Since 2013, Pemberley Digital Studios has been reimagining and retelling classic stories in a transmedia format. Before they were officially Pemberley Digital Studios, the team of Hank Green and Bernie Su launched their first and arguably most successful series, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, an updated adaptation of Pride & Prejudice with communications grad student living at home while completing a vlog-based thesis project. The series contained 100+ episodes of 5-9 minutes released on a two-per-week schedule. That series was followed up Welcome to Sanditon (28-episodes, Austen’s Sanditon), Emma Approved (77 episodes, Austen’s Emma), Frankenstein MD (24 episodes, Shelley’s Frankenstein), and The March Family Letters (50 episodes, Alcott’s Little Women).
The March Family Letters (2015), done in cooperation with PBS video (as was Frankenstein MD), in many ways seemed to signal the end of Pemberley Digital Studios. After 5 series in two years, production stopped.
Until Fall 2018 when Pemberly Studios suddenly and unexpectedly came back with a 17-episode arch not based on any Austen novel, but one that exemplifies Pemberley studios efforts to build a cohesive storyworld based on the major and independent Austen novels. The 17-episode arch focused Emma’s efforts to identify a new career for Mr. Collins (the annoying failed beau from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries).
This is not the first “character crossover” Pemberley has used to knit its adaptations of stand-alone novels into a storyworld: in the original Emma Approved, the shallow and boastful Lizzie Bennet Diary character Charlotte Lee is used in Emma Approved in place of the Augusta Hawkins character from the original Emma novel. Likewise, the character GiGi Darcy (Georgina in Pride & Prejudice) takes the role of the outsider Charlotte Heywood in Welcome to Sanditon, based on Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon.
Using crossover characters works to expand Austen’s novels into a larger universe, which is ironic when we consider that Austen’s novels largely reflect the closed and insular world their characters were restricted to. However, it does appeal to the modern taste for seriality (stories that bloom beyond the scope of the original material) as well as reward insiders–when fans of The Lizzie Bennett Diaries see Charlotte Lee walk into Emma’s office, they know the character, they are privy to inside jokes, and they get a reward new fans don’t get.
This strategy of making Austen’s novels into a single connected universe is, in fact, the whole purpose of the 17-episode Emma Approved, Revival series. The producers reinforce that they are making these separate stories into a combined universe with the introduction (or reintroduction) of Mr. Collin’s from the Diaries, but the true purpose for the series is made clear in the very last episode when, after solving Mr. Collin’s non-canon problem, Alex Knightley (George in the book, Alex in the web series) invites the audience to vote on which client Emma should take on next: Anne Elliot, Tom Parker, or Knightley’s brother, John. For fans of Austen or fans of Pemberley Studios, these names ring bells:
- Anne Elliot is the heroine of Austen’s novel Persuasion. Her name is mentioned early in Emma Approved, Revival in connection with a canceled event (the Elliot/Wentworth wedding) that sent Emma into a tailspin
- Tom Parker, the ineffectual mayor from Welcome to Sanditon.
- John Knightley, Mr. Knightley’s brother who appears in Emma and has an off-camera roll in Emma Approved.
Three different characters from what should be three different storyworlds–and yet, the choice Knightley seems to be offering is a false one because no matter which option the viewers vote for, the next production is Persuasion. How do I know? There are some clues. Since casting for Anne and John (along with Wentworth) started before Emma Approved, Revival launched, the script and plot must be well in hand, which only leaves the question as to what roles Pemberley Studios will be swapping out to create a more cohesive universe.
Persuasion is Anne’s story, so fitting in John Knightly and Tom Parker is the challenge. Both are established family men, so the obvious candidate would be Charles Musgrove (Anne’s brother-in-law, a good fit for Tom Parker, but not for John Knightley, who is already established as the husband of Emma’s sister), Captain Harville, or Admiral Croft. The problem is that none of these are major roles in the book, so solving their problems would not give much to the story. The meatier roles (Anne’s cousin William Elliot and Captain Benwick) are both widowers. This might not pose a barrier to Tom Parker in one of these roles (we haven’t met his wife on screen, so she could be killed off or divorced with few repercussions to the storyworld) but John Knightley is married to Emma’s sister, who we’ve met in the original Emma Approved. Killing off Emma’s sister is not Austen-esque, at least not Pemberley Studios Austen. It’s possible he could separate from his wife, play the Benwick role and return to her rather than marrying Anne’s primary competition for Wentworth’s attention. but …Nah.
So what is the point of all of this rambling? When undertaking to create within a storyworld (original, established, or adapted), writers make use of different writing skills and must understand and follow the codes that rule that storyworld. You can’t kill Emma’s sister for the same reason you can’t make Hermione be Harry Potter’s cousin, dilithium crystals grow on trees in Nebraska, or George Smiley a ladies’ man. Those changes violate rules that would change too much in those storyworlds. Serial writing and sequential novels are often treated with less respect than stand-alone novels, particularly when they are in already-marginalized genres like mystery, romance, sci-fi, or fantasy, but there is an art to it that deserve close syudy.