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"I'm all for rich, single guys, but who is my mom to tell one of us who to marry?"Top to bottom, left to right...

Lizzie Bennet is a normal young woman, pursuing a Master's degree in communications and desiring nothing more than to be her own person. This is in clear contrast to her mom, who just wants to get Lizzie and her two sisters married off to someone rich as soon as possible. She even got them all shirts saying "It's a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Lizzie doesn't buy it, and is going to explain exactly why to the whole internet in the form of video blogs.

When the handsome and rich Bing Lee moves into town, with his infuriatingly snobby and even-richer friend William Darcy in tow, Lizzie's life is thrown into disarray as her entire family starts clamouring for his attention. Thankfully, armed with a camera, her friend Charlotte's editing expertise and a healthy dose of snark, Lizzie is ready to document this social catastrophe as it unfolds.

If you haven't realized yet, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is a modernized Vlog Series adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, written by Bernie Su and produced in part by Hank Green. It can be found on YouTube or at its own website.

Though it's scarcely the only update of P&P, what was surprising about The LBDs was the exciting and devoted fan reaction towards it. The show boasts over 260,000 YouTube subscribers, and its DVD release raised 500% of its goal on Kickstarter within just one week of its month-long fundraising drive. Oh, and then it won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media — Original Interactive Program, which is pretty darn impressive.

There is also a novelization of the series called The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, which consists of her written diary from the same time period. It serves partly as a novelization and partly as a companion piece to the videos, often expanding in greater details upon subjects that for practical reasons are only hinted at in the videos. This novelization also got a sequel, The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet, which is narrated by Lizzie's younger sister Lydia and focuses on her life after the events of the series.

The show also started a trend of setting-update diaries on YouTube, both professional and fanmade. One famous example is The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, which references The LBDs in its first episode and had its authors cite the show as inspiration. The show has also been followed by its own Spinoffs:


The Lizzie Bennet Diaries provide examples of:

  • Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The books didn't portray Lydia particularly sympathetically and would have probably been criticized if they did. In this series, we get to see a heartbroken Lydia sobbing in Lizzie's arms in episode 87.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Charlotte and Mary. Both described as plain women in the book, both very pretty in this vlog.
  • Adaptational Upbringing Change: In the original novel, there are five Bennet sisters, with Elizabeth and Jane and Lydia and Kitty having closer bonds to each other. In addition, Mrs. Bennet dotes on Lydia, since they have similar personalities. Along with the Setting Update, in the modern vlog adaptation there are only three Bennet sisters: Jane, Lizzie, and Lydia (with Kitty becoming an actual pet cat while Mary is now a cousin). This means that while Jane and Lizzie are still close, Lydia is the odd one out. Combined with Mrs. Bennet being harder on Lydia for not doing well in school, this makes Lydia's Attention Whore personality more of a Desperately Craves Affection variety, feeling ignored by both her parents and sisters and making her more sympathetic than her book counterpart.
  • Adaptation Distillation: Kitty and Mary Bennet are cut from the sisterhood to better focus on the contrasts between the three more prominent sisters. It's later revealed that Kitty is actually a cat and Mary is a cousin that Lizzie "always forgets about".
  • Adaptation Name Change:
    • Charlotte Lucas becomes Charlotte Lu as part of her Race Lift.
    • Charles Bingley becomes Bing Lee, getting a race lift in the process. By extension, his sister Caroline Bingley becomes Caroline Lee.
    • Fitzwilliam Darcy is updated to William Darcy.
    • Probably to avoid confusion with Darcy, William Collins has become Ricky Collins, short for Richard. Charlotte refers to him as such in the "Without Reservation" video on Maria Lu's spin-off vlogs. Mostly though, insists on being referred to as "Mr. Collins."
    • Darcy's sister's full name is still Georgiana, but most people call her Gigi.
    • Colonel Fitzwilliam is now Fitz Williams.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: Some episode titles are alliterative.
    • "Friends Forever".
    • "Convertible Carpool".
    • "Swimming with Scissors".
    • "Staff Spirit".
    • "Sisterly Support".
  • Aerith and Bob: The central characters of the show are Lizzie, Jane, Lydia, Charlotte, William (who tends to be called "Darcy"), Caroline and... Bing. Especially noticeable since Darcy's first name is changed from "Fitzwilliam" to the far more common "William".
  • Age Lift: The series' modern setting wouldn't fit with 15-year-old Lydia or 16-year-old Georgiana. Lizzie and Jane are several years older than their book counterparts as well. Inverted with Charlotte, who was 27 in the book, but is Lizzie's age, 24, in the adaptation. invoked
  • Ambiguously Jewish: There's a passing reference to Mr. and Mrs. Bennet going to Uncle Phil's Hannukah party, yet the Bennets also explicitly celebrate Christmas. The novel makes it more clear that Uncle Phil married one of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's siblings.
  • Armor-Piercing Question:
    • Maria asks Charlotte why she always calls Ricky "Mr. Collins" and Charlotte can only reply with a series of facial expressions.
    • Jane asks Lizzie what she plans to do with herself after her degree, and (on a greater level) what she wants from her life. The normally-voluble Lizzie is pretty quiet afterwards.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: After Darcy watches all Lizzie's videos where she reveals her unflattering opinions of him, in which she uses a flat cap to denote his character in her "costume theatre" bits.
    Darcy: You called me a robot. And a newsie.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Charlotte is much more important than her book counterpart ever was.
    • Caroline has been expanded as well and is arguably a secondary antagonist.
    • In the novel, Colonel Fitzwilliam sort of drops off after his big scene. The Fitz character was playing matchmaker.
    • Charlotte's sister Maria is a minor character in the novel, so unimportant she's left out of most adaptations. In LBD she gets a short spin-off that helps reconcile Charlotte and Lizzie.
