If you want to read or see this and haven’t you should probably wait till after you a) read the book and b) watch the miniseries (in that order!) before reading my take on it. I don’t intend to give away a lot of spoilers, but if you are one of those people who are vehemently against being spoiled, you have been warned!
First of all, this is one of my all time favorite books, and while I was super excited about the possibility of seeing on the screen, I was also unsure how they were going to condense the wonderful history, footnotes, and rich world into something people would actually watch. While I enjoyed this miniseries, as always,
That being said, there are many things I feel they got bang on. Norrell, Childermass, Stephen, Drawlight, Lady Pole, and Segundus were particularly well realized I felt. The visualization of Fairy was incredible, and the dialogue was mostly from the book. The feel of the novel was mostly there, and the sets and cinematography were quite well done. The blend of magic and Georgian England felt real and believable, and I totally want Norrell’s library even thought it isn’t as described in the book.
Despite all these great interpretations, there were things I think they went a bit wide on. The Gentleman with Thistledown Hair’s character (and to a lesser extent, his hair), Jonathan’s look (but not his voice)—I’m too attached to the illustrations from the novel!), and a lot of the last episode. I understand them wanting to give more closure than the book might have provided to certain story lines, and I understand the simplification of others, but I was disappointed with the final scene between Stephen and the Gentleman. It was more visually dramatic than in the book, but less dramatic story-wise I felt.
Overall, I would totally recommend watching this whether you are a fan of the book or not, but while I enjoyed seeing this beloved world realized (especially since I was sharing the experience with my family overseas via text and Facebook chat), I still would have to conclude:
Like so many other movie adaptations, there is no way that a book of that length, complexity, and subtlety could be translated 100% faithfully into the very different medium of film, and still be watchable by any then the most die-hard of fans. Like spoken and written English are closely related by their own separate entities, movies and books are two different ways to tell different kinds of stories. Both have their merits, and I'll return to them both many times over the years. Well done BBC--I'm so glad you waited until the technology and the right actors were in place to bring this beautiful world to life.
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