Great Expectations (TV Mini Series) Episode #1.1 (2023) User Reviews

This was so disappointing.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 5/10 · 31 March 2023]

When this was first announced, I was taken back to the series from my childhood, I was 8 years old when the marvellous adaptation with Anthony Hopkins and Jean Simmons aired, I wanted this adaptation to be equal and perhaps better.

Sadly, this was a below par opening episode, as you'd expect with The BBC it looked great and was well produced, but it just lacked something, maybe it was just so hard to warm to any of the characters, they were just too cold, they weren't thus far the characters from the book, it's Great Expectations, but the characters and their relationships, are somehow anonymous.

No gripes at all with the acting, really impressive, but the characters, maybe they'll grow.

The tone could have been a bit lighter, as could the language, it would have fitted in so much better to an 8PM timeslot, for peak Sunday night viewing, it just doesn't work.

This is the kind of series that you should be counting down the days for the next installment, in reality it's the kind of thing I'll watch when I have a spare hour.

5/10.

Episode 1

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 27 March 2023]

It only seems like yesterday the BBC put on another version of Great Expectations. It was actually 2011 when the last series was made with a bland male lead. Although the BBC did do a separate film in 2012 when Ralph Fiennes roughed it up as Magwitch.

This version was adapted by Steven Knight and only exists as a vehicle for Oscar winning actress, Olivia Coleman to do a turn as Miss Havisham.

The 2023 version is earthier with Johnny Harris's interpretation of Magwitch as a sweary brute.

It also looks more cinematic with good use of CGI. It makes the landscape more expressive.

Coleman does turn up at the end. Her Miss Havisham is certainly more creepier and sinister.

The rest though is a well trodden path and this series is going to be five episodes long. It is going to be a well padded path as well.

I'll Be Patient, But It Has to Get Some Life

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 29 March 2023]

I know the book backwards and forwards so I always have hopes of a well done portrayal. I've seen numerous adaptations and I know that a literary work and a movie are quite different. The movies always begins, as does the book, with Pip meeting Magwitch as he is pursued by the authorities. This Pip seems too learned and too mature. He doesn't seem to quite be finding his way. Of course, we see the apprehension of the two convicts and a beginning of a loyalty to Pip by Magwitch. The slow moving nature of the film and the darkness is a bit overwhelming. Estella seems aloof, where she is snotty and superior in most portrayals. I'll withhold judgment for now. The dialogue is really slow and stilted.

This show is worthless.

[ikata-49417 · 1/10 · 28 March 2023]

I wrote a term paper on Great Expectations in school and while it has been a while, I'm still fairly familiar with the story and themes. I had doubts when I saw the trailer, but I thought I'd give the show a try in case it was better than I expected. It was worse. We are suffering through the dark ages of entertainment. Not only do modern entertainment writers lack the ability to create anything original, they also lack the competence to copy stories from their betters. Somehow the writing for this show is atrocious, the acting is weak, the setting looks fake, and the plot is boring. This show is worthless.