Bleak House

This exemplary Masterpiece Theater production recently finished broadcasting and is now available on dvd. Again I am going to cop out of a review, and just urge you to see it. The best thing I can say about this eight-hour adaptation is that it is positively Dickensian. A fabulous array of characters and more plot that you can shake a stick at. I find it hard to grade tv series on the same scale as movies, but this is a masterwork very true to its original, which after all came out as a serial in the first place. Imagine it as the popular Pride and Prejudice series shot with the in-your-face jaggedness of NYPD Blue. Tulkinghorne, Smallweed, Guppy, Bucket, Jarndyce and all the rest are portrayed with amplitude and vividness, but it is the female leads who improve on the original, where Esther and Ada could betray a Victorian insipidity. Lady Dedlock may also have more shading than in the book. If you go for this sort of thing at all, definitely go for this! (2005, PBS, n.) *8*