In recent years, period dramas have hit the mark on exciting, thrilling and romantic. From “The Gilded Age” to “Outlander,” “Downton Abbey,” “The Crown” and “Bridgerton,” each one brings energy and drama to the screen with its charm and unique storylines. This week, a new period series joins this list: “The Artful Dodger.”
“The Artful Dodger” is a title and story reimagined from the classic Charles Dickens book Oliver Twist. In the novel, the Artful Dodger, a friend of Oliver Twist, is a character who picks pockets and earns the nickname “The Dodger” for his highly successful stealing skills. The story follows a former thief from the foggiest streets of London to the driest streets of Australia, from thief to doctor, all the while avoiding the most common consequence at the time: death. He goes by the name of Jack (Thomas Brodie-Sangster, “The Maze Runner”). Taken under the conniving arm of his Uncle Fagin (David Thewlis, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”), Jack began his career as a thieving mentee very young. Not long after they began stealing together, Jack and Fagin wound up in jail for their crimes, and Fagin left Jack to fight his way out of prison. When Jack escaped, a navy doctor approached him about becoming a fellow surgeon: He saw Jack’s sticky fingers as potential for excellent, efficient movements during surgery. After he got tired of this job, Jack left London for Australia where he worked in a small town hospital, making scraps for pay. Just as he thought he was far enough away from his old life, Fagin, fresh off the convict boat, showed up in Australia and caused an utter riot in Jack’s life.
The remaining season involves a complicated story between Fagin and Jack as they try to escape the noose. It’s incredibly exciting and refreshing for viewers to watch this adventure unfold from the eyes of the thieves themselves instead of from the police. In typical detective shows, the person committing the crime does something so heinous that it’s impossible to sympathize with them. In “The Artful Dodger,” the audience gets an understanding of the troubles that Jack and Fagin experienced in London and how their lower-class status caused severe hunger and poverty throughout their lives. From the moment they were born, they were practically forced to turn to the criminal lifestyle because of this lack of opportunities. This perspective is the reason that, throughout most of the series, the audience is supposed to feel sympathetic for Fagin, a frail older man. Instead of feeling anger at the accused, you almost want to give them a hug and tell them you understand. It’s an atypical feeling promoted by the lens through which the story is portrayed: the eyes of Jack and Fagin.
Not only does this lens increase viewers’ emotional connection to the show, but the attention-grabbing nature of the series is also further assisted by its shorter run time. Unlike longer period drama series that drag on for seasons upon seasons, “The Artful Dodger” only has one. It’s short and sweet; it doesn’t need to be anything extravagant. Its short run digs into the root, escaping the mistake that some series make, known as the “jump the shark” moment. For a period drama, this brevity is an original aspect that compels the audience to miss it when it’s over.
While Jack fights off the redcoats and the town’s executioner alongside Fagin, he begins to form a bond with the daughter of the Governor, Lady Belle Fox (Maia Mitchell, “The Fosters”). Lady Belle’s dedication and interest in medicine initially go ignored by Jack, but little by little, he recognizes her capabilities. It’s slightly endearing because you know it’s how the creators build their love story but mostly frustrating from a female perspective. At the time, hospitals wouldn’t let women perform surgery or even be in a surgical room; much of Lady Belle’s story hinges on the societal expectations that deemed female doctors unsuitable for the blood and gore of their workplaces. Before Lady Belle and Jack finally divulge their feelings for each other, they have a relationship of mostly tit-for-tat. Jack has a reading disability which is never explicitly named because of the time period. As such, he needs Lady Belle to assist him in the surgical room by reading from textbooks to help him perform surgeries he’s never done before. Lady Belle cannot get into the surgical room without him to pursue her passion. While she pushes him to let her into the operating room, a fiery tension grows between them. It takes its time to blossom, but when it does, it blooms a bright red. The slow and steady nature of Jack and Lady Belle’s relationship made it all the more engaging. After all, when have you ever watched a show where the romantic interests get together within the first couple of episodes? The directors knew what they were doing.
While the audience sympathizes with Lady Belle for her desire to be a doctor and her legal inability to become one, the audience also sees her, an upper-class citizen, have moments of humility from the perspectives of Jack, Fagin and their accomplices. She is somewhat ignorant of the reasons people face poverty, as her family doesn’t have the same struggles, and it is a quality that is commonly frowned upon. This character dichotomy can be seen with Jack and Fagin as well. Even though the audience sympathizes with them for the position they are in, it is also disheartening to see them choose to continue thievery when the consequences of their actions are greater: for example, death. These characters’ qualities create an imbalance of viewers’ allegiances to characters throughout the season.
“The Artful Dodger” is an exciting tale of two men fighting their way through low wages and poor working-class conditions. “The Artful Dodger” is a romance that brews across class lines. Its carefully plucked characters and intricately woven romance bolstered a compelling season that you should surely watch again and again.
Daily Arts Writer Eliza Shearing can be reached at elizamae@umich.edu.