The TV adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy premiered last night on BBC One. What did you think?
While America watched the big 40-year SNL special last night, the British gathered for the first episode of The Casual Vacancy on the BBC.
Adapted from J.K. Rowling’s first post-Harry Potter novel of the same name, The Casual Vacancy follows a group of residents in the small town of Pagford, England. Everyone is in some way affected by the death of Parish Councillor Barry Fairbrother, and matters go from bad to worse as the depressingly realistic story plays out.
BBC’s long-awaited adaptation stars such British powerhouse actors as Michael Gambon, Rory Kinnear and Julia Mackenzie. Written by Sarah Phelps and directed by Jonny Campbell, the three-part miniseries will follow the plot of the book – but it has been announced that the grim ending of the book will be “more redemptive, less tragic” in the TV adaptation.
Last night’s debut episode opened strong, drawing 6.6 million viewers. It’s not groundbreaking (BBC hit series Call the Midwife drew 8.9 million viewers earlier in the evening), but it’s a solid start.
Reviews of the first episode have been overwhelmingly positive; The Guardian calls The Casual Vacancy, “A mashup of The Archers and Benefits Street,” praising both Michael Gambon’s Howard Mollison and Abigail Lawrie’s Krystal Weedon.
The Independent claims that The Casual Vacancy makes for a much better TV series than it does a novel, writing, “In book form, The Casual Vacancy’s lefty politics irritated some. On screen, however, these characters are too well rounded to be dismissed as mere mouthpieces.”
Radio Times offers even more praise for the series, again suggesting that Rowling’s story might work better as a TV series than as a book. “Fans of the novel will get a shock when they’re confronted with some of the major differences in the TV version, but I suspect that many will approve of these changes,” the reviewer writes.
This is partly due to the added humor, the omission of certain characters, and the addition of Barry (Kinnear)’s post-mortem commentary on the goings-on in the town.
The Casual Vacancy premieres April 29 in the U.S. The second episode airs next Sunday at 9 p.m. in Britain.