I feel I must confess...

I am not a girly girl. Most of you who know me should be aware of this fact. I like my video games and action movies, and my preferred genre of book is science fiction. Though I am a feminist, I am a feminist in the "we are all the same so why differentiate ourselves" manner. I regularly open doors for men, carry my own propane tanks out to the car, and generally conform to few of the expectations we have of women in society today. 

But, I confess, there is one glaring exception. 

I love costume dramas, especially those set in Regency- or Victorian-era England. I love North and South and Pride and Prejudice. If I'm feeling down, I can watch Wives and Daughters or Jane Eyre. They are girly in all of the ways that I usually hate, and I love them nonetheless. 

Of course, they are usually done incredibly well, especially if the BBC had a role in their production. The acting and casting are usually phenomenal, the scores are simple enough not to detract from the acting but still beautiful, and the behind-the-scenes set and costume people do a marvelous job. They are, in fact, usually among the best-produced shows on television, HBO's massive-budget affairs aside. 

And really, I can't help but love the scripts. "I think God has forsaken this place. I believe I have seen hell, and it is white, snow white." People don't really speak like that any more. A few might write like that, but it's certainly not the norm, and hasn't been for some time. I speak and write more formally than some, and I still don't even begin to approach that level of eloquence. Though of course, it's sometimes the shortest lines that have the most impact. "Look back at me... Look back at me." One of the best scenes in all of North and South.  

If you can't tell, I've just gotten through rewatching that particular miniseries. It truly is one of the best costume dramas around. I can't find fault with the acting, for even the most ridiculous characters are like that on purpose. It's also one of the few I've seen that deals with laborers in that time period, and the only one that wasn't written by Charles Dickens; though to be fair, he was Elizabeth Gaskell's editor. Either way, it is both a wonderful defense and a condemnation of unionization, which is a theme rarely explored. 

I suppose, in the end, it's all because I'm a bit of a romantic. Not necessarily in the most modern sense, because I truly can't stand romance novels or supposed "romantic comedies", but in a sense that is perhaps a bit older. I believe in the triumph of love over initial prejudices, in second chances, in imperfect people, and that "nice guys/girls finish last" is a load of bologna. Some of us just take longer than others.