The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is an American web series adapted from Jane Austen's 1813 novel "Pride and Prejudice." The story is conveyed in the form of vlogs. It was created by Hank Green and Bernie Su, produced by Jenni Powell and stars Ashley Clements, Mary Kate Wiles, Laura Spencer, Julia Cho and Daniel Vincent Gordh. It premiered on a dedicated YouTube channel on April 9, 2012, and subsequently concluded when the 100th episode was posted on March 28, 2013.
In 2013, "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" became the first web series to win an Emmy, for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media – Original Interactive Program.
Format.
The story is told in vlog-style by the eponymous character; each episode is between two and eight minutes long. As the show primarily takes place in Lizzie's bedroom, many major events happen offscreen and are retold by Lizzie, with her friend Charlotte and sisters Lydia and Jane adding different perspectives. Occasionally they perform reenactments, using a recurring costume to denote who's who (such as a cap and bowtie for Darcy, a blue plaid shirt for Lizzie, etc.). From Episode 25 onwards, the show begins to visit other sets, allowing them to introduce outside characters, such as Bing Lee, Caroline, and Mr. Collins.
There are also semi-frequent Q&A videos, once per every ten episodes, in which Lizzie answers questions asked by real viewers, sometimes with the help of another character. In addition to the videos, all the characters also have various social media accounts, through which they interact and reveal portions of the story and perspectives that are not necessarily represented in Lizzie's vlogs.
Plot.
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bennet is a mass communications graduate student still living at home with her parents and two sisters, the sweet, timid Jane and rebellious, party-loving Lydia. With the help of her friend Charlotte Lu, she starts a vlog series for her thesis, discussing the trials and tribulations of her daily life. Wealthy medical student Bing Lee moves into the Netherfield mansion nearby, bringing with him his even richer friend William Darcy. Mrs Bennet quickly begins conspiring to match Bing up with one of the girls, believing "it's a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." When the Bennets finally meet the new neighbors at a wedding, Jane and Bing instantly have chemistry, but Darcy's rude and snobbish behaviour causes Lizzie to dislike him.
At VidCon, Charlotte and Lizzie run into childhood friend Ricky Collins, who now runs online media company "Collins and Collins," with the help of his wealthy patron Ms Catherine de Bourgh. He proposes Lizzie join him as a business partner, but she declines. Charlotte accepts the offer in her place. During this time Lydia starts her own vlog series.
While at a bar with Lydia, Lizzie meets swim coach George Wickham and begins seeing him. He reveals Darcy was a family friend who supposedly refused to give him a college fund he was promised, furthering Lizzie's poor opinion of the man. Lizzie quickly moves on when it becomes apparent George isn't that into her. Though their relationship had been going well, Bing suddenly leaves for L.A. without telling Jane. Lizzie assumes Darcy must have poisoned Bing's opinion of her sister.
Lizzie decides to spend her last semester shadowing at companies, starting with C&C. There she runs into Darcy, who's been asked to monitor the company by his aunt, Catherine. He confronts Lizzie and reveals he's in love with her. She furiously tells him she could never love him back, because of his rudeness and how he's hurt George and Jane, accidentally revealing the existence of the vlogs in the process.
After watching them all, he gives her a letter explaining his side of things. He steered Bing away from Jane because he thought she was only being nice. George was given enough money to pay his full college tuition, but spent it all in one year and then became angry when Darcy refused to give him more.
Lydia misinterprets one of Lizzie's 21st birthday presents and storms off to Las Vegas for New Years, and eventually begins dating George Wickham.
Lizzie discovers the final company she's to visit, Pemberley Digital, belongs to Darcy. They begin spending time together, now on better terms, but their growing friendship is cut short when Lizzie has to rush home, having been informed there's a website counting down to the release of a sex tape involving George and Lydia. Lizzie and Lydia haven't spoken since Christmas. When Lizzie confronts Lydia, it transpires Lydia didn't know about the website.
