The latest Vanity Fair series has just been on UK television, and I am finally introduced to this classic of 19th century British period drama. This review comes from a person who hasn't read the book yet and hasn't seen any adaptations, so there will be no comparison with any other versions or the original novel. No prejudice or expectations go into this summary of the show. I didn't even watch the trailer before watching it.
First of all, the intro... Bluntly telling us that 'vanity' and 'fair' in one sentence means it's a story about rich, aristocratic, vain, self-centered people with a broken moral compass. Do the showmakers assume that the viewers are so foolish that they wouldn't understand that or not read the underlying message of this period miniseries? Because, you know, period drama lovers are generally not a very knowledgable bunch, after all. Or is it supposed to mock itself?.. What a mystery.
So, bearing in mind that most of the characters should be vain and corrupted in their views, much like George Warleggan from the beloved Poldark or miss Bingley from Pride & Prejudice, how does a casual viewer perceive even the first episode? A strange heroine, for one. You're struck by her bluntness and arrogance - but kind of accept it, waiting to see where it's going. You feel kind of bad for her and justify her rough attitude by the headmistresses open disliking of her. Rebels are never popular with the system guards, after all.
Yet she carries on - not quite sympathetic, yet not so off-putting, really. She has sharp dialogue, certainly, and a feisty look in her eyes - but for some reason nothing really clicks. Or is it not supposed to? I wonder if that was the intention - making Becky's character so fake and caricaturist that she doesn't seem like a real person. Is the show supposed to show her lack of humanity - by throwing a bunch of characteristics (trying not to call them cliches - she is supposed to be anything but what you expect her to be) into Becky's portrait?
Now, I gathered as much that Becky isn't supposed to be likeable. And I'm all up for an great antihero or a villain - but the problem with Becky is that... you don't really care. You don't hate her enough to be waiting for her to be punished - Geoffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones made the readers and viewers alike hate him with such passion that they would carry
on watching the show out of desire to see him pay for what he's done. One might even hate Anne Boleyn in both The Other Boleyn Girl & The Tudors - for how she treats her own sister and Katherine of Aragon. One might feel bitter towards Briony from Atonement for ruining her sister's life - and the life of her lover even more, of course. Scarlet O'Hara from Gone with the Wind is hell of a feisty, strong-willed, manipulative you-know-who - she can still be frustrating with her ambition, cruelty towards Melanie and even the men who fell for her charms (and paid for it dearly, just like Becky's victims). Elizabeth Woodwille from The White Queen is the same kind of power-hungry woman using her looks and wits to get what she wants - and in that it's still interesting to watch her, and many others like her, use everything she can to get her way. There are numerous examples of characters in the history of cinema (and even more - in novels) of characters like that. And many of them you can hate, despise, be jealous of, pity, or watch them fall in disgrace with gloomy satisfaction.
But Becky? She's supposed to be a clever young woman who's experienced the cruelty of the world herself - or so she says while talking to the headmistress. Yet where is that experience? We see the consequences of a woman apparently so beaten by life that she turns into a cynic and a user - what, just because of her birth? She clearly received good education and found her way into a prestigious school for rich young ladies. What I was interested was not necessarily how well she can marry but she got there, why was she that weird combination of friendly and cynical, cold-hearted and lively all at once. It doesn't seem to click for some reason.
Maybe all that is explored in the novel, maybe not. Yet Becky - and the rest of the characters along with her - doesn't feel real. It's hard to put your finger on it, but nothing really catches your eye - her lines are thought through and planned, perhaps too planned to feel natural. She's supposed to be witty but it comes off as stiff, rehearsed cleverness, unlike that of Elizabeth Bennet in either 1995 or 2005 versions of Pride & Prejudice.
Maybe it is the lack of flaws in Becky (apart from her obvious cold-heartedness, manipulative mind and selfishness) - or rather, the things that make her weak. Is there a weakness at all? Love has no effect on her, neither does money or authority. She loses somewhat by marrying the man she has her eye on, yet to her it isn't even a defeat - merely a temporary set back. She's comically good at everything: drama, feelings, French. Is there anything that can really affect her in any way?
Maybe it was supposed to feel off and empty. Maybe it was the show's intention - to make the audience disconnected from its characters because of their vanity and flaws. However, does it not defeat the whole point of making a statement on morality, if you cease to care about the story? This is exactly what happened to me, and I could not care less what happens to them all when the French army invades Brussels.
Also, it felt like every story line was abruptly cut off - as if the writer got bored of writing it and moved on to the next episode at once, without even bothering to make sense of the previous part. It is linear yet weirdly fragmented in terms of action-consequences tie ins. There's no sense of completion, wholeness of the story and each character - they are left hanging in a weird place, which is far from the most satisfactory state to be in when the show is over.
And it's ok to imagine that that was the showmakers' intend - to leave the audience disappointed, wondering, even discouraged. Yet how can there be disappointment when there aren't even any stakes raised throughout the story? How can you feel angry at the characters for their stupidity, if you have no sense of attachment to any of them in the first place?