    • Gigi is much more prominent. She plays matchmaker to Lizzie and Darcy, along with Fitz, reveals what happened between her and Wickham on her own, and gets her own spin-off.
  • Bad "Bad Acting": Whenever one of the characters steps in to play a different one, this happens to some degree. Their acting styles also say a lot about themselves:
    • Lizzie caricatures and exaggerates, at least partially.
    • Lydia overacts. Flamboyantly.
    • Jane starts out as a Deer in the Headlights every time the camera lands on her, but as she becomes more comfortable in her skin, she starts to show the wilder side that she normally represses.
    • Charlotte gives realistic but emotionally cold and uninterested performances.
    • Mary's attempt at costume theatre is melodramatic, she breaks character twice, and you can see her mouthing along with Lizzie's lines.
    • Darcy is unable to imitate his sister because he feels it would sound too mocking.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Lizzie and Darcy, at least at first.
  • Big "NO!": Lizzie lets out a Big NO in episode 30, upon finding out it'll take more time than expected to remodel the house.
  • Book Worm:
    • The only thing Lizzie does with her time, by her own admission, is make vlogs, read and study.
    • Mary Bennet. The first time we see her, she's reading through all of Lydia's antics.
  • Breather Episode:
    • Episode 65 and onward, coinciding with the Thanksgiving holidays, take us away from the plot for awhile. Culminates in Episode 69, starring Lydia, Lydia-as-Lizzie and Jane-as-Lydia.
    • Episode 83, in which Darcy and Lizzie flirt cutely and he praises her work. It sits between Episode 82, in which Gigi reveals the truth about Wickham and herself, and Episode 84, which then reveals that Wickham intends to publish a sex tape of himself and Lydia.
  • Brits Love Tea: Jane keeps bringing Lizzie tea when she's distressed. When she brings also scones, Lizzie lampshades the trope by asking whether they have turned British as a nod to the original novel.
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • Lizzie makes fun of Mr. Collins in her vlogs, for being anvilicious, self-important, blunt and not unspontaneous (because he is socially awkward, career-driven to a fault and slightly self-involved).
    • Initially, Mary was the butt of jokes in Lydia's vlog. It Got Better.
  • Bouquet Toss: Lizzie suspects that her mother paid off Ellen Gibson to throw the bouquet directly at her. And Darcy was thrown the garter. These events lead to what according to Lizzie was the most awkward dance ever.
  • Celebrity Paradox:
    • Lizzie is apparently a fan of the movie Bridget Jones' Diary despite it being based off Pride and Prejudice, too.
    • Charlotte and Lizzie mention that their mothers read Sense and Sensibility for a book club.
    • Lizzie, Charlotte, and Lydia (characters in a Hank Green-produced webshow) attending VidCon (a convention organized by Hank Green).
    • Lizzie includes a clip of herself meeting with Hank, who compliments her on her webshow while she says she likes all of his shows.
  • Character Blog:
    • The show is Lizzie's personal vlog posted on youtube.
    • Most characters have social media accounts, giving the story more dimension and allowing the audience to be privy to information we don't get to see in Lizzie's videos.
    • While the Wickham tape drama was going on, there was an actual website you could visit and subscribe to. The website still exists, but now only displays a message saying: "sorry, we are no longer able to offer this product."
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • Each episode before the intro tune has Lizzie saying: "My name is Lizzie Bennet, and ..."
    • Lizzie's "I forget nothing!" She says it whenever somebody is baffled by her extraordinary memory. She remembers every word of every conversation.
    • Jane's "Hi, it's so good to see you." She greets viewers with this line, and Charlotte claims that's how she greets her friends, mortal enemies and the mail-man alike.
    • Lydia's "Whaaaaaaaat!"
  • Character Development:
    • As they go through their trials and tribulations, Lizzie and Lydia in particular are growing more aware of the mistakes they've made and the potential problems in their judgement and attitudes towards others.
    • Darcy also realizes he made mistakes in his judgement after his love confession, and tries to become less abrasive and more expressive in later appearances.
    • Jane and Bing both recognize by the end of the series that they have become different people from the innocent lovers they were at the beginning, but are now much better at communicating and knowing what they want.
  • Character Exaggeration: In the source material, Lizzie is a pretty good judge of character, with the exception of Wickham and Darcy. In the vlog, Lizzie is a lot more prone to being a bad judge of character because of her personal biases. This forces more Character Development.
  • Composite Character:
    • Mr Bingley originally had two sisters. Obviously, just one is fine. Caroline also fulfills the role of Anne de Bourgh (who is now Catherine's pet dog).
    • Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner have been combined into Dr. Gardiner, Lizzie's Mass Communications professor, who arranges for her to shadow at Pemberley. Fitz and Gigi also seem to be partly fulfilling the Gardiner's roles.
    • After episode 87, Lydia's storyline and future prospects are closer to book-Kitty's, rather than book-Lydia's.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Gigi proudly describes Domino, Pemberley's latest prototype, as being able to auto-edit and auto-upload anything it captures. George Wickham downloads Domino without thinking in the 5th demo video, making himself traceable...
  • Continuity Cameo:
    • Kitty Bennet in Lydia's spin-off.
    • Lydia's friend Denny gets a passing mention in the spin-off as well.
    • The name Carter's Bar is a reference to Captain Carter, a minor character in the original novel.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Lydia takes over the videos for episode 69 and she has Jane portray her. Jane enters wearing the same clothes Lydia wore in episode 20, the last episode Lydia took over.
    • Lydia wears Jane and Lizzie's birthday necklace in several videos.
  • Coordinated Clothes: In episode 59 "Staff Spirit", Charlotte Lu wears a Ketchup costume for Halloween work event, while her direct supervisor Ricky Collins is dressed in a Mustard outfit.