Jane urges Lizzie to watch all of Lydia's videos, after which Lizzie realizes her younger sister isn't as shallow as she thought and that she doesn't really know Lydia all that well. Lydia herself realizes she's been selfish and breaks down crying in Lizzie's arms and the two sisters reconcile. The day the sex-tape is meant to go live, the website disappears.
During her healing journey, Lydia discovers that Darcy has bought the company that owns the website and all rights to the video. Lizzie realizes she loves him, but thinks it's come too late. Bing returns to apologize; he discovered Lizzie's vlogs and saw how much Jane cared about him in them, and the two get back together. Darcy confesses to Lizzie that he still loves her, and the two finally get together. Lizzie decides what to do in her professional life and decides to stop vlogging so she can focus on actually living her life.
Spin-offs.
In addition to Lizzie's vlogging, other characters also released videos which provided access to alternate perspectives and story elements.
The Lydia Bennet.
Lydia decides to start her own vlog series while Lizzie is away. As its main purpose is to show Lydia's story arc when she can't appear on the main webshow, it's only ever maintained when she and Lizzie are apart, such as when Lizzie is staying at Netherfield or visiting companies. It allows the audience to witness things like Lydia becoming friends with her cousin Mary, running away to LA to see her sister Jane, meeting George Wickham in Las Vegas on New Year's Eve, and having a relationship with him. Unlike the main webshow, Lydia's vlogs are not stationary, are all one single continuous take (presumably as Lydia would consider learning how to edit a nerdy thing to do), and rarely ever set in the same place twice.
Maria of the Lu.
After beginning her job at Collins and Collins, Charlotte gets her younger sister Maria Lu a summer internship, who documents the experience in a series of video diaries.
Collins and Collins.
Mr. Collins's company produces instructional videos called "Better Living with Collins and Collins." Currently, there are eight episodes.
Pemberley Digital.
Hosted by Darcy's younger sister Gigi, Pemberley Digital posts demo videos to unveil and promote their new prototype: "Domino," an application that can automatically edit and upload videos recorded on it. This premise allows the audience to see Darcy and Gigi's efforts to track down George Wickham and get his website taken down, before he releases a sex tape he filmed involving Lydia.
Sequels.
"Welcome to Sanditon".
Taking place after the events of "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries", "Welcome to Sanditon" follows Gigi Darcy as she spends her summer in Sanditon, CA to run a beta demo of the Pemberley Digital Domino application. The residents of Sanditon have all been invited to join in the test, and discover how this “life-revealing” app performs.
The mini-series is a modernized adaptation of Jane Austen's unfinished novel, "Sanditon". One notable difference from the source material is Gigi replaces the unfinished novel's original heroine, Charlotte Heywood (as "Sanditon" is actually not connected to "Pride and Prejudice" in any way).
"Emma Approved".
Taking place after the events of "Welcome to Sanditon", "Emma Approved" focuses on Emma Woodhouse, a confident and proud female entrepreneur who believes she is an excellent matchmaker.
The series is a modernized adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, "Emma". One notable difference from the source material is Caroline Lee replaces Augusta Hawkins as Philip Elton's wife (as "Emma" is actually not connected to "Pride and Prejudice" in any way).
"The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet".
"The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet" is a book by Kate Rorick and Rachel Kiley, and audiobook with Mary Kate Wiles performing all the voices, telling Lydia's story from a few months after TLBD for about a year.
Reception.
"The Guardian" called "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" "the best Austen adaptation around" at the 200th anniversary of "Pride and Prejudice". In 2013 it was announced that "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" will be awarded an award for Original Interactive Program at the Creative Arts Emmys, becoming the first digital series to win an Emmy Award.
In 2014, "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" YouTube Channel was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #40.
Video release.
A DVD set containing every episode of the series and its spinoffs was launched on Kickstarter on March 22, 2013; the initial pledge goal of $60,000 was met within six hours.