I don’t know if anyone else has watched this, but I wanna throw in a recommendation: we just finished it, and it’s tremendous fun.
The premise shows up in the first fifteen minutes: the titular character (Jack Dawkins) is in 19th-century Australia, acting as a colonial surgeon. His tricky fingers are applied to honest work, even as he’s pursued by a thuggish card sharp. And then a new set of convicts show up, including an old acquaintance.
We’re not talking Deadwood, or even The Great, here, in terms of high art or in terms of darkness. It is, after all, a Disney venture. But for a Disney venture, it’s really, really good. The script is fizzy, all the main actors are excellent at their roles, the chemistry between the two leads smolders, and the heist hijinks are fun.
Thomas Brodie-Sangster (the kid from Love, Actually) is the Artful Dodger. He looks like he’s aged about three years since that role, although he’s actually 34–this is a guy whose cheeks will be babyfattish into his eighties, I imagine. Throughout the show’s run, I kept imagining if he’d been cast as Paul Atreides instead of Timothy Chalomet: while both actors look far younger than their actual years, Thomas conveys his internal struggles far more effectively than Chalomet (IMO). What ruined Dune for me would’ve been entirely fixed by this one casting change.
And David Thewlis as Fagin–oh my Lord, that is some perfect casting. He chewed every bit of scenery in every scene he was in, and I was there for it. So, so good!
Has anyone else given it a shot?
Thanks!