Anyway rewatching LBD as an adult let me articulate some of the reasons I actually don't like it that much and think it does a disservice to the character of Lizzie specifically, and it has a lot to do with the medium and the framing device of "vlog made as a grad school thesis project and posted on the internet" and YES I know I'm overthinking this but I used Emma Approved in MY undergrad thesis project so I'm allowed to overthink it.

Anyway the issue is that, fundamentally, Austen in general and Pride and Prejudice in particular are very occupied with public vs private spheres. Pride and Prejudice does a LOT of ruminating on the differences in people's public and private behavior, what kind of behavior is appropriate or acceptable in public, the exclusivity of increasingly private spheres, confidence and intimacy, I could go on! And I think that adapting P+P as a vlog, publicly posted, is an interesting choice, and one that could have been carried off well if it was done in a METICULOUSLY thoughtful way, but it just... Wasn't.

Which brings me to the character of Lizzie. Lizzie in the book is HIGHLY concerned with propriety and appropriate public behavior. It's why her family is so embarrassing for her, and part of why she dislikes Darcy so much- he's not observing appropriate niceties for a social occasion. He's having a private conversation- "not handsome enough to tempt me"- in a public place. She's actually really private as a person, and she keeps a lot of secrets and doesn't really share with people aside from Charlotte and Jane (and sometimes not even them!)

Which makes some of the decisions made, in universe, by Diaries' Lizzie... Bizarre, at best. From a meta perspective, yeah, we have to get the whole story, but from an in-universe perspective, some of these conversations are absolutely not things that should be filmed, much less posted publicly for strangers to watch. And the weird part is that they call attention to this, with the repeated plot thread of keeping the videos secret from one person or another, and Lizzie being like "haha wouldn't want them to see this!" Then why the hell would you film it, edit it in, and post it?? Publicly? On the internet???

And like, that's without getting into the fact that this is supposed to be a thesis project for grad school! I literally cannot imagine a professor watching these deeply private conversations, often filmed without the participants' consent or knowledge (the running... Joke? of Bing thinking they're making video letters for Charlotte) and thinking this is acceptable OR appropriate, much less giving her academic credit. And, like, MAYBE if they were livestreamed, but they're not! They're edited. Lizzie edits them herself for most of the series, and that's- like, fuck, I mean, just thinking about some of the things she leaves in, on purpose? Lydia finding out about the sex tape? Like I know it was supposed to be to "prove" Lydia didn't do it on purpose but it would be just as easy to cut the part where she assumed Lydia DID consent and just be like "oh she must not have known" and not expose a humiliating and traumatizing moment to her alleged thousands (?) of viewers, who do not know them and are only watching this for entertainment. Like, sure Lizzie "learns her lesson" or whatever, but I feel like someone getting a GRADUATE DEGREE in mass media communications or whatever should be a little more sensitive to privacy. (Which, as a viewer who's thinking about this, makes ME hyper aware of the implied voyeurism of the whole affair and just makes me wanna turn it off and apologize lmao)

Anyway all this to say I think it's still interesting and it does some things that are really cool (I think Charlotte and her storyline w Mr. Collins really are the best element they changed and updated) but I just think it was biting off more than it wanted to properly chew in terms of the meta-narrative. It could've been a really interesting meditation on privacy in the internet age, but it wasn't interested in doing that, so it ends up just being... Fine, on its own, and deeply uncomfortable if you put any further thought in.