Oh, I thought it just screamed " I thought we were going to have a second season and maybe there’s still hope if the Americans like it…so I can’t have Sydney and Charlotte live happily ever after because that would mean THE END. Maybe this way, I’ll get a crack at another season."
I sort of suspected half way through that this was going to be like Marianne & Willoughby & Col Brandon. I thought that Sydney would leave Charlotte high and dry at the end of season one and then the accommodating young Mr. Stringer would step in. That romance would be season 2. Charlotte would return to Sanditon to help with the building, thinking that Sydney would be far away in London. She’d be thrown together with Stringer, who will end up being a co-owner of Sanditon–because Tom Parker can’t afford to pay him–and will make his fortune that way. She’ll figure out he’s actually a better match than Sydney because he won’t be looking down his nose at her family and relations. Maybe some subplot in which he has the power to ruin the Parkers & refrains from doing so will show Charlotte how good a man he is.
In any event, I felt like the ending wasn’t the one Davies planned.
In any event, the biggest thing for me was that this just suddenly STOPPED at what doesn’t seem at all like a natural breaking point. It really seemed like a season, not a show, finale.
I also thought they had intended a second season, but there is no getting around the fact that this season was just bad imho.
It would have been fine with me to do something outlandish - like Charlotte turns Sydney down to go study architecture herself (and then fold in your plot line and we have a husband/wife firm) Not period likely but fun, imho.
spoilers below
When Charlotte took off to save Georgiana, I just assumed she would accomplish the rescue on her own without needing to be rescued herself, and was just disgusted Sydney saved her and then took over, although Charlotte did “help.” That scene was sort of where I gave up on the whole production. It is fun for me when contemporary regency romance writers create the sort of heroine who can take care of herself without a man, thank you very much.
I thought the character of Clara was interesting and had a whole lot of potential but it just fizzled.
adding: Catherine in Northanger Abbey makes her way home by herself, after being banished by her future f-i-l. I thought Charlotte’s rescue of Georgiana was going to be an elaboration and parody of that scene. Of course there could be no real comparison of the two. And Northanger Abbey jokes about her journey being perilous, iirc It’s already a parody of Udolpho
Really it first seemed to me Sanditon was going to be a parody of Austen novels in the same way Northanger Abbey is a parody of Udolpho and gothic novels, but Northanger is much better than Udolpho and Sanditon is an unsuccessful effort entirely no matter what the intent. imo
@alh LOL!!! You put a lot more thought into this than I did! I just watched it as escapism, though I did read the Sanditon entry in Wikipedia to get some idea of how much was pure invention and how much was rooted in Austen.
Beyond that…I just watched. I do think, as I’ve said too many times already, that the ending was too abrupt. I also thought the “incest” plot line was more than a bit silly. At the same time, I actually liked the end of that plot with Lord Babington.
A second season was not approved back in England, so the loose ends left will remain.
Technically they’re wasn’t incest, in that the couple were not related by blood. The father of the guy married the mother of the woman, but neither shared a biological parent. Hope this makes sense. Those two characters could not be more unlikeable.
For Downton Abbey fans, Theo James, who played Sidney, also played Kemal Pamuk, the dashing Turk with the bad ticker in season 1.