A final shot at Lost in Austen

*spoiler warning*

I skimmed through the final episode, since I couldn't really sit through the whole thing.

The scriptwriter, Guy Andrews, seems to be no friend of Austen, the Austen who is a Christian and a virtue ethicist in her own right. Would it be correct to say that the creators and producers think that Jane Austen is just another writer of romance novels, albeit one who was purely a creature of her time and living under those constraints? I haven't seen any indication of a better understanding of Austen.

There are those who were diverted by it, while others have been critical based on purely artistic criteria, but my grounds for disagreement go much deeper than the obvious twists supplied by the fanfic. It has just been an opportunity to show up the Regency period and create a fantasy in which a contemporary woman can win the heart of Darcy (the miniseries has to be marketable, after all). In the clash between Regency [or should we say Austen's] mores and contemporary liberal prejudices, the latter triumph. The all-invisible hand of the scribe-god has determined that it is Amanda Price who is called to return to be with Darcy, not Elizabeth Bennet, who is not welcome to return (the door to the passage opens for Amanda, not Elizabeth). At the end Elizabeth Bennet apparently decides to return to the future, where she finds life more satisfactory for an 'independent' woman. (Independence being a modern liberal illusion embraced by people of both sexes.)

As it was stated in the first episode, everyone longs to escape--and while Elizabeth escapes to the modern world for a "better life," Amanda escapes into her fantasy world to get the romance she's always wanted with her hero Mr. Darcy, not because she wants to conform her life to something she thinks is better. What else attracts this fanfic Darcy to Amanda, other than her very modernity [and lack of traditional refinement]?

And proud but stupid Darcy finally makes a smart choice in choosing to propose to Amanda. Is there much of a moral conversion on his part? It appears not, if we look at how he behaves towards Elizabeth afterwards. It's worse than the expectation that the other will change for the sake of love--we get the tired belief of the contemporary romantic, that to love is to 'accept' someone and all his flaws, and not demand change for the sake of goodness, because love and union with another not based on goodness but how the other makes you feel.

More could be written, but I don't think I'll waste any more of my time.