Misty Krueger

Oh no you didn’t, Sanditon on PBS writers, just disappoint all the fans. How dare you?

How dare you begin a series by turning an underdeveloped Austen character (Mr. Sidney Parker) into a jerk, reform him to be tolerable (I suppose), and then make him a martyr to his family!

How dare you introduce us to the sweetest Austen character yet–Miss Charlotte Heywood–and rain on her damn parade? Did she not deserve a happy ending?

How dare you go so dark in that last episode–fire, death, despair, isolation, etc.–and then say, oops, we done here. No more episodes now or ever? Are you serious?

How dare you not know your audience–an audience that was invested in the show, its characters, and Austen’s brand of comedy? Yes, you gave us nudity, sexual activity, and more, but we stayed with you even though you ventured far from Austen. We just didn’t think you were gonna throw us off a g’damn cliff.

Why’d you do that?

I enjoyed Sanditon on PBS’s own brand of comedy–a little bit Austen, but a lot of the new writers. I don’t see why this series had to turn into a tragedy.

And, what is up with having Sidney, played by Theo James, get married (in theory) to his past love, Eliza, played by James’ REAL-LIFE wife, Ruth Kearney? What kind of twisted game were you playing? Esther, the original bitch on the show (shared in large part with Clara–and what happened to her?) gets her happy ending, but the lovely Charlotte does not because the new bitch in town (Eliza) gets to marry the beau she dumped for some old rich guy? So, the happy endings in this series are truly messed up.

Poor Georgiana–nope, can’t be happy. Poor Charlotte–ugh, has to go back to boring old Willingden? Like, whut? Um, no.

I defended you, Sanditon on PBS, to my friends and colleagues–and you gave me good reason to do that until the last half of episode 8. You failed miserably unless you were planning to redeem yourself in season 2–which I hear you are not because there are no plans for a second season.

How dare you!

OK. OK. I did some digging into this because I thought that it absolutely makes no sense to end this way, and apparently that wasn’t the intention. Check out this interview. A producer said that she was planning for another season, but ITV pulled the plug because the numbers weren’t there. Again. Whut? You can’t leave us hanging this way. Please don’t do me that way.