Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Series Premiere Review: We've Got Magic To Do
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell S01E01: "The Friends of English Magic"
First, let's get something out of the way: I've read very, very little of Susanna Clarke's massive best-selling novel upon which Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell was based and therefore cannot necessarily attest to how faithful the BBC's seven-part miniseries adaptation is content-wise. As a fan of the fantasy genre, and as someone with a strong interest in the Napoleonic Wars, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell felt like it was tailor made for me when it was published in 2004, so I bought it... and then after a few failed attempts to get into it, the book sat upon my shelf for years, gathering dust, before I moved and it was shoved into a box.
Part of me regrets this decision now and part of me doesn't, because as a miniseries, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a peculiar being. Traditionally, when it comes to filmed adaptations of popular books, I have one rule: Viewers shouldn't need to have read the source material to understand the story, know the characters, and enjoy the experience. And Jonathan Strange definitely succeeds on all accounts, but I think not reading Clarke's original novel has also allowed me to enjoy the miniseries more than I might have otherwise.
I'm the type of person who's still angry Sirius Black's death in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (spoiler alert?) was modified for the big-screen adaptation, and from my own little experience when I first purchased Clarke's novel, complemented with my research on the subject, I know Clarke wrote the novel in a way that cleverly drew on several different literary styles and made use of various Romantic traditions. Some of that was inevitably lost when the story made the jump from the page to the screen—along with, I assume, much background and detail, as is to be expected—but some evidence of Jane Austen-like wit and Charles Dickens-esque satire still lingers over the story. Your mileage will vary, of course, and it's always difficult to judge what will affect a diehard fan's enjoyment of a series versus that of someone who's never even held the book in their hands, but I would wager there is enough here that both camps can find something to enjoy.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is fairly well constructed, feels wholly imaginative, and employs a more than competent core cast. It works quickly and exists against an intellectual backdrop, one that is propped up by real history—at the start of the series, Napoleon Bonaparte is marching his way across Europe—which makes it easy to believe this alternative version of our timeline in which magic once existed, but is no longer practiced, is not only possible, but perhaps even real. It's premiering at a time when genre series are, if not necessarily thriving on television, at least being more widely accepted by the masses, and BBC America's decision to debut it after the penultimate episode of Orphan Black's third season also makes perfect sense in terms of audience overlap.
But if you're not a fan of fantasy, period dramas, or even British television in general, there's probably not a lot for you in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, unfortunately. Still, that's not to say you shouldn't give it a chance, because the world it presented was unique and unlike much of what we're seeing produced on TV this days. In the series' universe, magic was once very popularly practiced in England, but died out 300 years prior to the start of the series for reasons that are unclear. Mr. Norrell (Ray Donovan's Eddie Marsan), a reclusive, crotchety scholar who has dedicated much of his life to collecting every book written about magic in an attempt to become the greatest magician in all of England, wanted to use magic to stop Napoleon's attempt to conquer all of Europe (little does he know all the English really need is a cold Russian winter or a last-minute arrival by the Prussian army at Waterloo, but I digress). Norrell didn't much care for people (there's a particular scene in the premiere in which Norrell struggled to make his way through a crowded party that was basically me every time I go to a bar in Los Angeles, so I really identified with that side of his character), but his first introduction gave off the impression that he was prideful to a fault, though that doesn't appear to stick throughout.
The self-proclaimed greatest (and for a while, the only) magician in England, Norrell offered his services to the English military to help defeat Napoleon's armies. But he was turned down by Sir Walter Pole, England's Secretary of State for War (Samuel West), because magic wasn't real haha what a crazy old man! To prove he was a talented practicing magician and not just a man of theory, Norrell straight up conjured a fairy known as the Gentleman (Marc Warren) to bring Pole's recently deceased fiancée back to life. I'm sure nothing bad will come from that and it won't come back to bite anyone in the ass down the line, except nothing good ever comes from bringing back the dead. I've seen Practical Magic, so I know what I'm talking about.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Strange (Bertie Carvel), a much younger man whose only real occupation at the start of the series—beyond being a professional drunkard, I mean—was to be his father's punching bag, is largely Norrell's opposite. A man without direction, his only real desire in life was to marry the beautiful Arabella (Charlotte Riley), but she would only do so if he got off his ass and found a job (seems fair?). So when Jonathan was told by Vinculus (Paul Kaye), a street magician and charlatan he found sleeping under a hedge (all people sleeping under hedges are 100 percent trustworthy and you should buy whatever they're selling), that he was destined to be one of two magicians who would restore magic to England, he said, "Sure, why not?" the same way you would when asked if you wanted guacamole for no extra charge on your Chipotle burrito (if that ever happened, I really would believe in magic). While Norrell's talents have come from his life-long study of magic, Jonathan was a natural talent who stumbled upon his abilities, but didn't really know what he's doing, so eventually he sought out Mr. Norrell to become his apprentice.
The series' pilot spends most of its time setting the stage and introducing the two men at the heart of the series by laying a not-too-complicated foundation for them to meet. And it did so while also weaving in the beginning of a story that hinted at the arrival of a more nefarious character known only as the Raven King via a side story involving Vinculus and Norrell's right-hand man, the mysterious Childermass (Enzo Cilenti), who might be the most interesting character at the outset of the series.
As the Napoleonic Wars, which appear to be the underlying motivation for the main characters' actions, raged on behind the scenes, the pilot satisfactorily developed both Norrell's and Jonathan's distinctive personalities in the allotted time, and with only seven hours to tell this grand story—if you've ever seen the book, you know it clocks in at a whopping 782 pages in hardcover—it could not have been an easy feat. By the end of the premiere, Norrell has left his estate in Yorkshire and taken up residence in London, and Strange has performed his first act of magic. And from there (the first three episodes were released to critics), the series moves right along at a pace that feels uncommon for a period drama such as this.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is an interesting addition to BBC America's summer programming slate, because it feels better suited toward late fall given its often dreary appearance—it bobs back and forth between the glumness of Mr. Norrell and the lighthearted, easy going nature of Jonathan Strange—but it's still an enjoyable break from the mundane, non-magical life, provided you're willing to open your mind to it. It moves along fairly quickly, and maybe I'm missing out on some aspects of the story by not having read the book, but I don't really feel like I am, and the fact I haven't read the book is certainly not limiting my enjoyment of the miniseries. And that's more than enough encouragement to keep watching. Plus: Childermass. I really want to know more about Childermass.
STRANGE SPELLS
– Look, don't you just want to sit down with Childermass and find out WTF his story is? Intelligent and manipulative, he seemed like a dude you wouldn't want to cross, but might also like to have a beer with? I don't know. Maybe I'm just weird.
– The same goes for Paul Kaye's Viniculus. He seemed like an everyday drunk who peddled fake spells to unsuspecting and gullible people interested in becoming magicians, but his prophecies about the two magicians and his trick with Childermass' tarot cards definitely screamed that there's more to it than that.
– Our entry point into the story was Mr. Segundus and his interest in magic, but I don't really know or care about him or about how he'll fit into the rest of the story, if at all.
Be kind! If you've read the book or live in the U.K. where the miniseries has already debuted, please don't post spoilers in the comments! Thank you!
