#literary inspired webseries recommendation

[monstrous-femme]

Hi! Just stopping by to provide some distraction/fulfill my curiosity: What other tv shows did/do you watch? And did you write for any of them?

Let's see so I watch a fair amount of tv but here's some I've had the most brainrot about

-The Magicians, which I ran two femslash weeks for and is obviously v well represented on my ao3

-Riverdale, which I do not write bc would you write fanfiction of the Mona Lisa? Can you even improve on such perfection?

-I used to love Once Upon a Time and Red Beauty week was the first femslash week I participated in and also red Beauty was the first femslash ship I ever wrote

-BTVS but I don't write it

-A lot of my fanfiction is from literary inspired webseries, which I got into in a big way like 2015-17 (and made some v good friends I still talk to! Like @galwithalibrarycard who even flew out for my wedding)

-My fave shows that came out last year were Severance and Kevin Can Fuck Himself and I highly recommend them

-i also like all of the Mike Flanagan shows

-Gotta bring up Bojack Horseman too bc it's so good and such an interesting exploration of trauma and what we owe to those we've harmed and whether we can ever be forgiven, and also Quinton Tarantino is a spider named Quinton Tarantulino. Also bc I always see stoner boys talking about this show but fun fact it's actually for traumatized women I think. Also I think it made be a Sisyphian narrative and I'm obsessed w those rn

-Others, probably

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

LIW Recommendation: Ilium

Hi everyone!

As you may know, I've been working on creating a literary-inspired webseries based on the Iliad for about three years now, and it's finally airing on YouTube! The first three episodes are out now, and Episode 4 premiers this Friday!

Ilium is a modernized adaptation of the Iliad by @songsofantiquity airing Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays on YouTube at 5 PM Central/6 PM Eastern.

Here are some things you should know about the show:

1) The story. Ilium has transplanted the characters and story of the Iliad into spring 2021, where two friend groups spread across the country are embroiled in a year-long feud that extends beyond petty interpersonal issues into rivalries, relationship troubles, and some real lasting consequences for some of the characters.

2) The characters. Ilium's cast consists of fourteen characters played by a wide variety of actors. Watch for the modern version of Achilles, Patroclus, Agamemnon, Helen, Hector, Andromache, Cassandra, Odysseus, Diomedes, Nestor, Ajax, Paris, Sarpedon, and Aeneas.

3) The format. Ilium is told through a variety of in-universe videos, including vlogs by Odessia and Cassandra (and their guests), Zoom and FaceTime calls, and maybe the occasional Instagram live (but no spoilers!).

4) The soundtrack. Ilium has several original songs, many of them composed and performed by the actors. In the first episodes, you can hear the main theme, Cassandra's Soundscape, and Ody's Theme (which is technically a sea shanty!). Stick around for more original music including an Achilles/Patrick love theme and maybe one or two renditions of My Heart Will Go On.

5) The diversity. Out of Ilium's fourteen characters, only one is definitely cishet, and as of Episode 3, every one of the eight characters we've met is canonically LGBTQ+. Specifically, there are several lesbians, a gay man, multiple bi and pan characters (including Achilles, Helen, and Odessia), and multiple nonbinary characters (including Angela and Nestor). Additionally, only half of the cast is white, and there are several Jewish characters (and one Hellenic pagan). The queer characters are played by queer actors, and the creative team is also diverse in terms of gender, sexuality, and race. There's also neurodivergent rep! So if you want to support diverse media, this is a great show for you!

6) The similar media. Watch Ilium if you enjoyed:

Eddy Rex (modernized Greek mythology!)

Middlemarch: The Series (ensemble cast of queer characters)

Away From It All (experimental/mixed video format)

The Best Wishes (Sarah Gruber, who played Millie Wishfort, plays Anya in Ilium)

Project Green Gables (introspective, character-focused episodes)

Nothing Much To Do and Lovely Little Losers (comedy, romantic/sexual tension, and original music)

7) The content warnings. Please be aware that Ilium contains the following:

Swearing

Sex jokes and innuendos

Frequent mentions of the pandemic and quarantine

Threats of violence

Depictions of toxic romantic relationships and toxic/manipulative friendships

Mentions of medical emergencies and hospitalizations

Specific content warnings are posted in the description of every episode!