  • Could Say It, But...: Lizzie does not wish to reveal private information concerning Darcy's treatment of Wickham, so she tells a story about "Dar...vid" and "Batman" instead.
    Darcy: If I knew a Darvid, perhaps he would feel differently.
  • Creator Cameo: Lizzie meets Hank at VidCon.
  • Culturally Sensitive Adaptation: In both Pride and Prejudice and The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, Wickham takes advantage of Lydia's naivete in a way which could genuinely ruin her life, but fortunately Darcy intervenes and protects her from the worst of it. The 19th century intervention, which takes the form of finding Wickham and pressuring him into marrying Lydia, was definitely not going to work in the 21st century (and would absolutely not be seen as a positive outcome by the audience even if it could).
  • Curse Cut Short:
    • Episode 10 "Cats and Chinchillas" ends with Lizzie's fff[bleeeeeep].
    • Episode 53 "Annie Kins" starts with "What the [cut to the opening theme]".
  • Damned by Faint Praise:
    • Lizzie feels like Darcy is employing this trope on her. Evidently she's "decent enough" for him. His lack of social skills and tact is really astounding, especially when considering how witty and pretty Lizzie actually is.
    • The only compliment Jane has in regards to Darcy is that he is "very tall".
      Lizzie: Okay! For the record, when the nicest thing Jane Bennet has to say about you is "tall", you have personality problems.
    • When Caroline is trying to describe Darcy to Lizzie, she doesn't know what to say and ends up describing him as tall. And Caroline actually likes Darcy. Her struggle may not have been in finding something to praise about him, but in figuring out how to praise him without making it obvious she likes him. Either way, she never ends up spitting anything out, so the effect is the same.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Though Lizzie is the main character, she doesn't show up in every video:
    • Charlotte and Jane take over Episode 15.
    • Lydia takes over Episode 20 and Episode 69.
    • Ricky Collins first shows up in-person in Episode 25 by crashing the VidCon filming.
    • Caroline Lee shows up in Episode 27, and reveals that she's been aware of the diaries.
    • Bing and Jane finally share an episode together (Episode 28). Squee ensues.
    • Mary shows up when Lydia does her own spin-off videos during the Netherfield arc.
    • Kitty Bennet gets a day in the limelight on Lydia's blog.
    • Lydia and Mr. Collins have an episode to themselves after Lizzie storms out.
    • Charlotte and Mr. Collins do Episode 41. The result is, surprisingly, a Drama Bomb.
    • Lydia and Jane solo while Lizzie writes a paper.
    • Mary hides in Lizzie's video.
      "Well, that will certainly make the costumes easier to obtain."
  • Death Glare: Lydia gives Lizzie an especially long and angry deadly stare after realising that they're not going out partying like she thought.
  • Deconstructed Trope: In episode 90, Lizzie wonders what kind of med school allows Bing to take so much time off so that he can swan around the country like he's been doing. Turns out, no sane med school does — the whole reason Bing set up camp near the Bennets at the start of the series was that he'd dropped out and Caroline and Darcy were trying to help him get sorted out. Part of the reason Caroline is so mad at the Bennet girls is, after she got Bing away from Jane and back into med school, he dropped out again to be with her.
  • Deer in the Headlights:
    • Lizzie has this look when Lydia sneaks up behind her and wraps her hands around Lizzie's neck with very big, sharp scissors.
    • Lizzie in episode 60, after she inadvertently tells Darcy about her videos.
    • In the first episode of the Maria Lu spin-off series, Charlotte Lu warns her younger sister not to do this in a vlog.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • Kitty Bennet, the fourth Bennet sister, has been adapted into an actual cat named Kitty.
    • Mary, the middle child, has been turned into a cousin seen mainly in Lydia's spin-off videos (although she has appeared in Lizzie's videos).
  • Department of Redundancy Department: Lizzie in episode 33, talking about Darcy: "The only thing he wanted was for me to say that I liked popular music so that he could mock me with his mocking words, and his mocking face and BEADY little mocking eyes."
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Lizzie, walking in on Wickham with no shirt on, forgets to castigate Lydia for "accidentally" spilling water on his shirt (hence the no-shirt-on thing) and instead gives a series of disjointed giggles. Well, it's either this or Heroic BSoD at the realization of what she let Lydia do.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Lydia says she felt sorry for the youngest boy she babysat. The older boys were so mean to him, and he seemed so lonely.
  • Drama Bomb:
    • Episode 41 (Collins' proposal to Charlotte) and 42 (fallout thereof).
    • Episode 47 (Bing leaves town) and 48 (Jane breaks down before announcing she too is leaving).
    • Episode 60: Darcy first appears on the videos to declare his love for Lizzie. Lizzie shuts him down.
    • Episode 73: Lydia has her 21st birthday and Lizzie accidentally reveals her opinion that Lydia could stand to act more grown-up. Lydia doesn't take it well.
    • Episode 84: Darcy asks Lizzie out on a date but before she can answer she finds out that Lydia has been dating George Wickham and he has been advertising a sex tape of the two of them and Lizzie has to return home.
  • Drop-In Character: Initially, Jane and Lydia but they got great staples of the show in later episodes. Definitely the case for Mr. Collins, Caroline and Bing. Bing doesn't even know about the vlog he's appearing on until episode 81.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: In the Secret Diaries book, Lizzie mentions in her report from VidCon that she attended a talk on multi-communication platforms from "a designer and app company called Pemberly Digital."
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The makeup is much more conspicuous in the first eight or so episodes, particularly the absolute first. It can be jarring to go back to them.
  • Eating the Eye Candy: Both Lizzie and Lydia thoroughly enjoyed shirtless Wickham.
