I don’t know why The Artful Dodger hadn’t been on my radar before, but luckily, my extremely curated Tumblr dashboard is always there to broadcast shows or movies that I could definitely get obsessed with through the most powerful promotion tool on the Internet: the gifset.
So that’s how I discovered The Artful Dodger—through gifs of protagonist Thomas Brodie-Sangster gleefully waving a scalpel around in rolled-up poet’s shirt sleeves. That’s enough to pique any period drama lover’s interest, to be honest. And hold it, too.
The Artful Dodger’s eight episodes—still unclear whether the show might get a second season or if it’s doomed to remain a limited miniseries—act as a sequel of sorts to Charles Dickens’ literary masterpiece Oliver Twist, published in the late 1830s. The show features some characters from the novel and throws them into a whole new environment, quite literally a world away from the foggy streets of London: an Australian colony.
As the title suggests, the show’s main character is Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s Jack Dawkins, also known as the Artful Dodger, the leader of the gang of child pickpockets and petty criminals led by Fagin that Oliver finds himself running with during the course of Oliver Twist.
In the book, Dodger is thrown in prison after being caught pickpocketing, and it’s presumed that he is then transported to Australia for his crime. The show has him instead escape prison in London and embark on a Royal Navy ship, where he turns from stealing to medicine, and he learns and practices the art of surgery from an older navy doctor.
When the story of The Artful Dodger starts, Jack Dawkins is working as a surgeon, even though his lower-class background makes him clash more often than not with his Eton-educated colleagues, who undermine him every chance they get, even though his skill is undeniable.
As if that is not enough, Jack’s life is further complicated by the reappearance of Fagin. Brilliantly played by David Thewlis, the old criminal has also been transported to Australia and Jack has no choice but to employ him as his servant, mostly to keep an eye on him and stop him from potentially spilling all the unsavory details from his past to everyone in town.
That, after all, would make things very hard for him with the show’s female lead, Lady Belle Fox. Played by Australian actress Maia Mitchell, Lady Belle is the eldest daughter of the colony’s governor and she has one great calling, medicine, except that of course these are the mid-1800s and one of the last places a woman would be is the operating theatre.
Belle and Jack soon start working together, her with knowledge of the latest medical advancements and him with years of practical experience, to perform never-done-before surgeries. And you know those are the beginnings of an excellent romance. Still, if you’d like to go into The Artful Dodger with as little knowledge as possible, be aware that there will be spoilers from now until the end of the article.
While I am of the firm opinion that any kind of romance is better the second you add a period drama setting to it, especially one that involves poet’s shirts in all their glorious forms, it’s true that there are some period romances that are better than others. And I would argue that the one that develops between Jack and Belle through the course of the season starts on some already very solid ground and, by making perfect use of its tropes, ends up in an even better place.
Annoyances and mild academic rivals that turn into allies and lovers? Check, and let’s add the “different social and economic backgrounds” on top, as well. One half of the couple teaching the other how to do something by guiding their hand with their own? Check. The incredible thrill of simple, gentle touch in a time period where people didn’t touch each other much, especially if they were of opposite genders? Check again.
There are two things, though, that really stick with me when it comes to Jack and Belle—or Dodgerfox, as Tumblr has started to call them. The first is the incredible amount of respect, both personal and professional, that passes between them. Sure, they are immediately intrigued by one another and clearly very drawn to each other, and all that good yearning is always very nice to see, but both characters clearly have a very high opinion of the other, even though their arguments—and that, to me, is truly a pillar of any good romance.
And the second is the incredible angst of the story’s climax that personally left me hooked and definitely wanting more. All the thievery and less-than-legal activities that Fagin has engaged in throughout the season, dragging Jack with him, come to a resolution just as Jack discovers that Belle is suffering from an aortic aneurysm and embarks on an incredibly risky surgery to save her life.
The scene where he gets dragged away to be arrested and probably hanged just as he’s finished the surgery, hands still bloody and screaming to know whether or not Belle is breathing, has “pathos” written all over it. The fact that he has a chance to run away but ends up returning to the hospital—and so gets caught again—just to see that Belle is actually alive makes everything just that much more perfect.
Such a cliffhanger ending all but screams for a second season to let us know what happens to all the characters, particularly to the now hopefully cured Belle and the currently imprisoned Jack. And as there’s no official word yet, all we can do is hope that, for once, a series we love doesn’t get axed after just one season.
(featured image: Disney+)
