Welcome Rebecca, glad you're joining us! Can you delve into the "character turnaround" thing a bit more?

Rebecca (or is it Paige?), this has been discussed before, but JA addicts are always more than willing to go over things again and again! I liked this adaptation, too, and agree with your casting comments, although it was so good overall that I could overlook those things. Having never been able to slog my way completely through that book, I can't comment on the Willoughby turnaround, however.

I just saw S&S#? last Sunday on video, and I thought it was fabulous. Having read it 5 or 6 years ago, I had forgotten nearly everything but the most basic aspects and for that I was most happy. I found that this adaptation gave me a real sense of the novel. When I re-read the novel this week, I could actually see the characters speak. There are obviously plot omissions because of the length, but there was enough story to make it enjoyable on first watch. I don't think that I will spend as much time on it as I do with P&P2, but I will definitely spend more time on it than on Emma3!

Oh Angela, Emma3 improves with each viewing! Please give it a chance; I really love it.

Susan, I would like to believe that Emma3 improves with each viewing, but I haven't been able to get myself to watch it except when it was aired. Of course, I taped it then, but I can't seem to bring myself to actually rewind the tape and see it again. Where as I rented S&S and saw it once before I had to return it, and now I'm contemplating buying the tape. It sort of like when you do badly on a test and you aren't even willing to look at the returned test paper even though you may have done reasonably w ll. Perhaps it may have to do with the fact that I don't really like the character of Emma. She's too spoiled for my tastes. Whereas I can identify with Elinor much, much better.

Sense and Sensibility is being broadcast as I write this on one of the satellites.

The adaptation of S&S captured the overall essence of the book, though personally, I thought the Marianne and Willoughby affair was the most fulfilling 'failure' of a romance I've ever had to watch..I grieved for her and cry myself silly whenever I re watch it and reach the part where she goes to Combe Magna in the rain and calls out for him.. I'm melting as I type this. Yes, the Willoughby turnaround should have been included, it would have made the dread of the whole failed romance all the more intense for the viewer. But I guess she (Emma T) captured it having Willoughby look on at the end of the movie as Marianne marries Col. B. A regret he would have to carry with him forever. Oh WILLOUGHBY!!!

Serena, I also empathized with Willoughby in this version, but I guess a lot of diehard JA people thought he got just what he deserved. Somebody told me that people hissed in the theater when the scene came on where he was sitting on his horse watching the wedding aftermath. I couldn't believe that; I didn't think he was that bad in the film. And I, too, liked the romance between him and Marianne.

He was adorable, Susan... how could anyone think of hissing at him.. poor man, he was helpless to his own weaknesses.. that was precisely why he was so irrisistable. I've posted this before - if I had to be 'crossed' in love just once in my life time, it would be wonderful for it to be a Willoughby. That fearlessness to love and other weakness of character which can ultimately be 'gotten over with' and the girlish passions will develop into mature and life-long love?? Or am I just naive?

if I had to be 'crossed' in love just once in my life time, it would be wonderful for it to be a Willoughby. Oh yes, every woman should have a Willoughby somewhere in her past -- I know I do!

Susan, we must be hopeless-romantics... Did you feel sad for Colonel Brandon? Especially since he knew he was being settled for..

I felt somewhat sad for the Colonel, but he wanted Marianne so much that I think he was happy to take her on any terms. She needed him more than she wanted or loved him, I think, but he was willing to accept that to have her in his life. But yes, I think she settled, without a doubt. I'm sure she thought about Willoughby throughout her life as the one that got away. Being as passionate as she was, I'm sure she also fantasized about how different her life would have been with him.

That is so touching and tragic and all the more so for Colonel Brandon, he has also to contend with the 'ghost' of Willoughby inspite of winning the lady. But I do adore the Marianne and Willoughby romance, it was so passionate.

I believe that Marianne ended up loving Col. Brandon as much as she ever loveved Willoughby. In the book, at the very last, it states that Marianne could never love by halves and ended up loving Brandon as much as she ever loved Willoughby. I'm sure that she got much more out of her relationship with Brandon also. He truely loved her and would do anything for her. I don't know if Willoughby truly loved Marianne. He enjoyed their romance, but only because she flattered him. He did not love her - only the fact that she petted his ego. I do feel sorry for Willoughby though. If he did love her to the full extent of his soul than that is very sad. The truest love he could give he could give away for money. I feel sorry him because he was not half the man he should have been. People like that don't get nearly as much out of life. I believe Marianne led a happy life as a woman who loved those around her and was loved. If she did think about Willoughby at all it was not in regret.