Elizabeth and Darcy, now six years married and with two young sons, are preparing for the lavish annual ball at their magnificent Pemberley home. The unannounced arrival of Elizabeths wayward sister Lydia, however, brings an abrupt and shocking halt to proceedings when she stumbles out of her chaise screaming that her husband Wickham has been murdered. Darcy leads a search party out to the woodlands, and when they discover the blood-smeared corpse, not of Wickham, but his traveling companion, suspicion is at once aroused. The dramatic and unnerving events of the evening have shattered the peace, both of the Darcys and of Pemberley, and as the family becomes caught up in the ensuing murder investigation, a mysterious web of secrets and deceit will threaten all that the Darcys hold dear.
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Reviews
A three part murder mystery penned by PD James, featuring the characters from Pride and Prejudice, a daring feat many would say. For those that have read the novel, I'm sure would agree it's very good, I believe, for the most part, in her re-creation of the characters, but is the television adaptation any good?It held my attention, and for the most part I enjoyed it, it is after all a very clever story, and as you'd expect from the BBC it boasts some super production values, the sets, costumes etc, all spot on. It's the performance of Matthew Goode in my humble opinion that steals the show, his Wickham is handsome, demands a degree of sympathy, whilst having a degree of villainy running through him. Matthew Rhys is very good as Darcy, cold and serious, even though in my mind's eye he doesn't match the appearance I have for him. Anna Maxwell Martin, a truly talented actress I felt was miscast, nothing wrong with her performance, but she just fails to add any spark into Elizabeth, for the entire three hours she looked like she had a headache.Tom Ward, Trevor Eve, James Norton all good, Jenna Coleman and Felicity Kendall were both on great form, adding energy into their roles.Flawed, but enjoyable, 6/10
The book was an anachronistic festival of weak plot turns and loose ends, that the movie could have tightened up and made into a compelling story. The locations are gorgeous and the pacing has that deliberate BBC period drama feel. But that's about all that's good.Darcy has regressed into WORSE than the beginning of P&P - an overbearing, bull-headed cuss with no regard for the feelings of his sister or wife. Col. Fitzwilliam as the baddie? Puh-leaze.In 5 years, Elizabeth has apparently aged into a nagging, care-worn fishwife. She is haggard and tired. Her dresses are dowdy. She was awful and I REALLY LIKE this actress.And in all this mess, Wickham and Lydia emerge as the likable characters? I mean, Matthew Goode would be sultry and delicious playing a bridge troll. But the mis-casting is really obvious here.Overall a swing and a miss. Watch it with no sound and just make up your own dialogue. It will be better. I promise.
Being a fan of PD James and Jane Austin I was looking forward to watching this show. It took a while to get past Elizabeth being totally out of character...at least from the stand point of Pride and Prejudice 1995 version. They dressed her down and made her look kind of dowdy and act miserable through most of the show. They didn't change the character of Darcy much--as my mother said, it looks like he has a toothache through most of the show. The colonel was also changed to be a rather secretive fellow, unlike his easy going character in P&P. The other characters seemed to mesh well with their original characters. If you have never seen Pride and Prejudice (1995 version) then you won't be disappointed. It is a good little English mystery.
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.