  • Fake Texting: When Jane and Charlotte discuss Darcy's developing interest in Lizzy, they portray his poor social skills and awkwardness in their "costume theatre". Charlotte says he should work on his game. Apparently, Darcy was fake texting during their night out.
    Charlotte-as-Caroline: Oh look. Your little crush is coming this way.
    Jane-as-Darcy: [turns her back and begins fiddling with her phone]
    Charlotte-as-Caroline: Are you fake texting?
    Jane-as-Darcy: It's super important.
  • Fatal Flaw: Lizzie's pride and inability to change her mind once it's made up, especially against Darcy and Lydia, has caused misunderstandings and problems for many of the involved. Fortunately Character Development helps her to learn from those flaws.
  • Fist Pump: According to Lizzie, Mrs. Bennet kept pumping her fist at Ellen Gibson's wedding when she was enjoying her success as a matchmaker when her daughter Jane and Bing danced together song after song. Let's hope Lizzie meant it metaphorically.
  • Flowers of Femininity: Jane and Gigi get a pink flower for their costume theatre and it accurately captures their femininity. However, they don't seem to be wearing flowers in hair in real life.
  • Foreshadowing: "Keeping someone ignorant isn't protecting them. It can actually endanger them, you know?"
  • Four-Girl Ensemble: Jane is definite the "sweet, naive" one, and Lydia is definitely the "sexy" one (of the Really Gets Around type). Charlotte's mostly the Deadpan Snarker, which leaves Lizzie as the Wild Card, which fits her accurately, to a point.
  • Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Lizzie would sometimes answer comments at the video, and she would ask her viewers to send her questions through Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, and those that were interesting for the story or characters got answered in-universe. In addition, the creative team was always eager to communicate with fans at the official page or various social networks.
  • Freudian Excuse: The Lydia vlogs heavily imply that Lydia acts out and is obnoxious at least in part because she feels jealous of Jane and Lizzie's bond and ignored by her parents. Interestingly, the writers seem to take this less seriously than the vast majority of the Lydia fanbase.
  • Freudian Slip:
    • If we ever doubted that Lizzie's impersonation of her mother was close from her, we can rely on it now.
      Jane: No, Mom ! Mom... ahem... Lizzie !
    • Quite possibly this, from episode 46:
      Wickham: I've got people to do and things to see. [looks ill-at-ease]
    • "I would never do that. I can't stand that jerk." Oh, Lydia.
    • Lizzie's "what if we missed our chance?" from Episode 91. The previous rhetorical questions refer to Bing and Jane as "they", but the wording of the last one implies that she's thinking about Darcy.
  • Gilligan Cut: Becomes somewhat of a Running Gag in The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet. quite often, Lizzie will end her diary entries with some statement about how [X] will never happen or [Y] should go off without a hitch — only for her to open the next diary entry describing how [X] did indeed happen or [Y] ran into unforeseen problems. She catches onto it after a while, at one point telling herself that she has to stop making such predictions in her diary when the universe is so determined to prove her wrong... but then she goes right back to doing it.
  • The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: A tame version exists between Lizzie and Lydia. For the most part, the get along and they are kept in check by Jane. Plus, it's obvious that they really care about each other. The Lizzie-Lydia feud finally erupted in episodes 73 and 74.
  • Goth: Mary is a downplayed example of the "Gloomy Goth" variety, mixed with Emo Teen.
  • "Good Luck" Gesture: Lizzie crosses fingers on both hands rather intensely in "Q&A 1" when she says she hopes her younger sister Lydia will soon become a responsible woman.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Lydia. Lizzie sometimes, usually when it relates to Collins and Darcy.
  • Heartbreak And Icecream: Charlotte brings cheesy movies and ice-cream to Lizzie who is a bit depressed over a guy. They weren't dating, but there are other love problems than a break-up.
  • Heroic BSoD: Lizzie has one in the 8th episode, complete with an editorial aside by Charlotte lampshading and/or foreshadowing Lizzie's Fatal Flaw and the entire plot that results from it:
    Charlotte: Hey, everyone. Lizzie is having a bit of a crisis because her sister Jane actually likes the guy her mother wants her to marry. A guy who, it turns out, is actually pleasant, and nice, and funny, but that Lizzie had already made up her mind to hate. And Lizzie hates changing her mind.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Lizzie thinks that a lot of other people fit this trope: "And yet another example of lively, outgoing people inexplicably being friends with Darcy!" The truth, of course, is that she fits the trope; Episode 61 revolves around nothing else, with both Charlotte and Darcy himself dropping in to debunk her assumptions on Darcy. In Lizzie's defense, episode 81 makes it clear that Darcy is unusually stiff when he's around her.
  • Iconic Outfit: Used in-universe for Costume Theater whenever someone is standing in for someone else.
    • Darcy's bowtie and newsie cap.
    • Lizzie's plaid shirt.
    • Jane is represented by a pink flower worn in someone's hair.
    • Bing is represented by one of those stereotypical-head-mirror thingies that doctors have.
    • Caroline is represented by Cool Shades and a black scarf.
    • Wickham is represented with swimming goggles.
    • Mr. Bennet has a pipe and short-brimmed hat. Once he had a model of a train.
    • Mrs. Bennet has a rainbow scarf, chandelier earrings and a large floppy garden hat.
    • Gigi is represented by Darcy's newsie cap plus Jane's pink flower.
    • Fitz is represented by a big poufy wig provided by Darcy.
    • Charlotte has a knit purple hat, pig tails and a book that says "Charlotte costume" on it. Lizzie had to improvise. Charlotte lampshades the Stylistic Suck the very next episode:
    You had ninety-six episodes to think up a costume for me, and you came up with... pigtails and a book?
  • I Like My X Like I Like My Y: Who else?
    Mary: How about you? If you're so keen on oversharing people's personal lives on the Internet, why don't we talk about your Love Interest?
