plays such a central role in the show, I found it painful to watch. Where was the youthful, fun-loving, playful, witty Elizabeth of Jane Austen's beloved Pride & Prejudice? Certainly not in this show...I also found the story (as written) to lack depth. I did not walk away anxious for the next episode (or for a follow-on series). That special something that draws the viewer into the story was just not present.

I had anticipated this series coming to American television, given the fine productions of Jane Austin's novels that have appeared over the years. While it is an imaginative storyline, it is one of the most boring "mysteries" ever presented on "Masterpiece Mysteries." The cast is outstanding, as are the costumes and settings. Those have become a given in recent years with such period pieces. However, the story takes forever to get organized, with people you really don't care for very much. I get the feeling that the producers had so much invested in the backgrounds, with the costumes and settings, that they felt it had to be a longer series. It didn't. This would have worked much, much better as an hour and a half, or maybe two hour, production. Instead, it became a tedious piece of television. The cast deserved better.