Miss Austen is a captivating costume drama with two wonderful leading roles for Keeley Hawes and Synnøve Karlsen What is it like to live in the shadow of your deceased sister for thirty years? Everyone knows author Jane Austen and her books. Her older sister Cassandra is less well-known to the general public, but the Miss Austen series will hopefully change that. Some time after Jane's death, Cassandra lives in seclusion and on her own. A death brings her back to her family and this reunion brings back all kinds of memories. In a special way, Cassandra is confronted with her past and a side of her sister that she did not know before.
The story of Miss Austen is told primarily from Cassandra's perspective during two periods of her life. On the one hand, we see the older Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) some time after the death of her sister Jane. On the other hand, we see in flashbacks how the younger Cassandra (Synnøve Karlsen) grew up with her parents, played by Kevin McNally and Phyllis Logan, her six brothers and her sister Jane (Patsy Ferran).
Miss Austen is a solid costume drama as we have come to expect from the BBC.
Miss Austen is exactly what you would expect from a BBC costume drama. The costumes are beautiful but modest, and that fits well with the sober character of the series. In the four episodes, little of note seems to happen and the whole thing flows along quietly. Nevertheless, this series is fascinating to watch thanks to the actors and the narrative structure.
The two storylines of the younger and older Cassandra do intertwine, but are both told chronologically. This way, the jumping back and forth between past and future does not feel very chaotic. The events in the two timelines also tie in very well thematically thanks to a great piece of writing. For example, parallels are drawn between different forms of loss, love and conflict in both Cassandra's youth and in her adult life.
Both Keeley Hawes and Synnøve Karlsen shine as the older and younger versions of Cassandra
These emotions are excellently conveyed by the incredibly good actors. If you let Keeley Hawes play the lead role, that is actually a reason to watch. Here too, she succeeds in convincingly portraying a layered character. At the same time, Synnøve Karlsen as young Cassandra is no less than Hawes. Together, she and Patsy Ferran succeed in bringing a loving and warm relationship between the two Austen sisters to the screen. Rose Leslie, Jessica Hynes, Max Irons and Alfred Enoch are also valuable additions to the cast.
Miss Austen is a costume drama as the BBC makes them: quiet, beautifully dressed and excellently acted. In a beautiful way this series shows how deep the bond between two sisters can be, even if one sister dies thirty years earlier. If you like British costume dramas, I would definitely put this on your watch list.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