    Lydia: Love interest? HA HA HA—No. That's way too boring. I like my boys like I like my data plans: readily available, unlimited, and something I never signed a contract for.
  • Incompatible Orientation:
    • Lydia and her friend Denny. When Mary speculates about the two of them, Lydia retorts that he has a boyfriend.
    • Lizzie and Fitz. Lizzie tells the audience not to expect a romance between them because Fitz is gay.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: Lizzie realizes Caroline is full of shit, and has, in fact, been watching her videos and keeping up with all the drama, despite her attempts at playing innocent. She accuses Caroline of just wanting to know what's in Darcy's letter. Caroline quickly denies that she cares about the letter—but Lizzie immediately points out, if Caroline really hadn't seen the videos, her response would've been, "What letter?" Caroline quickly excuses herself.
  • Ironic Echo: In Episode 2, Lizzie uses the comment "Argh, Lydia's being a stupid whorey slut again!" as an hypothetical example of what she might say in a future videos. In Episode 87, Lydia says sincerely that "None of this would've happened if I wasn't acting like a stupid whorey slut again, right?"
  • Is This Thing On?:
    • When Lizzie was shooting her video blog entries, her sisters and other characters would occasionally come into her room. She once assured her sister Jane that she would edit it out later, but their conversation turned out useful for the entry, so Lizzie kept it. In later stories, Lizzie would state that she had the person's permission to post it online.
    • Later in the story, Darcy's company Pemberley Digital developed a story-telling application that automatically recorded and edited phone calls and conversations, with automatic up-load to the channel. That explains how some of the private moments got into Gigi Darcy's spin-off and viewers could see it. Darcy was smart and when Gigi called him, he immediately asked whether she was using Domino demo, and ended the call when she said she did.
  • Jerkass Realization: Lizzie thinks she has one in episode 43. However, it is made clear at the same time that Lizzie didn't know Charlotte was unhappy with her taking most of the credit for the vlog, making the moment rather moving and redeeming.
  • The Joy of X: Episode "Tale of Two Gents" uses the pattern of A Tale of Two X.
  • Karma Houdini: Unlike the original novel, George Wickham doesn't seem to receive any comeuppance whatsoever for emotionally abusing Lydia, betraying her trust and nearly ruining her reputation for a quick buck. Lizzie worries that he'll be trying to pull this scam again on another innocent person in the future — although hopefully, thanks to the publicity of what nearly happened, people will be more suspicious of him.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • Lizzie, without realizing the extent of it, towards all the characters whose private lives she reveals. It divides as follows:
      • Cases ending with My God, What Have I Done?: Caroline Lee, Bing Lee.
      • Cases beginning with serious provocation or indifference towards her well-being: Darcy, her mother, the Team Swimmers, Mr. Collins.
    • Lydia does the same as a part of her Sibling Rivalry with Lizzie, but at least, she is very affectuous towards her. She does the same to Mary but wants to help her and they finally end up being friends.
    • Darcy's statements are demeaning to about 80% of the base. Those who haven't read the book have a hard time to see him being redeemed (unless they think Lizzie's exaggerating).
  • Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Collins may talk a good game, but it is quite fair to say that he has zero understanding of what the "point" of social media is.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • Charlotte saying that people like the DIY look. "It makes the video feel more authentic if it's not too polished."
    • Lizzie and Charlotte:
      Charlotte: Could you get back on-script? No one cares about my aunt.
      Lizzie: Yeah... We seem super-authentic now.
    • Mr. Collins: "I find [your vlog] inherently unique, perhaps it's the complex narrative you're telling."
    • Lydia winks at the camera in Episode 24 when she explains to Lizzie and Charlotte that she got into VidCon because she "has friends in high places"...
    • Lizzie is aware that her viewers ship her and Darcy and she makes comments about not wanting any crazy fan fictions. Cue commentators claiming that one chick named Jane Austen wrote a fanfic in historical setting and that it's pretty good.
  • Meaningful Look: Lizzie mentions that Darcy keeps staring at her. As in the book, she thinks he disagrees with something she does or says. As in the book, these are actually longing looks.
    Lizzie: Every time I'm in a room with that man, he stares at me... Constantly. It's like I'm a traffic accident.. And. He. Just. Can't. Look. Away.
  • Meta Twist: Episode 87, the biggest Drama Bomb of the series, does not play the cheery theme tune over the ending panel.
  • Mockbuster: In-Universe. One of the shows produced by Collins & Collins is Game Of Gourds. Taglines include "Winter squash is coming" and You win or you're gourd."
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • One episode 48, where Jane comes in with an embroidery for Lizzie, and when re-enacting a scene between Lizzy and Wickham, suddenly breaks down remembering how Bing never called to explain why he left town.
    • The Care Package episode. Fitz brings up how caring Darcy is by talking about how Darcy intervened between Jane and Bing, not realizing that Jane was the girl Darcy warned Bing about and that Lizzy is sending a care package partly because of the entire situation.
    • Episode 84. Lizzie is gleefully showing off her new phone and Darcy is on the verge of asking her out on a date when Lizzie learns from Charlotte that Wickham intends to publish a sex tape featuring himself and Lydia.
  • Mustache Vandalism: Charlotte is Lizzie's best friend and the diaries start as their mutual project. Charlotte is responsible for the editing. Occasionally she "hijacks" the videos with funny subtitles, drawings or voice-overs. In one episode, she draws devil's horns, eyebrows, and an evil goatee on Lizzie's face. Picture.
  • My Girl Is a Slut: Lizzie opinion of Lydia is that she's a "Whorey Slut". When she is called out about slut shaming her sister by fans she modifies this to say that there is nothing wrong with responsible women doing whatever they like in the bedroom she just wishes that Lydia would be that responsible.
