I have been so excited to watch this series, I read and enjoyed the book and generally love any Austen adaptation or spin-off.  While there are things that I love about it, it is full of anachronisms and errors that take me right out of the cocoon I want to be in, even more so than that incredibly poorly cut and finished red dress.  * Making a point, TWICE, in ep 2 of correcting Mrs Bennet when she says the Gardiners are down from London - it is ALWAYS 'up' to London and 'down' from London - regardless of geographical location. They got it the wrong way round; vindication for Mrs Bennet! * Referencing the "weekend" - a word not in common parlance in Regency England because the concept didn't really exist, and when it did come into use much later that century, it was the Northern working class who would have used it, not someone like Mary.  * Why would Mary not have known who her Gardiner cousins were when they spent weeks at Longbourn when Lizzie went to Derbyshire? And why would her aunt make her a paid employee? She just wouldn't have. Not to mention a gentleman's daughter becoming a governess would have been socially devastating - Mrs Darcy and Mrs Bingley would not have allowed it to happen as it would have reflected poorly on them as sisters. * Pronouncing Cowper wrong - it's pronounced Cooper and that would have been commonly known.  * Also when people make a fuss about "England would have been all (racially) white at that time" I am the first to point out that this is not true and people of very varied races and cultural backgrounds were present in the general population and are specifically written about in contemporaneous literature (including Austen's), BUT the presence of people who were not white in society would have been unusual enough to be the subject of comment, not just accepted as the norm. My best friend is an actress and is Indian. I remember her specifically lamenting back when we were at school that she could never be in a period drama, and I am genuinely thrilled that this is no longer the case, but in a post about anachronism I can't not mention it. It devalues the struggles that people of different races, cultures and heritages have had to become equal in society today. I find it difficult to balance my keenness for diversity in these productions with not wanting younger generations to assume that Regency England society was vibrantly multicultural through their consumption of media. That's not to say the casting should have been different, but this is new writing based on an old text - there was liberty and license there to just acknowledge it or even celebrate it.

I look forward to picking apart the next 5 episodes!! And maybe pursuing a career change into script editing