Period drama clichés

Now when we say clichés, we don't mean that we wouldn't like them or that they make a period drama bad. These are just certain elements that we have noticed recurring in many period dramas of the romantic nature. Post Pride & Prejudice 1995 (mostly), because BBC has truly perfected the art of the period drama. May we just add, that we're sad that this kind of entertainment is stigmatised as being "chicks' stuff" (which is already an offensive term in itself). If you actually take some time to watch these without any gender-specific prejudice, you'll discover thoughtful drama that covers a myriad of issues/themes that are still topical today.

1. The man's dashing hair. They totally stole it from Disney. If it ain't curly, it still is this perfectly kept muff, that you wanna sink your fingers in. Suffice it to say how big of a cliché this is that we have a game we play while watching Pride & Prejudice, called "Spot the runaway curl on Mr. Darcy".

Starring: Perfect hair

2. The stare. At some point you will get these scenes where the guy just stares either at the woman really intensely/affectionately, or into nothingness, which we call "the brooding stare". Also, you can't have the hair without the stare.

                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                             That's some serious brooding. Spot the curl!

3. The wedding. Almost always you will get a wedding at the end. Or then showing them already married.  On rare occasions, the wedding will happen at some other point and in addition will not be the two main characters but some others who are getting hitched.

4. The proposal. Normally, you get this "we've overcome so much, let's finally get married" -speech at the end. Though, we've found that the best proposals are the ones where the woman says no, or some other twist occurs.

5. The competitor. Usually, you get this person who is also interested in the main character(s). More often than not it's some other dude who's got the hots for the heroine, and he is quite often either a villain or a jerk. That's not to say that some femme can't have a thing for the main hero, it just doesn't happen as much.

6. The strong female lead.  It's great that you get different kind of personalities represented, to debunk the myth that women only fit in one category. Period dramas frequently deal with (white) women's independence, but obviously the end result, marrying someone who respects you, is fictional (we mean, it was the 1800's, what do you expect... women were basically a man's property to do whatever they wanted back then). It's kind of tragic that this is the only good genre where we have an ample amount of (again, white) female leads.

  

7.  The theme. This is the "yeah, these two are totally gonna end up together" - music that you hear playing in the soundtrack. Usually starts playing when they meet the first time or right after they've talked the first time. It's classic sweeping epic romance kind of stuff.

8. The ball. The epitome of glamour and gliding/feetstomping, depending if you're in the early 1800's or late 1800's. You can have the dance being the focus of the scene or happening in the background. Some of our favourite scenes take place on the dance floor.