Sanditon Recaps

Despite much to recommend it, Sanditon's final hour is ultimately disappointing, a largely incoherent hour that feels like a bait and switch of what we were all initially promised, as viewers

The penultimate episode of Sanditon wraps up what feels like a lot of loose ends, which leaves me wondering exactly what sort of story the finale is aiming to tell. 

The fallout from Georgiana’s abduction continues this week on an action-packed Sanditon that pretty much leaves us all wondering how in the world all of this story is going to get wrapped up in two episodes

As Sanditon continues, it’s time to dive into the most British of all traditions: Cricket. This week’s installment revolves around the annual town cricket match, which serves as both an actual game and a social occasion, as well as the reason for most of the characters to be in the same place at the same time. Drama!

In all honesty, we probably should have known that there was no way that Sanditon was going to just let us watch Charlotte Heywood and Sidney Parker banter adorably for the rest of the season and live happily ever after. What is a surprise is how dark and awful this particular setback for their nascent love story turns out to be, as by the end of this hour it seems as though they’re more at odds than they’ve ever been before, with no real resolution in sight.

After an opening pair of installments that left some of us (i.e. me) wondering if I could or did actually enjoy this show, Sanditon’s third episode felt a lot closer to what we normally expect from a Jane Austen drama. Sort of. 

One of the most intriguing aspects of Sanditon, the new Masterpiece drama adapted from the existing scraps of a would-be Jane Austen novel, is that we have no idea where it’s going. At all.

Austen only wrote 11 chapters of this story before she died, which was barely enough time to introduce the major characters, let alone give us any sense of what she had in store for them. On some level, this show is simply very expensive fanfiction. On another, it’s an exciting communal journey we’ve all never shared before – experiencing an Austen story together for the first time. And so far...it's a mixed bag, but one with a lot of potential.