The Other Bennet Sister
by Sarah Quintrell
2026, BBC
10 episodes, 29 minutes
Rating: ★★★★☆
Pride and Prejudice is a favourite of my wife’s—specifically the 2005 film adaptation Pride & Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. I wasn’t surprised, then, when she wanted to watch The Other Bennet Sister after she watched a few clips online. The show was also of interest to me, as I have come to appreciate film adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels since my introduction to Pride & Prejudice. While markedly different from the novel from which it is derived, The Other Bennet Sister does not disappoint, delivering an experience reminiscent to Austen’s work.
Perhaps what The Other Bennet Sister does best is portray what it’s like to be raised in a family which constantly belittles a person and pushes them aside. As someone who spent the majority of their childhood being constantly bullied and having my pleas ignored by the adults in my life, I understand what Mary Bennet went through and know how she must feel. I even had a similar experience when I moved out of my hometown to more populated cities, where I eventually found graceful anonymity and a loving found family of my own. However, I recognize that my lived experience as a cishet man in modern times is different from Mary’s much more restrictive life as woman living during the regency era of England.
Mary’s position as a woman in 19th century England may also explain why she has little agency in her own story, as things tend to happen to her, rather than Mary precipitating change of her own volition. She does grow as a person, but it always seems as though she is waiting for something to happen to her rather than finding her own happiness—something she learns midway through her journey. It’s difficult for me to say whether historical fiction such as this would benefit from a more active female lead, or if she would break the conventions these kinds of stories rely on to be successful. I would like to believe there’s a way for her to still have agency, though that may be a different kind of story, one which is not essentially fanfiction of an established work.
The Other Bennet Sister feels, in more ways than one, like fanfiction. It’s clearly derived from Pride and Prejudice, but a story being derived from an existing work isn’t enough to make it fanfiction. Fanfiction has a specific vibe, constructed from the conventions which make fanfiction almost into a medium all of its own, separate from published literature. Sarah Z does a great job of distilling what makes fanfiction what it is in her exhaustive defence of fanfiction, and I believe The Other Bennet Sister embodies enough fanfiction conventions to be considered as such, despite being a published work all its own.
Though Mary doesn’t have much agency in the narrative, she does have an impact on the ensemble of characters which orbit her—almost to an unbelievable degree. She is belittled and ignored by her family, but almost every other person who she meets sings her praises—barring a rival or two. Ironically, given her first name, Mary seems to fit neatly into the Mary Sue trope, specifically the interpretation which defines a Mary Sue character as a “[…] beautiful young [woman] possessing special abilities or physical traits, universally beloved by the more established characters, and playing a central role in the story despite not appearing in the source material.”[1]
Mary does appear in Pride and Prejudice, but is, to my knowledge, a minor side character with little presence and few speaking lines. In The Other Bennet Sister, the world seems to revolve around her, complete with two attractive young men vying for her favour. She even interacts and has relationships with more established characters from Pride and Prejudice—and I would count her family members among those characters, even if it makes sense for her to have a relationship with them. The reality is that The Other Bennet Sister is fanfiction of Jane Austen’s, so any actions undertaken by established characters is thus “not canon”.
However, I hesitate to attach the fanfiction label to The Other Bennet Sister and the Mary Sue label to Mary, if only because both labels are generally used in a derogatory manner. Labelling published fiction as fanfiction tends to be for the purpose of commenting on the quality of the work—a backhanded way to express one’s opinion that the work is amateurish and self-indulgent. Similarly, the Mary Sue label has been historically used to dismiss any capable female character, regardless of whether she is well written or not. As one may expect, the malicious use of these labels is rooted in misogyny, especially when considering that fanfiction is most popular with a female audience.
However, I don’t want to pretend as if I didn’t immediately recognise that The Other Bennet Sister is—in shape as well as form—fanfiction, or that Mary is an archetypical Mary Sue. I only hope I can convey that neither assessment is done with malice, as I enjoyed The Other Bennet Sister, not despite these assessments, but in part because of them. The story ends up being quite funny, sweet, and endearing, though it can be a little stressful and frustrating at times—and all because Mary is who she is as a character. The Other Bennet Sister was a roller coaster ride, and one in which I was glad to have participated.