NBC Universal streamer Peacock is the latest in a long line folks who fundamentally misunderstand Jane Austen novels. According to Variety, the streaming service will soon be dropping Pride and Prejudice: An Experiment in Romance. The show promises “the ultimate romantic experience,†ignoring the fact that being a single woman of the landed gentry in 1800’s England actually sucked ass. You couldn’t own your own house, your whole family’s continued financial success depended on you marrying for money, and the less said about the toilets the better. Jane Austen, who never married, wrote stories that swept readers into romance while still pointing out the constrictions and hypocrisies of that time and place. But at least the corsets were pretty chill at that time.
In this Peacock experiment in romance, one lucky(?) lady will be transported back in time to a TV-ready facsimile of Regency England. There, a flock of suitors will take her on carriage rides and whatnot until she finds her “Duke,†per Variety. So it’s an Austen thing with a side of Bridgerton, then. This is the second recent Pride & Prejudice redux to come through the trades recently. Last week, it was announced that a modern queer adaptation of the classic story would be coming to Hulu, starring Bowen Yang and Joel Kim Booster.