8) Some other things you'll get from Ilium, in no particular order:

Jokes about Tinder

Modern Odysseus and Diomedes as roommates

Modern Achilles and Patroclus as a canon couple

A cowboy outfit or two

A baking episode

Plenty of flannel

The phrase "girls, gays, and pagan babes"

ORBS!

Subscribe to Songs of Antiquity on YouTube for new episodes three times a week!

#ilium #ilium webseries #youtube #liw #literary inspired webseries #liw recommendation #literary inspired webseries recommendation #the iliad #eddy rex #mmts #afita #pgg #tbws #nmtd #lolilo #odysseus #achilles #patroclus #patrochilles #my heart will go on #media representation #diverse media #lgbtq+ webseries #nonbinary #bisexual #lesbian #gay #sea shanty

[galwithalibrarycard]

Heyo! It’s 2021 and I’m rewatching nmtd and lolilo and I’ve gotta ask… is there anything else out there that you’ve enjoyed in a similar way? I just find them very genuine and comforting and I’m wondering what other stuff is out there for me that might give me a similar feeling

Hi! Firstly, I definitely recommend you try other literary-inspired webseries, especially if you stopped looking out for new ones after lolilo finished its run. There’s something so cozy and comforting about characters who feel like real people, living out modernized classic lit plots on the internet. There’s nothing else quite like it. You can search ‘asks’ on this blog to find a recent ask I answered listing some of my other favorite LIWs, or you can check out my sideblog @violivs which has a Webseries Watchlist page of all the shows I’ve seen. I think watching other LIWs is your best bet for experiencing more stories in a similar feel and format as NMTD/lolilo.

Apart from that, I might need you to be more specific on what about NMTD and Lolilo comforts you. If it’s a heartwarming and funny yet sometimes serious plot with an ensemble of complicated and lovable characters? Well, right now my current comfort show is Ted Lasso, which fits that bill perfectly. It’s mainstream tv, which is a wildly different feel from small budget webseries content, of course. But still, I highly recommend Ted Lasso (as of mid-season 2 currently).

My other comfort media is the Drawfee Show, a YouTube channel where a group of real artists who are friends and business partners draw all kinds of fun and silly art prompts while talking and joking around and being generally delightful. The big difference here is that the Drawfee crew are real people and should not be treated like fictional characters. But they’re definitely a comfort show for me, and also use the YouTube platform, giving you that excitement of weekly new episodes in your subs feed in sort of the same way webseries do when you catch them as they’re first releasing, so I thought I’d mention Drawfee here anyway. They also have a great and wholesome audience and impressively positive comment sections, it’s a nice little corner of the internet.

I hope that helps! I definitely don’t think my experience watching these other shows is exactly like my experience with NMTD, but there are similarities for sure. If you want something even more specific, I’m happy to try again. Just let me know. Enjoy your rewatch! :)

#asks #recommendations

[isfjmel-phleg]

Any recommendations for literary webseries? (I'm in the mood to dive back into the genre).

I really haven’t watched an extensive amount of webseries and have been pretty selective with the ones I have watched. Some I should give another chance and finish, so I might update this list later if anything else turns out to be worth watching. But, in the order that I watched them, here are several webseries that I have seen and either recommend or half-recommend:

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries: The original literary webseries is of course a classic of the genre. I didn’t watch it from the beginning as it originally aired but did come in somewhere in the middle (and can remember venturing into the lobby of the hotel I was at for a convention for wifi to watch the latest episode with Lizzie at Pemberley). You’ve probably seen it already, but it is recommended. Some suggestive dialogue, but if I recall correctly, that’s about as far as any content issues go.

The Autobiography of Jane Eyre: I haven’t seen this one in its entirety since it aired, but it was pretty good (although I wasn’t crazy about every creative choice). Unfortunately their actor for Rochester left the production before the filming of the final episodes, which means that the ending isn’t quite as satisfying as it could have been, but they interpret Jane quite well. They even touch on her faith as something that’s important to her (not as much as in the novel, but at least it’s there).

Emma Approved: This one features a good cast and a crossover with Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Overall enjoyable production with a primarily light-hearted tone. They do unfortunate disservice to John Knightley’s character to give Isabella a rather forced storyline, but I think that’s as far as my issues with it went.

