Pride and Prejudice (1995)

I decided to watch this mini-series again after seeing the later movie version, which caused me to realized that maybe I enjoyed that version more. In my memory, I originally had recalled I liked this movie version more. And watching this series confirmed that I do like the Keira Knightly movie adaptation more, but only slightly and not to take anything away from this, an excellent series in itself. I will leave it to that prior review to reveal what those small reasons were. The ensemble cast performs uniformly brilliantly with hardly a misstep. David Barber is an appropriately obsequious Mr. Collins, and Alison Steadman puts in an equally appropriate and cringeworthy performance as the shrill, hysterical and gauche Mrs. Benett. The writing is also mostly very good. There were a few oddities for me. For example, I am not sure how people drew the conclusion that Jane is demonstrably more beautiful than Elizabeth. I saw no such drop off in looks. For that matter, why on earth were people saying that the cute redhead Mary King was homely? Were redheads devil children or something? But never mind. I read somewhere that the director of the later movie version set his piece about 20 years before this series was set, to avoid the style of high-waisted dresses. I have to agree with him. These dresses look odd and homely too me, almost like shapeless tube socks rather than high fashion. Finally, though I have always liked Colin Firth in everything since Circle of Friends, I think the script and/or direction might have overdone it slightly with his constant scowling through the first two episodes. I know it is to make a point of his proud and aloof nature, but later when the housekeeper at his mansion says she has never heard a negative word about him, it made me wonder: how did all of his family, friends and acquaintances avoid seeing that death-scowl of his for all those years? But that was a minor distraction. Although I like the later movie version slightly better as it turns out, I still enjoy this series and am keeping my DVD copy of it. Oh, and as a side note, if you have trouble finding the 2005 movie version, you need to search with the dreaded ampersand — Pride & Prejudice — (“&” not “and”). Go figure.