  • My Greatest Failure: Lizzie has this reaction in Episode 84 that shows the depth of her remorse over the gulf that has opened between herself and Lydia.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • In the first Q&A episode, Lydia shows Lizzie her fake ID with the name "Mary Crawford," a character from another Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park.
    • Charlotte and Lizzie's mothers went into labor while reading Sense and Sensibility.
    • The "Truth universally acknowledged..." T-shirts, which Mrs. Bennet takes completely seriously.
    • Kitty Bennet was originally one of the Bennet sisters. Here, she's a literal kitty.
    • Lizzie jokes that Annie Kins the dog is a perfect match for Darcy. In the original novel, Darcy and Anne were intended to be betrothed by their mothers.
    • Jane: "I'm moving to Los Angeles, not London." London is where she stayed for a while in the novel.
    • Jane prepares tea and scones for Lizzie, to which Lizzie says: "Did we turn British?"
    • Lizzie stated that she always felt drawn to England and she cyber-shadowed a company in London.
    • Fitz and Gigi's close relationship is a nod to the novel where Col. Fitzwilliam, along with Mr. Darcy, was Georgiana's guardian.
    • In one of the question videos, Lizzie says the past version of her would enjoy walking and probably have a lot of muddy dresses.
    • She tells the Darcys that she likes to walk, despite the difficulty in the city.
    • Lizzie and Gigi are both mystified at how people always assume they play the piano. Elegant Classical Musician was a thing to take very seriously in Regency England.
    • Pemberly Digital is named after the Darcys' ancestral estate of a Big Fancy House Pemberley in England.
    • In the second episode, Lizzie mentions that she likes films starring Colin Firth; Firth played the role of Mr Darcy in the BBC miniseries adaptation of P&P.
    • In the last episode of Gigi's spin-off, Gigi tells Darcy to go and have a swim. This brings to mind the famous dive scene with Sexy Soaked Shirt in the 1995 BBC adaptation.
    • In a Twitter post, Fitz mentions going to Italy for "Brandon's b-day". Colonel Brandon is a prominent character in Sense and Sensibility.
    • Lydia mentions her grade-school friend Harriet, who may or may not be Harriet Smith from Emma.
      • It's more likely to be Harriet Forster. In the novel, Lydia stayed with Mrs and Colonel Forster in Brighton.
    • During an episode where everyone seems to be leaving town at the same time, Lizzie asks, "What's going on? Is it the zombie apocalypse?"
  • No Name Given: Despite the modern setting, Mr and Mrs Bennet are called Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. The girls refer to them as "Mom and Dad", the other characters as "your mother and your father" and they call themselves pet names in the costume theater sequences. The book reveals Mrs. Bennet is called Marilyn.
  • No Social Skills:
    • Darcy and Gigi have troubles interacting normally with people they have just met, leading to Lizzie wondering if it's a family trait.
    • Ricky Collins as well, and as a Foil to boot: while Darcy knows what to say but not how to say it, Collins talks a lot and says very little.
  • "Not So Different" Remark:
    • Episode 55 revolves around this. Charlotte compares Lizzie to her mother (see the next trope down for her response), and Lizzie quite innocently compares herself to Mr. Collins ("I wonder where Charlotte learned her Politeness Judo?") and then, more subtly, to Darcy (taking note of the friends they both have, which by her calculations shouldn't be true).
    • Jane points out that Lizzie and Lydia are not so different, being incredibly stubborn and more willing to talk to the internet than to each other.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Lizzie's reaction to finding out Caroline Lee watches her vlog in episode 27. Her face says "this is gonna suck".
    • Her expression when she lets slip about her blog to Darcy.
    • When she discovers that her "tour guide" in Pemberley Digital is really Gigi Darcy and that she not only knows about the videos, she watches and loves them.
    Lizzie: Bye, Gigi...[to camera] otherwise known as Darcy's sister... who watches my videos. Why do I feel like I'm in major trouble right now?
    • Charlotte, when Lizzie gets an assignment to shadow Pemberly Digital and has trouble figuring out why that name is familiar.
  • One Dialogue, Two Conversations: In episode 85, Lydia thought Lizzie was expressing her disapproval about Lydia seeing George but Lizzie was really talking about the sex tape that George was going to post online.
  • One Head Taller: Darcy is a tall guy and Lizzie is fairly petite compared to him.
  • One-Hour Work Week: Bing's very flexible med school schedule is lampshaded by Lizzie. An explanation is offered in Episode 92: He quit med school after realising he needs to live his own life for himself.
  • One-Liner, Name... One-Liner: Lizzie to Charlotte in Episode 55: "Low blow, Lu. Low blow."
  • Only Sane Woman: Lizzie sees herself as the only reasonable one in the family, especially in relation to her sisters, but the plot dents this perception somewhat. The real source of wisdom is Charlotte, who knows enough about everyone to foreshadow their Character Development.
  • Opposites Attract: Lizzie's view of her parents's marriage.
  • Parents as People: Lizzie admits that her mother has good intentions and is only trying to look out for her daughters, but is doing so in a very obnoxious and humiliating way that doesn't take her daughters' feelings and thoughts into consideration. Also her father, according to Lizzie, is loving and supportive but more often than not enjoys a good laugh on his daughters' accounts.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Without her kindness to Jane, her friendship with Charlotte, her concern with her viewers, her feminist opinions, and her Anger Born of Worry towards Lydia, Lizzie's harshness towards her overbearing mother, Darcy, Mr. Collins and (originally) Caroline would be much harder to forgive.
    • Lydia has moments with Mary which make them more sympathetic. Lydia in the book was never this friendly and nice.
    • In Episode 61, Darcy apologizes for upsetting Lizzie, unprompted and of his own will.
  • invoked Portmanteau Couple Name: Lydia dubs Jane and Bing "Jing".
