The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has been reviewed here on Paper Droids before — it’s a great webseries. But over the past 10 months, this adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has gone far beyond the parameters of a standard webseries, creating an immersive, real-time experience unlike any storytelling genre I’ve seen before. The creative team behind the series uses a combination of spin-off videos, social media, and actual interaction with viewers they like to call transmedia — and it has the potential to change how we think of the way we tell stories.
Just in the past couple of weeks, those of us following the tale have been witness to the story’s climax playing out before our very eyes as Lizzie discovered that her younger sister Lydia had been manipulated into making a sex tape with one dastardly George Wickham, and that said sex tape was set to be released to the world on Valentine’s Day. Definitely a modernization of the original — which had Lydia running off to live unwed with her less-than-gentlemanly suitor — and the departure from the source has got people talking. But the most fascinating aspect of the story is just how real it feels — and how the creators have taken every effort to make it so.
When Lizzie discovered the (now defunct – yay, Darcy!) sex tape website, we did too — an anonymous YouTuber linked us there. When Gigi invited Lizzie to tour San Francisco with her and her brother that weekend, her Twitter gave us plenty of shippy candids of our favourite couple on Saturday. When Bing broke up with Jane, her Pinterest account turned awfully sad. And the posts Lydia’s been liking on Tumblr lately have all been criticizing her choices regarding Wickham — posts from real viewers she quoted directly in the emotional Episode 87.
Making the characters feel real, making them seem just like us? The team behind The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has stumbled upon a powerful way to get viewers involved, and when we’re involved, we’re invested. It’s a glimpse behind the scenes, a hint of what goes on in between the 10-15 minutes of video we get each week. This format — a webseries, and one framed as a series of vlogs at that — is the perfect platform for this kind of social storytelling experiment. Sure, you could just watch Lizzie’s videos, and you’d still get the gist of the story. But you’d be missing out.
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is coming to an end, and the team has already announced plans to produce another adaptation using this innovative method in the near future. Imagine if all of your favourite shows, favourite movies, favourite books were so immersive. Maybe this is the storytelling of the future.
Keep up with the characters of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on Twitter, and watch from the beginning here.
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