The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

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Lizzie Bennet is a normal young woman, pursuing a Master's degree in communications and desiring nothing more than to be her own person. This is in clear contrast to her mom, who just wants to get Lizzie and her two sisters married off to someone rich as soon as possible. She even got them all shirts saying "It's a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Lizzie doesn't buy it, and is going to explain exactly why to the whole internet in the form of video blogs.

When the handsome and rich Bing Lee moves into town, with his infuriatingly snobby friend Darcy in tow, Lizzie's life in thrown into disarray as her entire family starts clamouring for his attention. Thankfully, armed with a camera, her friend Charlotte's technical expertise and a healthy dose of snark, Lizzie is ready to document this social catastrophe as it unfolds.

If you haven't realised yet, this is a modernized, Vlog Series adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, started in part by Hank Green. Find it here.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Provide Examples of:

• Acting for Two: out of a (totally understandable) desire to not tell her parents she is doing a vlog, Lizzie uses herself and Charlotte as stand-ins for her mom and dad. Later, Charlotte and Jane play Caroline Lee and Darcy.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Lydia.
• Bad Bad Acting: Whenever one of the characters steps in to play a different one, this will probably happen to some degree.
• Bookworm: The only thing Lizzie does with her time, by her own admission, is make vlogs, read and study.
• Celebrity Paradox: Lizzie is apparently a fan of the movie Bridget Jones Diary despite it being based off Pride and Prejudice, too.
• Character Blog: The whole series is Elizabeth Bennet's vlog.
  • Also, most of the characters have Twitter feeds.
  • And Tumblrs. Also Facebook accounts. The characters are quite convincingly established across the internet, overall.
• Damned By Faint Praise: The only compliment Jane has in regards to Darcy is that he is "very tall".

Lizzie: Okay! For the record, when the nicest thing Jane Bennet has to say about you is "tall", you have personality problems.

• Deadpan Snarker: Lizzie herself.
• Death Glare: Lydia gives Lizzie an especially long and angry one after realising that they're not going out partying like she thought.
• Heroic BSOD: Lizzie has one in the 8th episode, complete with an editorial aside by Charlotte Lampshading and/or Foreshadowing Lizzie's Fatal Flaw and the entire plot that results from it:

Charlotte: "Hey, everyone. Lizzie is having a bit of a crisis because her sister Jane actually likes the guy her mother wants her to marry. A guy who, it turns out, is actually pleasant, and nice, and funny, but that Lizzie had already made up her mind to hate. And Lizzie hates changing her mind."

• Leaning on the Fourth Wall

Charlotte: "People like the DIY look. It makes the video feel more authentic if it's not too polished."

And then later:

Charlotte: "Could you get back on-script? No one cares about my aunt." Lizzie: "Yeah... We seem super-authentic now."

• Pragmatic Adaptation: Due to budget and storytelling constraints, only a few members of the cast appear on screen, and some have even suffered Death by Adaptation (or at least Non-Existence By Adaptation), such as Lizzie and Bing's extra sisters.
• Jerkass: Darcy, of course.
• Mythology Gag: In the Q&A episode, Lydia shows Lizzie her fake ID with the name "Mary Crawford," a character from another Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park.
  • Charlotte and Lizzie's mothers went into labor while reading Sense and Sensibility.
• Only Sane Woman: Charlotte. Lizzie also sees herself as this in relation to her sisters, although some of the other characters might disagree.
• Race Lift: Charlotte Lucas becomes Charlotte Lu.
  • ... and Mr Bingley has been re-imagined as Bing Lee.
• Really Gets Around: Lydia (by reputation, as such exploits are unlikely to be captured in-vlog).
• Shout-Out: in episode 10, Lizzie has to scrutinize Jane's face for more information. When this proves insufficient, she uses a Vulcan mind-meld.
• Sound Effect Bleep : Hilariously used in episode 8, when Jane lets Lizzie know that she will have to chaperone Lydia.

Lizzie: F... (cut to chinchilla and kitty picture Lizzie had planned to show and a big beep sound)

• Unreliable Narrator: Lizzie claims her mom dressed her up as a spinster for Halloween once. Charlotte has to point out that in fact she was dressed as a witch.
  • Episode 15's title is "Lizzie Bennet is in Denial." Denial of what? Darcy having a crush on her!
• Valley Girl: Lydia.