I felt like doing some knitting today so I decided to finally watch Austenland on Netflix. And you know what? It was charming! As a big fan of Jane Austen (and someone who can pretty much recite the entire script to the 1995 P&P miniseries), I really enjoyed all the nods and references to the Austen-verse. The casting was also spot on. I yelled out lout at one point, “THAT’S MR. HURST!” Nicely done, movie. I also loved that Jennifer Coolidge was basically playing a nicer version of her White Lotus character, and I had fun spotting both Shadow Moon (from American Gods) and Dr. Gaius Baltar (from Battlestar Galactica) in supporting roles. As for the central romance, I was legitimately torn between the two guys in much the same way the lead character was. I mean, Bret McKenzie as a charming stablehand? But also JJ Feild doing a stellar Mr. Darcy impression? I totally get why it didn’t land with critics, but for Austen superfans, this was light but fun. (And don’t even get me started on the post-credits sequences. My head exploded, in a very fun way.)

And on the topic of Regency LARPing, I started the movie thinking, “I would totally go to Austenland!” And about halfway through I was right there with Jane thinking, “OMG this would be totally boring.” And then at the end I was like, “I want to go to Elizabeth Charming’s Austenland TOMORROW.” 🎢🫖