Green Gables Fables: While not initially as polished a production as some of these others, this one captured Montgomery’s characters well. In the first season, at least. I wasn’t so fond of the second season, mostly for certain interpretations of Anne’s college friends (although pretentious hipster Roy Gardiner was a inspired creative choice). The first season also features a crossover with…

In Earnest: My all-time favorite literary webseries. Brilliant expansion of the story with character development that gives the farcical characters of the original humanity and depth–while still being hilarious. The cast is overall good too, especially the actors playing Jack and Algy.

The Misselthwaite Archives: I’m torn on this one. On the one hand, it’s an adaptation of one of my favorite children’s books and generally well- produced and -acted, with gorgeous Oregon locations and a lot of careful thought put into the storytelling and filming. On the other hand, there were certain creative decisions (one major one in particular) that just weren’t my taste. So a tentative recommendation. Also be warned that there is frequent strong language throughout–in keeping with this Mary’s characterization as a surly twenty-first-century teenager.

A Tell-Tale Vlog: A short humorous webseries about a fictionalized Edgar Allen Poe and the snarky ghost Lenore who haunts his house. Some brief strong language, but a fun watch, with some bittersweet moments, leading up to…

Edgar Allen Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party: In which Poe and Lenore host a dinner party for a group of famous authors (all highly fictionalized, don’t go into this expecting anything to be historically accurate, which is much of the joke) and things go darkly, comedically wrong. It’s utterly bizarre but well-produced and acted (with appearances from actors from other well-known webseries).

The Attic: Based on Little Women. More of an amateur production than most of these others but not bad. It makes the unusual creative choice of having the girls be unrelated–very close college roommates, with the Marmee equivalent as their wisdom-dispensing RA/older sister of Meg. It’s been a while since I’ve seen this one, so I don’t remember it well. But I did prefer it to The March Family Letters, which I did not finish and would not recommend.

#asks #fictionadventurer #ideally there would also be properly done Psmith and Lord Peter webseries #but that's a lot to hope for

[literaetures]

Hello! I just finished watching the 2005 p&p (the desire to find it had been growing since seeing gifsets reblogged onto my dash from you) and it’s as good as I remember- I cried. Do you happen to have any off the cuff recommendations for similar books? If not that’s alright! I figured I may as well try asking- have a good day!

if my legacy, or the only thing i have ever have the ability to do, is to inspire people to watch p&p 2005, then everything i have ever done in my life will have been worth it

i feel like this is an obvious one, but any other book by jane austen is phenomenal (mansfield park, emma, s&s, persuasion, northanger abbey, and i can’t say anything about sanditon or lady susan but the others are amazing and i don’t doubt her writing). the fact that there are six (6) of them is such a blessing and a curse, but i highly recommend reading and watching them! everyone prefers certain adaptations over others, but i love watching them all and deciding which ones are good or bad and why or why not for myself :)

also! if you’ve finished reading those series and watching the adaptations, here are some of my favorite webseries based (english subs available) on austen things! (or related to, or have the same vibe) and here’s a big list if you end up falling in love with literary webseries

as for things outside of the austen realm: 

north and south (A MUST especially if you love lizzie and darcy’s dynamic and it’s permanently on my to read list),

a room with a view (g o r g e o u s)

wuthering heights, jane eyre, villette the tennant of wildfell hall (also a to read)

death comes to pemberley is a fun watch (i know it’s a book too!) 

people really liked p&p&z but i haven’t seen it myself (i remember reading it as a middle schooler) 

if you love austen and want a cute movie to watch (and maybe you want to see jj field from northanger abbey 2007 in another piece but as a darcy character) then austenland 2013 is a fun watch (but i can’t say anything about the book)

far from the madding crowd

and these are just a few! if you want any more recommendations, feel free to drop by and maybe list what you’ve read/seen already and what you liked! or just talk to me about all things austen! 

also shameless plug to @pemberleynet which contains all things austen related and is a great place to tag any austen creations! 

i hope this helped, and good luck on your future adventures! 

#messages #anonymous #my recs #i might add to this later on #but i'm so curious to know what gifset made you watch it! #if you ever do read or watch these i'd love to hear your thoughts or reactions! #feel free to send me another ask or tag me or whatever else!

[songsofantiquity]

ok, since i'm new to your blog, i tried to gather information about what you're doing based on your previous posts, but could you maybe explain the series and say a few things about it? thank you very much! :))

Yeah, absolutely! Thanks for the ask!

Ilium is an LIW (literary-inspired webseries) based on Homer’s Iliad. As with most LIWs, we have taken an off-copyright work and translated it into a modern context. This allows us to tell a new story afresh and to change things in the story to make it more diverse.