  • Pragmatic Adaptation:
    • Due to budget and storytelling constraints, only a few members of the cast appear onscreen. Lizzie's extra sisters Mary and Kitty have been transformed into a cousin and an actual cat (respectively), and Bing's two sisters have been condensed into one.
    • In amusing behind-the-scenes facts: Lizzie's room is producer Jenni Powell's actual apartment, and the lead actresses costume themselves out of their personal wardrobes.
      Ashley Clements: At this point I own very, very little that has not been on the show. Basically if I wanted to wear something that I haven't worn as Lizzie, I could wear pajamas or a bridesmaid's dress.
  • Pregnancy Scare: The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet reveals the real reason why Jane was acting "strange" towards the end of her and Lizzie's stay at Netherfield. In the videos, Lizzie just says it's homesickness; in her private diary she reveals that Jane was actually worried because her period was late and she was afraid she'd gotten pregnant. She swore Lizzie to absolute secrecy, which is why the topic doesn't come up in the videos.
  • Promoted to Love Interest: Inverted by Mr. Collins, who goes from proposing marriage to Elizabeth (and later, Charlotte) to offering Lizzie (and later, Charlotte) a job.
  • Punny Name: Kitty Bennet. Catherine "Kitty" Bennet was a fourth sister in the novel, while here she is literally a kitty.
  • Race Lift:
    • The Lucas family are English in the book, but Americans of Chinese descent in the vlog. Charlotte Lucas is Charlotte Lu.
    • Mr Bingley has been re-imagined as Bing Lee, so he went from white English guy to Asian American. Caroline Bingley becomes Caroline Lee as a result.
    • Colonel Fitzwilliam is black in this version, being known as simply Fitz.
  • Rape Portrayed as Redemption: Lydia gets the support of her sisters that she always wanted, and sheds the "energetic, adorbs" persona for a more "mature, responsible" one, after George Wickham coerces her into making a sex tape that he then puts online.
  • Really Gets Around: Lydia (by reputation, as such exploits are unlikely to be captured in-vlog)... until the 84th episode of Lizzie's vlog, when it's revealed that George Wickham made a sex tape.
  • Red Herring: The videos concerning Lydia's trip to Las Vegas all drop heavy foreshadowing that she might have some sort of Accidental Marriage there, as in the source material. Even Lydia teases it in her first video of 2013. But it never happens. (The actual way it plays out is even more horrifying.)
  • Related Differently in the Adaptation: In Pride and Prejudice, there are five Bennet sisters. To narrow down the focus of this series there are now three; middle sister Mary is now their cousin (and Kitty is now their family cat).
  • Right Behind Me: After accidentally revealing her vlogs to Darcy, Lizzie panics over the thought that he could sue her for some of the things she said about him. As she was saying this, Darcy appears at the doorway behind her.
  • Romantic Rain: Spoofed. Viewers might have expected a certain guy, but it was Charlotte who appeared on Lizzie's doorstep to cheer her up rain or no rain. Charlotte remarks it barely drizzled.
  • Running Gag:
    • Lydia's list of why Lizzie is perpetually single, and Lizzie's confusion over whether it's real or not.
    • Whenever someone questions the veracity of Lizzie's recollections, Lizzie responds, "I forget nothing."
    • Whenever Darcy is introduced (back) into the story line, he'll either spend the first minute or so of the video mostly out of shot with his head left out of the frame, or off screen altogether.
  • Setting Update: P&P in modern America, as a vlog. The Bennet sisters are now university students who are probably going need a man in possession of a good fortune to dig them out of the debts their family has. Mr Bingley is now a medical student with huge family money and Darcy is a media mogul's son and a hipster. Many plot points focus on the women's careers rather than on their love life and marriage prospects.
  • Sexy Soaked Shirt:
    • Part of Mrs. Bennet's "convoluted plan" is to stage one. It's supposed to rain and the jelly from a disgusting cranberry gelatin mold with green beans would dissolve and it would stain Jane's dress...
    • Lydia stages one with George Wickham when she spills water on his T-shirt, leading to him going actually shirtless on-camera.
  • Ship Tease: Quite possibly the 2nd video of Maria's spinoff, for Mr. Collins and Charlotte.
  • Shipper on Deck: Naturally, Gigi and Fitz for Lizzie and Darcy, judging by their tweets and Gigi's conversations with Lizzie. In episode 78, Gigi orchestrates the infamous awkward Pemberley scene by unceremoniously shoving Darcy into the room and sitting Lizzie and Darcy in front of the camera. Her tweets with Fitz show that they were both in on it. They were using Spy Speak.
  • Shirtless Scene: Episode 45 courtesy of George Wickham. Invoked by Lydia. She spilled water on his shirt and persuaded him to take it off. He gladly obliged.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Lizzie describes Jane as Practically Perfect in every way!
    • In episode 10, Lizzie has to scrutinize Jane's face for more information. When this proves insufficient, she uses a Vulcan mind-meld.
    • In episode 11, Lizzie compares Darcy and Caroline Lee to Statler & Waldorf.
    • In the Q&A, one of the names Lizzie suggested for the session was "Lizzie explains it all". This is perhaps inadvertently a shoutout to a website called Lissa Explains it All, which teaches children about HTML and which has been around for over 10 years. (The website may have originally been called "Lizzy Explains it All"), or the tv show Clarissa Explains It All.
    • In Episode 29, Lizzie bemoans her fate of living in a van down by the river.
    • Additionally in Episode 29, Lizzie advises Bing on movies. She declares the period drama a good call, but warns against the one with zombies.
    • In Episode 5 of Lydia Bennet's vlog, she tells about babysitting for the Jacksons, who have three sons named Elijah, Dom and Billy. Elijah likes playing "orcs and little people".
