Hulu’s new series The Artful Dodger takes the famous Charles Dickens character and picks up his story 15 years later, showing a new life with temptations of old. I’m not too overly familiar with the tale of Oliver Twist, with my only experience being watching the Oliver musical film in school many years ago. With that, I was pleasantly hooked by the first episode of this irreverent follow-up.
Now of course, in the original Dickens stories, Jack Dawkins a.k.a. The Artful Dodger, is a master child thief, doing dirty work for his boss, Fagin. The new Hulu series picks up with Jack over 15 years later, where he’s turned a new leaf and become a surgeon with nimble fingers. Jack is played here by the ever-young Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who appears to have barely aged a day since he appeared in a 2007 episode of Doctor Who as a teenager. On his own, his character is nothing too interesting, save for having to find a way to pay back gambling debts. It’s when Fagin once again shows up in his life that things get really interesting.
Fagin is played here by David Thewlis (Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), who has played quite a few villainous roles over the years. He shines as the annoyingly loveable Fagin, bringing some humor to the proceedings, as well as a temptation towards Jack’s more sordid past.
Sticking out as a highlight character for me was Maia Mitchell (Teen Beach Movie) as Lady Belle Fox, a new character for this story. As the governor’s daughter, she is destined to be married off to some suitor. But Lady Belle’s interests shine far brighter than a small life like that. She is determined to become the colony’s first female surgeon, and through a chance meeting with Jack in the first episode, starts down that path. I enjoyed her willful and sarcastic distaste of everything that’s set up for her as the governor’s daughter.
As the story moves into the second episode, Lady Belle uses her status to learn how to become a surgeon, which includes tidying up the disgusting, disease-ridden ward, and making use of ether to numb the patients and perhaps even save their lives – much to the chagrin of the head Professor. Meanwhile, Fagin continues to display his weasley ways in an effort to save Jack’s hand, but we learn that he may also have something more sinister in mind.
The show does fall into some of the more common trappings of its genre, such as the oddly out-of-place inclusion of more modern pop music towards the beginning and end of each episode. The setting of 1850s Australia (where the show was filmed) is excellently brought to life, made even more alive by excellent performances from all the cast. One thing I should note is that there are a lot of scenes of severed body parts and open appendages, so if you're made queasy by such things, you may at least want to look away during those scenes.
All eight episodes of The Artful Dodger will premiere Wednesday, November 29th exclusively on Hulu.