Death Comes to Pemberley
                  
Director: NA
Year: 2013
Rating: 5.5
This turned out to be a disappointment. Duller than warm British beer. Or perhaps it just didn't meet my expectations as to what I thought it would. It is beautifully shot and acted with gorgeous scenery and period detail. But I thought it was going to be a detective story. That is because it is based on a novel by P.D. James - one of England's great mystery writers with her Inspector Adam Dalgliesh. She is clearly a fan of Pride and Prejudice and follows-up on the lives of the characters a few years after the book ended. Elizabeth (Anna Maxwell Martin - Bleak House) is happily married to Darcy (Matthew Rhys - The Americans, Perry Mason) with two children. Pemberley is the family home and large enough to play hide and seek forever and not find the person. And more servants than a platoon. Life is good. Darcy is still a stick in the mud but Elizabeth hasn't quite become one and she treats the servants like humans.




 But once again George Wickham (Matthew Goode) enters their lives. If you recall from the book or movies - he was the man who sullied the name of Darcy's young sister Georgiana (Eleanor Tomlinson - Poldark, The Nevers) and then married the young sister (Jenna Coleman - Victoria) of Elizabeth. An all around cad. Wickham is accused of killing his friend in the woods around Pemberley and so the family is brought into his affairs and the name of Darcy is at risk! This is a TV mini-series of three episodes and this part took us up to the second show. I was fully expecting that Elizabeth was going to turn detective and solve it.



So I bought the book and read it. And thought what the hell. P.D. James seems mainly interested in describing life in those times and the British legal system. There is no solving of the case. No snooping. In the end someone confesses. Well, I eventually went back to the TV show hoping they would switch things around. They did - added more family drama - but no detecting. If you want a Jane Austin mystery, you might try one of the books in the Stephanie Barron series in which Jane solves murders. Jane would be very disappointed with Elizabeth.