If you’re not already familiar with LIWs, we recommend checking out Nothing Much To Do, All For One, and Away From It All. We can give out more recommendations as well if you’re interested. People have been doing wonderful things with this format for over five years, and these shows deserve a much larger audience!

The series is still in pre-production, but once it’s been cast and filmed, we plan to start releasing the first episodes sometime this fall. Short episodes will air on YouTube several times a week on the characters’ YouTube channels. This means that all of the video footage will exist in-universe. This is a pretty standard method for a lot of LIWs to get around money problems, since vlogging requires less production than more traditional filming. Besides, haven’t you always wanted Odysseus and Cassandra to have YouTube channels?

Ilium is also a transmedia experience, which means that our characters will exist across social media as well as on YouTube. We’ve already shared links to some of the characters’ blogs on Tumblr, and we will share more transmedia (Twitter, Instagram, etc.) after the roles have been cast. 

As already mentioned, we’re changing a lot of the story to fit a modern setting and improve the diversity. We’ll be keeping the plot fundamentally the same, but we’re setting it at a fictional liberal arts college and changing the genders, ethnicities, and/or sexualities of multiple characters. We’ve addressed the complexity of the gender-bending issue in a previous ask. 

We hope this helped! If you have more specific questions, go ahead and ask, and we’ll try to answer as best we can (unless it would involve a spoiler, of course)

#anonymous #ilium #the iliad #liw #lgbtq+ webseries #Anonymous

[destinationtoast]

TOASTYSTATS: Fandom vs. Fandom Charity Challenge (update #1)

Since my post yesterday, I’ve already had a few kind folks take me up on the challenge to donate in honor of a fandom/Hogwarts house. I thought I would kick off the graphs even with small numbers (N=4), because you know me.  📊📈😍

First, a reminder of how this works -- Donate $10+ dollars to any of the following charities in honor of your favorite Hogwarts house and/or primary fandom by end of November (you’ll get double impact, thanks to matching donors):

💟 Direct Relief  (Focus: disaster relief & preparedness) 💟 ACLU Foundation (Focus: civil rights & civil liberties) 💟 Innovations for Poverty Action (Focus: international aid & research) (Also see my other recommendations for effective places to donate!)

A few takeaways so far:

Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are kicking ass! 💙💙💙💛💛💛 Gryffindor and Slytherin, get your donations/signal boosts on. :D

So far donors are mostly Sherlockians -- I’m so shocked, given my main blog content. ;)  Would love to see more other fandoms join in!  I’m excited to also see literary-inspired webseries in there... I’m a big fan of Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Carmilla, myself. 💜

More updates to follow!

(Also, ugh, if this looks really blurry on desktop, I’m sorry -- I’ve tried a bunch of things to make it look better, but none are working.  I would love advice.  You can see full-res images at imgur.)

#harry potter #ravenclaw #hufflepuff #gryffindor #slytherin #fandom challenge #effectivism #toastystats #charity #my stuff

[thecandlewasters]

The webseries in that gifset are, in order: Call Me Katie Lovely Little Losers The March Family Letters The Better Strangers (Something I haven't seen) Northbound The Roedell Project Horizons The Lizzie Bennet Diaries From Mansfield With Love All highly recommended, mostly literary-inspired, very low-budget, and likely to appeal to fans of The Candle Wasters!

Thank you!

#silverowldragon

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

LIW Recommendation: Public History

Hi folks!

Are you looking for things to watch during quarantine? Do you want more gay content? Do you have any interest in Charles Dickens? Do you like being able to binge the first season of a show right before the second one comes out?

If yes, you might be interested in Public History, the most recent webseries from Quip Modest Productions @quipmodestproductions 

Season one has all aired, and season two just started, so now is a great time to catch up. 

Reasons to watch this show:

1) David Trotwood Copperfield, a teenager dealing with changes, tragedy, and the end of high school in a new place. 

2) A great ensemble cast. Seriously, look at how cute the cast Q&A is. 

3) Great representation! David’s best friend is a lesbian, there’s a wlw couple, and I happen to know that there will be some fantastic bi content in season two. Oh, and the cast is very racially diverse too.

4) Previous Quip Modest shows: Twelfth Grade (or whatever), The Emma Agenda, Earnest 101, The Best Wishes, The Uncanny Upshurs.

