This year marks the 200th birthday of British novelist Charles Dickens and even though he’s been dead since 1870 that isn’t stopping the BBC from heartily marking the occasion. And, honestly, that’s OK with me.

The celebrations kicked off after Christmas, just before the dawn of the new year, with a three-part adaptation of one of Dickens’ most celebrated titles Great Expectations.

Now, for those new to the blog, my wife and I love a good mini-series based on a British novel. Dickens’ Little Dorrit, which I reviewed in a roundabout way last year, is simply one of the best mini-series you’ll find. Considering we both love Great Expectations, the novel, we had high hopes. The cast looked promising too with Gillian Anderson, a great actress in her own right, and David Suchet who all fans of British detective dramas will recognize instantly.

Unfortunately, this particular adaptation, has been aptly coined by my wife as “Great Expectations for Dummies.”

The whole problem hinges on the brief nature of the mini-series. Three parts is hardly enough time to properly tell this story. As a result, a lot of what is left inferred and implied in the novel (and, my wife adds, in an earlier serialization) must be explicitly told to the viewer. This ruins a lot of both the character and plot development. Things seem incredibly rushed and entire storylines are deleted for the sake of simplicity. If you’re expecting to meet the beloved aged-P, for example, you’re shot out of luck.

Sadly, what could’ve been a great adaptation of a great novel ends up being somewhat of a rush job. Compare this mini-series, a tiny adaptation of a colossal work, to something like Little Dorrit, which was thirteen-part mini-series based on a Dickens novella, and, well, the proof is in the pudding. A good adaptation takes the real meaty, interesting bits and lets us dig into them. A shoddy adaptation tries to cram hundreds of pages into a ten-minute parley. For connoisseurs of great television, Great Expectations will satisfy (and the Art Direction is absolutely breath-taking!) but for those who were looking forward to a thorough and successful adaptation, in the history of other great adaptations, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Dig up your VHS copy of the last BBC adaptation, says my wife.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 15th, 2012 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Books, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.