How do you feel about this new Emily Dickinson show thats coming out? (thats being distributed by Apple apparently?). It feels very... off-putting to me somehow and was wondering your perspective. Perhaps because of the modern music and language used in the trailer - music i can sometimes get over but super anachronistic language, especially slang really gets to me. I also was fortunate enough to see Wild Nights and really enjoyed it - especially its sacrilegious tone - but I feel that (1/)
This show saw that movie and decided to try and replicate that tone except with a younger sexier Emily as a Big Statement about feminism rather than the serious and honest commentary that Wild Nights provided about womens relationships and censorship of women (especially queer women) (2/2)
Gosh, I wish Iād seen Wild Nights with Emily. Wild Nights was at first a play that was staged quite some years ago so itās quite possible that someone had seen it in some incarnation--the play, the film--and was struck by the revisionist thrust, to reexamine the commonplace idea that Emily Dickinson was a retiring recluse. But mostly I was confused/shocked/bewildered that Emily Dickinson was the subject of a new show--a whole show--and immediately wondered: What is propelling this interest? Why did this pitch find footing at this time and who thought to throw money at it? Because it seems really strange that in one year weād get two biopics of Emily Dickinson? Honestly the showās origins in getting made far more intrigue me than the prospect of the show itself. Emily Dickinson!
In general I canāt comment much on the material or its truth/accuracy. I donāt know much about Emily Dickinsonās biography--but I did wonder from the one trailer I saw that one time if theyād keep in the, at the least, romantic friendships she seemed to express in letters to various women--and I think the part of the trailer that threw me off the most was theĀ āradicalā hand signs that Emily threw up at one point. I was like,Ā āWhaaaat?ā because that felt glaringly anachronistic. Iām not quite sure why thereās this modern tone to it. Maybe they want to maybe project that Emily Dickinson wasĀ āahead of her timeā? Stuff like that in the trailer didnāt make me want to watch the show, per se, but I did wonder if there would be gay. You know what I mean? (Like who is the young woman Emily meets, with whom she shares a look that through my big olā slash goggles scanned as gay?)
Thinking about it, the trailerās tone is probably the way it is because they need to frame Emily Dickinson in a way that sparks excitement? I donāt think that most people hear the nameĀ āEmily Dickinsonā and think it would be exciting, so the trailer looks to be really leaning into theĀ ārebelliousā message. I donāt know who is behind the production, so who knows thereās an actual critical message packed in it. XD
Honestly, the fact that thereās an Emily Dickinson show is the real point of curiosity--how and why is this happening?!?!--and, really, Iām kind of annoyed it exists but Wild Nights with Emily hasnāt yet seen wider distribution??? When will that happen, universe???? If youāre telling me thereās (commercial) interest in Emily Dickinson, throw me a bone here!
And, along those lines, Iām way more interested to see if anyone watches the show. Again, Apple threw money behind this project. They expect this to be intriguing/interesting in some fashion that theyāve put it out there as part of the original content slate that maybe will entice people to subscribe to Apple streaming??? This? THIS? So curious. I have so many questions.
(Iād also legit love to see a Dickinson scholar weigh in, like to analyze it episode by episode. I would read those recaps, without even watching the show.)