5) Short, easy-to-watch episodes, all conveniently uploaded to YouTube several times a week. Subscribe to Quip Modest here. Watch the playlist here. 

6) Goings-on beyond the videos, mostly on Twitter. Go follow them and catch extra bits of the story. You might even catch the face of yours truly as a transmedia-only character. 

Also hoping to get this blog a bit more active once I’m done with the semester, cause now is a great time to watch all those LIWs you didn’t watch when they first aired.

#liw #liw recommendation #public history #12gw #david copperfield #literary inspired webseries

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

LIW Recommendation: Project Green Gables Season Three

So I’ve been watching Project Green Gables for a while now, and it’s been fantastic from the start: pansexual WOC lead, SUPER SLOW slow burn ship, discourse on important issues, incredibly realistic fictional YouTube channel that’s basically a real YouTube channel because it’s existed for so long... It’s also the longest-running LIW that’s continued to be based on the source material (Carmilla and The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy both had three seasons, but they were only loosely inspired by the original source material), which is amazing considering how low-budget it is.

Season Three is shaping up to be the best season yet, with the promise of more characters of color and most likely more queer characters as well as Anne and friends in college. Also, HAVE YOU READ THE BOOK? There’s so much drama coming, and I am so ready.

Also, the production values have gone way up just in the first few episodes. All of the characters have really come into their own fashion- and personality-wise, and the acapella theme music has returned! Basically, if you’re looking for good representation, a fantastically acted lead, and a really top-notch adaptation that knows when to stray from the source material, please go watch PGG. The final season is going to be amazing, and CAN WE PLEASE CREATE AN AWARDS SHOW SPECIFICALLY TO GIVE LAURA EKLUND NHAGA HER BEST ACTRESS AWARD? Please? She’s so good.

Anyhow, it’s five episodes into Season Three, and new episodes come out every Friday (ish) on the Project Green Gables YouTube channel. Also, they’re just about to start college, so now is a REALLY great time to get caught up. Now get to it!

#liw #pgg #pgg season three #project green gables #liw recommendation #literary-inspired webseries recommendation

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

LIW Review: The Emma Agenda

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, then you know that I think this series is a brilliant adaptation that deserves a lot more love–though of course it has its rough patches like any other LIW. 

Premise: 

Jane Austen’s Emma set an American college with a female Knightley, a male Fairfax, and a lot of self-discovery.

Spoiler-free plot overview:

Emma Woodhouse is a directionless nineteen-year-old college student who decides to find a boyfriend for her roommate, the lovely Harriet Smith. Emma and Harriet have different ideas about the sort of boy who will make Harriet happy, and Emma is oblivious to the feelings of everyone involved–including her best friend Jordan (and herself). 

Format: 

A mixture of Emma’s public vlogs posted to her fictional YouTube channel and traditionally-filmed episodes with multiple camera angles. All videos were uploaded to the Quip Modest YouTube channel, and transmedia was minimal and nonessential.

Representation/diversity: 

Well, it’s Quip Modest, and they’re always fantastic at diversity in all its aspects. There are out queer characters, closeted queer characters, and characters who figure out their identities over the course of the show. There are even a couple probably straight characters this time, but they are definitely not the focus. Racially, things are fairly diverse as well, but I’m not going to get into the details of everyone’s ethnicities because I WILL say something ignorant and incorrect. 

If you’re looking for queer representation by the numbers, confirmed identities by the end of the series include two lesbians, a gay trans man, a bisexual man, a bisexual woman, and two pansexual women. There isn’t an ace or genderqueer rep, but there are a lot of other webseries that do those things very well, and of course no one series can be expected to include every type of queer character. That would be impossible and would likely lead to more issues than it solved.

My three favorite things about TEA: 

1) Jordan Knightley. I don’t always like this character (the age difference in the novel is a little weird, and it’s even worse in certain adaptations), but I absolutely LOVE this interpretation of the character. Plus, I’m actually in love with her, so there’s that.

2) The Jon/Lincoln relationship. This is something that I’m usually very uninvested in, but for whatever reason I absolutely love these versions of the characters, and they make me care deeply about the ship without betraying the nature of their relationship in the book.

3) Probably all the different facets of the queer experience that are shown in this series. It warms my heart, guys.

