my favorite period dramas

Hey, friends!

In the winter, my mom, sisters, and I started watching a lot of period dramas, and I wanted to share a list of my favorite ones we’ve watched. Hopefully, this gives you some ideas if you’re looking for something new to watch!!

north & south

North & South is based on the book by Elizabeth Gaskell and is one of my favorites!! The ending is kind of abrupt (and apparently it’s even shorter in the book? I feel like most classics end way too quickly, but honestly, if I were the author and writing by hand, I’d just want to get done too 😂) but the show as a whole is great!

pride & prejudice (1995 & 2005)

I love both versions of Pride and Prejudice, but I watch the 2005 version way more since I don’t usually have time to sit and watch 6 hours of a movie. 😂 The 1995 version is definitely more true to the book, but the 2005 one is beautiful and one of my favorite movies ever.

cranford

Cranford is another series based on a book by Elizabeth Gaskell, but it wasn’t just based on her book Cranford, they used characters/storylines from a few of her novels to make Cranford, the series. My mom read a lot of her books and enjoyed them, and we loved the movie Cranford!! The first season is definitely the best because the second one was missing a lot of my favorite characters but they’re both worth watching.

emma (2009)

We watched the 2020 version before we watched this one, and in my opinion, it wasn’t that great, especially after watching the 2009 version. Emma is so much more likable in this one; there’s more of a backstory to explain the characters’ pasts, and having that made a lot of the characters’ interaction with each other make more sense. Also, Mr. Woodhouse is so funny about everything. It was so fun to watch!!

sense & sensibilty (1995)

Another great adaptation from Jane Austen’s books! I didn’t like Colonel Brandon (which I know is unpopular) but other than that, it was amazing!!

miss austen

Watching Miss Austen was really interesting to learn more about Jane and Cassandra Austen. The plot was a bit slow, and figuring out all the characters + how they were connected at first was confusing, but I liked it overall!!

little women (2019)

This is one of my favorite movies ever! I’ve watched the 1994 Little Women too (I could not get over how creepy Professor Bhaer was and that honestly ruined the whole movie for me 🥲😂), and the BBC series (which was very basic) but the 2019 version is the amazing.

when calls the heart

We found When Calls the Heart right before Covid in 2020, and so we watched the whole series up to season 7 when we were in lockdown down and we’ve been watching every season ever since! The first 5 seasons are the best, season 6 & 7 are okay, and then it goes downhill (can you tell I’m Team Nathan?! 😂). Season 11 (and the end of 10) was better but I didn’t like season 12, and I’m scared for what they’re going to do to it in season 13 (right now I’m actually Team “we need to remove Elizabeth & Nathan from the show”). If you like your sanity, stop watching at season 5. 😂

now, it’s your turn!

Have you watched any of the movies on this list? Any recommendations for me? Comment below!!

Thanks so much for reading!
Pearl 🤍