Pick of the Week: The Artful Dodger
I had zero expectations going into The Artful Dodger, so I wasn’t prepared to be completely consumed by it. Starring Thomas Brodie-Sangster (The Queen’s Gambit, Love Actually) and Maia Mitchell (The Fosters, Teen Beach Movie), this Hulu mini-series gives new life to the Charles Dickens character from Oliver Twist. It is set in the 1850s, fifteen years after the events of Oliver Twist, where Jack Dawkins — the Dodger — has gotten himself to the new colony of Australia and out of the life of crime. After escaping from prison over a decade ago, Dawkins joined the navy, trained to be a surgeon, and now works as a doctor in a fledgling Australian hospital. He’s a brilliant surgeon, but his brilliancy is dampened by the incompetent doctors he works with. Dawkins’s delicately constructed life is threatened when Fagin, the old leader of the kids gang in London, shows up as a prisoner in Australia begging for the Dodger’s help. Torn between his lucrative old life of crime and his thankless new endeavor to heal people, Jack Dawkins’s life gets even more complicated when the beautiful Governor’s daughter, Lady Belle, wants to be his pupil. She wants to be the first female surgeon.
Sure, there’s a lot going on, but it’s handled quite tactfully. Thomas Brodie-Sangster plays Jack Dawkins, a role I wholeheartedly believe he was made for, because there is something admittedly shifty about the actor. He seems to have found his niche as the sneaky guy with a secret goodness who wears funny hats (see his characters in The Queen’s Gambit and Godless). Maia Mitchell plays Lady Belle, both his rival and love interest, who is the heart of the show. She’s your Lady Mary from Downton Abbey, your Lizzy Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. Mitchell also gets to wear some incredible costumes, which had me wondering if the entirety of the show’s budget went towards wardrobe. Nothing about The Artful Dodger screams big-budget, but I think that adds to its charm.
I fear the comparison I’m about to make is going to resonate with very few people: The Artful Dodger is the perfect mix between Hallmark Channel’s When Calls the Heart and the short-lived PBS show, Mercy Street. It has the class and sophistication of Mercy Street, or British period pieces like Sanditon, while also having the same broad appeal and accessibility of Hallmark or Netflix shows. I love it. There is absolutely something for everyone. Though, I might draw the line at children under the age of ten. Because it’s about surgeons — before surgery had any modern equipment or standards — there is quite a bit of blood and gore.
This is all to say I devoured The Artful Dodger’s eight episodes in less than 48 hours. It has suspense, humor, romance, crime, and some of that Grey’s Anatomy je ne sais quoi. It sucked me in and spit me out so fast. Knowing the Oliver Twist lore makes the show slightly more intriguing, but it really invents its own world. Oliver Twist himself does makes an appearance, which is one of the funniest episodes.
Much to my chagrin, word on the street is that no second season is coming. Yes, the story is perfectly tied up in the finale and can certainly stand alone as a mini-series. Is there room for more stories and seasons? Also yes. I don’t say that lightly. I’m a huge proponent of letting mini-series stay mini-series, but The Artful Dodger is the exception. Give me more! The show only came out in November, so maybe if I can convince everyone I know to watch it, Disney+ will cave to my desires. We can only dream.
Check it out now on Hulu or Disney+.