British TV fans we are just a few days until December 25th and that means that every TV channel is either full of repeats or full of special episodes from our favourite TV shows. Well in order to kind of buck that trend the BBC together with American Network FX are releasing a new version of A Christmas Carol and while here in the UK the special will be broadcast from December 22nd to the 24th in America it was aired I believe as one full film one full nearly THREE HOUR film and so here is my review of "A Christmas Carol 2019" enjoy.
Now I don't really feel that I need to well you what the plot of this series since the book is so well known and so is the story. I will say tho that I don't really like how they handled this story yes it is dark as hell and more closer in tone to the original book but they add so much un-needed subplots and expand roles that don't need expanding. I honestly feel that the story should have been kept simple and not complicate things with un-needed subplots.
Starring in this miniseries is Guy Pearce as Ebenezer Scrooge , Andy Serkis as Ghost of Christmas Past , Stephen Graham as Jacob Marley , Charlotte Riley as Lottie/Ghost of Christmas Present , Joe Alwyn as Bob Cratchit , Vinette Robinson as Mary Cratchit , Jason Flemyng as Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come , Kayvan Novak as Ali Baba , Lenny Rush as Tiny Tim and Johnny Harris as Franklin Scrooge.
One of the things that this miniseries got praise for was the performance of Guy Pearce as Ebenezer Scrooge and it's not hard to see why since he is so good in this. The rest of cast also really do deliver a solid performance and given who's involved with the miniseries is that really something that is shocking because there are alot of great actors in this miniseries and all of them are truly great solid actors.
For some reason in America this is I believe being aired as one film which to me makes no sense at all since FX could have got more viewers by airing it daily. It also would have made it more watchable since no one likes watching a three hour programme in one sitting and so by doing so they are not only getting rid of any viewers they could have had they are also making whoever watches it struggle because it's three freaking hours long.
This is a co-production between the BBC and American network FX which I believe is now owned by Disney. For some reason tho even the BBC are co-producing and possibly co-funding it it's the Americans who got to air the miniseries first which to me isn't a good thing because this is an English classic so we should get to air the special first or even at the same time as them not days later it's just baffling to me if i'm being honest and yes this does count as a British thing since it was produced here in the UK and was filmed here and has an English cast.
As anyone will tell you a big part of A Christmas Carol are the three spirits and they are rightfully treated with alot of respect and given alot of screen time in this miniseries. Altho for some reason Christmas Past is given the most screen time appearing in most of the first , all of the second and alot of the third parts I get that Andy Serkis is a big name but the other two are just as important to the story and they should have been given more screen time.
Now I said before that someone get's an expanded role in this miniseries and while I won't spoil who that someone is I do feel that it overall wasn't something that was needed. Giving that someone an expanded role overall adds nothing to the story and they honestly would have been better of keeping the small role for that someone that they've always had increasing their role just pretty much feels like filler which is something I can also say about the first episode which just felt like filler to me it was their for padding and very little else.
Whichever way you look at it this would have been a difficult book to adapt into three hour long episodes since the book it self is I believe very short. Even so it's not impossible but this miniseries while it does stick more to the tone of the book it isn't a faithful adaptation of the book with many scenes and whole characters cut out for no reason and this is really evident in the first episode which like I said feels like filler with very little of what's going on actually playing a part in the overall story.
If they wanted to add things then great do that but have them play a part in the story don't just have them be there because you have time to fill. Heck maybe even during the Christmas Past segment they could have seen what Scrooge's home life was like and see how that effected him as an adult we could have spent time delving into the psychology of the character thus helping understand more why he is the way he is and that would then make it more satisfying when he does change for the better at the end of the story.
Another change that this miniseries made was the fact that they made Scrooge really evil and I know that sounds weird to say but in all the other versions of the story he was always a nasty person but never full on evil. Here tho he's evil fully he mentally abuses a married woman just for kicks and reduces the quality of timber used in a mine that he owns knowing full well it could and in this case does cost the lives of several employees. This is something that just isn't needed because now it's harder to cheer for him when he does start to become good and I have to wonder why did they choose to make him so evil when how he's been presented in the past worked best.
Overall while this miniseries isn't bad it's also not that good either I don't claim to have read the book indeed those statements i've made before are educated cases based of what people have said and what comments i've seen. I do feel tho that even the most die hard fans of this book will either really like this version for being closer to the tone of the book or will really hate for all the things it takes out and so for me this miniseries this VERY long miniseries gets a 7 out of 10 from me.