Difficult things about TEA: 

The traditionally-filmed episodes can definitely be jarring in contrast to the vlog episodes at first. These traditionally-filmed episodes also have a few episodes out of the necessities brought on by not being funded. I do think these issues are pretty easy to deal with, though, mostly because the traditionally-filmed episodes manage to tell parts of the story that never would have come through in vlogs.

Another rough bit in TEA that’s a very personal one for me is the lack of Jordan in the Box Hill episode. Yes, this is weirdly specific and was unavoidable due to the cast’s schedules, but if you’re like me it’ll still make you sad.

There are also a couple hasty resolutions of various plot points, so be forewarned that that’s going to happen. 

Misc thoughts:

TEA is definitely far from perfect, but for whatever reason it really struck a chord with me, and I honestly can’t recommend it enough. It’s just very unproblematic and real and relatable, and we need more of that sort of content. It’s also a fantastic adaptation, as I’ve said elsewhere, in that it knows where and how to change things to adapt to the new setting and the new genders/relationships of various characters while still staying true to Jane Austen.

I recommend TEA to all Austen fans who want more gay Austen (especially if you noticed Emma’s not-so-subtle sapphic tendencies in the original) or who are sick of barely-tolerable adaptations of the novel like I was. I also recommend it to anyone and everyone who’s looking for queer representation, as there really are so many facets of it here. 

Cast:

Selis Maria Varga as Emma Woodhouse

Jillian Hite as Harriet Smith

Angela Carbone as Jordan Knightley

Daniel Fisher Golden as Lincoln Churchill

John Yazzo as Jon Fairfax

Alex Brunt as Phil Elton

Shelby Capone as Taylor Anderson

Alina Jacobs as Hedy Bates

Yeujia Low as April Hawkins

Andres Cordoba as Robbie Martin

Created by Quip Modest Productions @quipmodestproductions

YouTube Playlist

IMDb Page

Yeah, so I’m writing reviews again! I’ve also decided to ditch the star ratings because they’re not actually helpful and end up placing too many judgments on things that aren’t controlled by the creators (production quality). I will continue to comment on the issues/potential issues/difficulties with any given series, but I am no longer giving quantitative ratings to the series as a whole.

Let me know what you want me to review next! My askbox is always open, and I’ve open to recommendations from anyone. If I haven’t seen it yet, I promise I’ll watch it (though I do have a slight backlog of those that I still need to get to).

#liw #teaseries #LIW Review #literary inspired webseries review #zoë's return to reviewing #guys it's been too long #i'm going to try to get on some sort of regular schedule with these now #though if it's too regular i'll end of running out to things to review way too quickly #anyhow please send me recommendations/requests #and watch tea because it's fantastic!

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

I’ve talked a lot about diversity and representation on this blog. Webseries are often in a weird space with these things. Literary-inspired webseries are almost universally created by (often LGBTQ+) white women, and they tend to have better representation of relatable female characters and a variety of queer storylines than most other forms of media.

We don’t do nearly so well with racial representation, though. Of the literary-inspired webseries I’ve seen, how many have protagonista of color? Of those, how many actively center conversations about race? Project Green Gables is the only one that comes to mind.

I want to put together a recommendation post with some webseries (literary-inspired or not) that actively center or at least heavily feature BIPOC. If anyone has recommendations, please comment on this post or else send me an ask or a message.

#webseries #literary-inspired webseries #liw #media representation

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

LIW Recommendation: Rational Creatures

Do you miss the days of classic literary-inspired webseries? Do you spend half of your life longing for a new adaptation of Persuasion? Do you wish that you could watch something fun with a short episodes and a lot of LGBTQ+ representation? If any of that sounds like you, you should be watching Rational Creatures, the new webseries based on, you guessed it, Persuasion.

Some more reasons to watch:

1) The creators are behind other shows you know and love, including Away From It All, Merry Maidens, Nottingham, Twincidents, and more, and they’re brought all their experience making LIWs to this new project.

2) The episodes are super short, so it’s not a big commitment. Instead, it’s a pleasant few minutes to look forward to each week.

3) CHEESE PARTY?!

4) There are interracial wives with gay sprinkles. Need I say more?

5) This show is just filled with the most relatable content. “Break from my eight-year break.” “WHO IS FRED WENTWORTH?” Siblings giving each other a hard time for calling super late because TIME ZONES. Dare I say iconic?

6) Episode three is dropping on Tuesday, and there’s going to be a FLASHBACK TO 2011.

