Not based on any book or movie. I only watched this due to my obsession with costume drama and 18th century in particular. But there is a reason I prefer to rewatch BBC series from the seventies to most of the newer films and series claiming to be "period drama". Those at least followed the basic mores and customs of the time portrayed for the most part and worked hard to get the shapes of costumes and hair accurate. Now in these newer ones you see long flying curls on grown women (which you would not see even on little girls in most eras) modern eye makeup and "shrugs" to act as Spencer jackets etc...to name just a few. I love period drama and history and am sure that most people can manage to watch and enjoy these shows showing how people looked, acted and dressed during the time that they lived...but producers seem to think a modern audience can't handle that, that we must have modern dialogue that clangs on the ear like a metal trash bin lid, pop music and beachy waves, in order to engage. It would be nice if some of these series were made for adults who go into it wanting to see how life was lived "back then" and not some young producer's idea of what would be cool and watchable. I know I am in an age bracket (old) that it not catered to in any way, shape or form ...okay I get it. But most teens are not looking for period drama anyway unless it has time travel, dinosaurs or vampires so they are not the audience for these period dramas anyway. I just watched "Mr Malcolm's List" which is a perfectly enjoyable, benign romance/comedy but the idea of Mr. Malcolm taking a young lady to the opera on a "date" early on made me laugh out loud and kind of ruined it for me. There is no way in hell any young woman was going on a date with a man or that he would even ask. Unmarried young women often could not even be alone in a room with a brother or cousin, so strict was the division of sexes, without a chaperone. That may be a small point but it tilts the whole of the era being shown. Why bother make it "period" at all if you intend to modernize it beyond all recognition? Just make a romantic comedy or drama and be done with it. So many disappointments recently. But this show, and also the latest "Persusian" have to be clunkers for sure.
