This wasn't very good. It felt very derivative of the movie that came out just six years earlier. I semi enjoyed the first half but then the second half was very rushed and the bad characterisation started to really show.
I have four main critiques. One, all of of the actors sans David Oyelowo were just off-brand versions of Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, etc from the aforementioned movie. Two, as I already mentioned after the time skip the story was rushed, jarring after the leisurely pace of the first episodes. Three, the trailer promised me hope and love but the actual show didn't really deliver and seemed more like misery porn.
My final critique gets its own paragraph because in my opinion the characters are the dramatic heart of the story and I felt that they were badly botched. Valjean is portrayed as a borderline abusive parent, more like a villainous parent from a Disney film than the noble figure I'm used to. Javert is more one-dimensional than ever. Marius is very suspect and different from the character in the book and movie, not the type to fall in love forever at a glance. The two younger female characters were turned into lust-objects who only care about romance. It was painful to see petite Cosette, that symbol of childhood poverty reduced in this way. And isn't the whole point of Éponine that she isn't a lust object? If I hadn't read Les Misérables I think I would have enjoyed myself more, but I just couldn't understand why these changes had been made. Until I looked at the credits...
Andrew Davies really shouldn't keep getting work, and whoever hired him for Les Misérables should get their brain checked. It's right after Oliver Twist on the list of books that really don't need sexing-up. This moron can't even sex things up properly. Rather than casting good looking actors and expanding on the sexual themes that are in the book, such Cosette's arc where she comes to realise the power of her femininity, instead he made Javert into a predatory coded gay villain and has Marius completely out of character leering at Eponine. And he's getting worse! Judging by this venture, if he remade Pride and Prejudice today there'd be a scene of Darcy bedding a series of prostitutes for the purpose of gaining information of Wickham's whereabouts. Casting your actors all the colours of the rainbow but still hiring that nasty pretentious old man rather than some talented younger writer is the epitome of why I detest identity politics. So like the show I end this review on a bitter note.
I have four main critiques. One, all of of the actors sans David Oyelowo were just off-brand versions of Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, etc from the aforementioned movie. Two, as I already mentioned after the time skip the story was rushed, jarring after the leisurely pace of the first episodes. Three, the trailer promised me hope and love but the actual show didn't really deliver and seemed more like misery porn.
My final critique gets its own paragraph because in my opinion the characters are the dramatic heart of the story and I felt that they were badly botched. Valjean is portrayed as a borderline abusive parent, more like a villainous parent from a Disney film than the noble figure I'm used to. Javert is more one-dimensional than ever. Marius is very suspect and different from the character in the book and movie, not the type to fall in love forever at a glance. The two younger female characters were turned into lust-objects who only care about romance. It was painful to see petite Cosette, that symbol of childhood poverty reduced in this way. And isn't the whole point of Éponine that she isn't a lust object? If I hadn't read Les Misérables I think I would have enjoyed myself more, but I just couldn't understand why these changes had been made. Until I looked at the credits...
Andrew Davies really shouldn't keep getting work, and whoever hired him for Les Misérables should get their brain checked. It's right after Oliver Twist on the list of books that really don't need sexing-up. This moron can't even sex things up properly. Rather than casting good looking actors and expanding on the sexual themes that are in the book, such Cosette's arc where she comes to realise the power of her femininity, instead he made Javert into a predatory coded gay villain and has Marius completely out of character leering at Eponine. And he's getting worse! Judging by this venture, if he remade Pride and Prejudice today there'd be a scene of Darcy bedding a series of prostitutes for the purpose of gaining information of Wickham's whereabouts. Casting your actors all the colours of the rainbow but still hiring that nasty pretentious old man rather than some talented younger writer is the epitome of why I detest identity politics. So like the show I end this review on a bitter note.