The creator of Peaky Blinders transposes Dickens into a very beautiful Victorian work with sumptuous details, but with a terribly bombastic narration.
He definitely loves period series. Four years after adapting A Christmas Carol serial, Steven Knight – the acclaimed dad of Peaky Blinders – embarks on a new adaptation of Charles Dickens for the BBC. A new prestige mini-series, which declines Great Expectations, this great classic of British literature, in a needy television work, with extremely meticulous decorum and photography so polished that it becomes almost dreamlike. Bathed in sumptuous Victorian light, Olivia Colman shines in the skin of cowhide, the horrible Miss Havisham, unlucky in love and who decided to torment the innocent Pip in revenge for life.
The Oscar-winning actress, terrifying in her necrotic wedding dress, does not leave much room for the other characters, who are seriously struggling to exist. It must be said that Steven Knight took it upon himself to adapt Dickens (very) freely. His Great Expectations, although very faithful to the story, take side roads to extend the story into six hours. His company simply does not last the distance and very quickly, we start to find the time long. Very long. The disturbing impossible romance between Pip and Estella, yet one of the most beautiful in English literature, becomes quite boring. The remote control falls from our hands like a novel by Balzac in college days. Even if it means venturing into a re-reading of Dickens, you might as well review the modernized version of Alfonso Cuarón (released in 1998), more condensed, more romantic too.
Great Expectations, in six episodes, to see on Disney Plus since June 26.