7) Did I mention that this is a Persuasion adaptation in which Anne Elliot is now Ana Elías and Captain Wentworth is now a bisexual travel writer? Seriously, what are you waiting for?

8) And finally, Rational Creatures is now an AWARD-WINNING webseries (Best of Minnesota at the Minnesota Web Fest)! Do you really need more incentives? Go watch it now! 

You can watch the first two episodes on YouTube here. Follow the creators here on Tumblr @rationalseries plus on Twitter, and give them all the support so that they can make season two and finish the story! 

#ratcreatures #persuasion #jane austen #webseries #liw #lgbtq+ webseries #liw recommendation

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

Just confirming that AOSB is indeed over before I write my review. Either way, it’ll be up in a few days, so keep an eye out for that.

I’m also planning to review a few more old webseries, especially ones that I feel deserve more attention than they ever got. If you have suggestions on that score, please let me know. 

And feel free to keep recommending things in general. It may take a while because I’m currently working on graduating high school, but I will watch it all.

#update #literary inspired webseries review #aosb #recommend things please #wish me luck

[songsofantiquity]

Gender bends are sort of transphobic... I hope you mean trans woman!Odysseus, trans woman!Diomedes, etc???? Can you clarify??

Hi! Thanks for the ask! We’re really happy to answer questions about representation because it’s so, so important. This is obviously a really sensitive and complex issue, so we wanted to give it a thorough answer.

This series has arisen from both a desire to see some genuine LGBTQ+ representation in a Trojan War story and certain ways of creating said representation that have evolved in the literary-inspired webseries community in general over the past few years.

When we say that we have a female Odysseus, Diomedes, etc., we mean that we have taken these characters, originally cis men, and reimagined them as women. This means taking the traits of the character and creating a new interpretation, genderwise. Since the series also takes place in a different setting from the source text and several characters will have different ethnicities, there will naturally be other changes as well. 

There are, however, several characters who our showrunner has been envisioning as trans, and if casting permits, there will be several trans characters in the series. This includes some of the “gender-bent” characters previously mentioned. We use this term despite its antiquity and controversial status only because of the lack of other terminology to use. The most likely challenge we will face is the fact that we are filming at a small, insular liberal arts college whose queer population includes several trans men but almost no trans women.

If you would like to see how other similar series have handled issues of gender representation, we can point you toward a couple good ones. Twelfth Grade (or whatever), an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, created most of its queer ships out of the existing character dynamics but also adapted the character of Sebastian into a trans man rather than a cis man and created the character of Tammi, a cis lesbian, based on Sir Toby. Hamlet the Dame also does a lot of creative gender-bending: Francisco becomes a trans woman named Frankie, Ophelia becomes a trans man named Alex, Horatio and Marcellus both become cis women, and Hamlet herself is an afab nonbinary demigirl. 

If you’re looking for a show with a trans woman lead (and lots of POC rep), we highly recommend The Adventures of Serena Berg. Recent shows that gender-bend more conventionally to create some great representation include The Emma Agenda and Middlemarch: The Series. These shows all vary in film quality, but they should give you a good idea of what our series is going to be going for. 

Our head writer and showrunner is a cis woman, and she realizes that she isn’t the most qualified person to speak on the topic of trans representation and what is and isn’t appropriate in the gender-bending department. She is lucky enough to have some wonderful trans people on board as advisors and a backdrop of good and sensitive representation in other LIWs to draw from.

If you have any other concerns about representation or diversity, please send us an ask. We want to make sure that our series is as inclusive and sensitive as possible while also telling a compelling story based on frequently ill-adapted source material.  

#anonymous #ilium #representation #liw #12gw #hamlet the dame #aosb #teaseries #mmts

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

Webseries Promotion

Just a reminder to anyone who's making or has made a webseries (even if it's not literary-inspired): this blog is an equal-opportunity promotion space. I will reblog any and all promotional material for your show up to and including the first episode. I only write my own recommendations for shows I am actually watching.

A reblog of a show's promotion is not an endorsement on my part, but I do believe that all webseries should have an equal chance at building an audience and reaching anyone who would be interested by whatever means necessary. I'm happy to do my part in helping with that, so if you're making a webseries and I've somehow overlooked it, please let me know and I'll do what I can to support you.

More on why equal promotion of webseries is so important and difficult another time when I'm not as tired and stressed.

#liw #webseries #webseries promotions #webseries recommendations