    • Lydia describes herself as "super-mega-foxy-awesome-hot".
  • Silent Credits: Used in Episode 87, when the usual upbeat theme music would have seemed utterly inappropriate after watching Lydia break down sobbing in Lizzie's arms.
  • Sound-Effect Bleep : Hilariously used in episode 8, when Jane lets Lizzie know that she will have to chaperone Lydia.
    Lizzie: F...
    [cut to chinchilla and kitty picture Lizzie had planned to show and a big beep sound].
  • Spin-Off: There have been three spin-offs, all run by the baby sisters of the show. They were all part of the same narrative and had different levels of drama and relevance to the backbone of the story, which are Lizzie's entries.
    • Lydia gets her own YouTube channel and creates her own video diaries featuring her and her cousin Mary and their bonding, and later George Wickham. It's confirmed that Lizzie doesn't always watch Lydia's video the moment she uploads them.
    • Charlotte's sister Maria's got one as well thanks to an internship at Mr. Collins' company.
    • Gigi has one where she is demonstrating the Domino app — a story-telling application with auto-editing and auto-uploading feature. This is happening while Fitz and Darcy are trying to find George, and despite being told not to, Gigi keeps trying to get involved. It eventually becomes plot relevant when George accepts a Domino call, meaning he accepted the terms of service that allow Pemberley Digital to figure out where he is so Darcy can track him down and buy out his company holding the sex tape
  • Sue Donym: When Wickham and Lizzie are recounting the story of Darcy and Wickham's past, Lizzie refers to the obvious Darcy stand-in as "Dar...vid."
  • Tempting Fate:
    • Episode 59, when Lizzie angrily says that she never wants to see Darcy's face again and that it'll be too soon if she does. Ten seconds later, we see Darcy's torso in the doorway.
    • Gigi proudly describes in her Domino demonstration that the app can auto-edit and auto-upload anything it captures whenever she uses it. The second demo video shows that Darcy is not pleased that she's talking about personal matters on the demo.
  • Textile Work Is Feminine: Jane Bennet works in the fashion industry, often with fabric. In her first appearance, she brings Lizzie a blouse which she fixed for her.
  • Token Black Friend: African-American Fitz (the former Col. Fitzwilliam in the book) is best friend to Darcy. He gets on well with Lizzie when they meet during Lizzie's internship at Mr. Collins' company, but otherwise has little to do besides be Darcy's best friend.
  • The Un-Favourite: Lydia is mostly ignored by her parents who appear to be more focused on Jane and Lizzie.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Lizzie claims her mom dressed her up as a spinster for Halloween once. Charlotte has to point out that in fact she was dressed as a witch.
    Lydia: Rule number one about Lizzie's diaries? They're LIZZIE'S diaries. She sees what she wants to see.
  • Unreveal Angle:
    • The audience had to wait for William Darcy to appear for 59 episode, despite the fact that he was mentioned nearly all the time throughout the web series. When he first showed up, they revealed his torso at the end of the episode as a teaser.
    • The fans were curious to see the ever-embarrassing Mrs. Bennet and compare her real personality to Lizzie's impersonation. Mrs. Bennet walked in on Lizzie's filming in the last episode. Lizzie's imitation of her accent was accurate and the choice of generic outfit was spot on, but the viewers got to see only Mrs. Bennet's back.
  • Viewers Are Morons: Or more like customers are morons. How else do you explain Collins & Collins's minute-long tutorial video on light switches?
  • Wham Episode:
    • Episode 42. Charlotte accepts a job from Mr. Collins and she and Lizzie get into a rather heated argument over it.
    • Episode 58 through 64 are the real Drama Bomb, coinciding with the apex of the story. First we learn from Fitz that Darcy orchestrated Bing's breakup with Jane. In the next, Darcy himself breaks into the series. In 60, he sits down with Lizzie and delivers his Anguished Declaration of Love. In 61, having watched her video diaries, he apologizes for his actions and gives her a letter. As she relates in 62, this letter contains his motivation for breaking up Jane and Bing, and — because his actions actually make sense given the information he had available — Lizzie's opinion of him begins to change. Finally, 63 and 64 have Caroline return, get called out on lying, and be firmly planted as an antagonist in Charlotte and Lizzie's mind. No more false friends here.
    • Episode 82. Gigi reveals the truth about what went down between Wickham and herself. Wickham was using Gigi for Darcy's money.
    • Followed almost immediately by the revelation that Wickham is publishing a sex tape of himself and Lydia.
    • Episode 97: Darcy shows up at Lizzie's house.
    Darcy: Excuse me, Lizzie.
  • What Happened to the Mouse??: After Gigi tricks George into revealing his details we eventually learn that Darcy managed to buy the website and prevent the sex tape from being released — but it's never revealed what happens to George, or whether he was charged with anything.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • Charlotte to Lizzie in Episode 42, according to some viewers. Though others would place Lizzie as the one chastizing the other one.
    • When Lizzie finds out about Lydia's sex tape she leaves her job shadowing gig to come home to ask Lydia why she did it (but then she finds out that Lydia didn't know about it).
    • Episode 2 on the Pemberley Digital channel has Gigi call out Darcy when it seems like he either won't be helping the Bennet family in their crisis, or will leave her out of the loop when he does.
    • Lizzie confronts Bing about his leaving Jane in episode 90.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Somewhere in California, evidently:
    • Bing and Co exit to Los Angeles, pursued by a bear. Err, Jane.
    • Pemberley Digital is in San Francisco. Fitz claims to have "a corner office in the city, overlooking the bay," and can see "two bridges" from his office, suggesting he works in the same city.
    • The Collins & Collins website claims it's based in Hunsford, California.
    • Mr. and Mrs. Bennet go off to a Chanukah party in Sacramento.


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