the review revue, volume one
wherein i review the mysterious benedict society, a great adaptation of a childhood favourite. seven months into the review newsletter, here's my first official review.
when i was eight years old, i had a really bad case of strep throat.
no, that’s too late to start with, we have to look back.
when i was two years old, my grandmother taught me how to read. i was a remarkably patient two-year-old, and she was a remarkably patient grownup, and for days we sat at the old dining table in my parents’ apartment flipping between white cards and red lettering. i started reading shortly thereafter, flipping through picture books of my own accord and loudly enunciating slogans from billboards. from then on, i was a voracious reader. one of my earlier memories is having to be called away from silent reading several times in first grade when my classmates had needed no provocation to drop their books and head outside. my favourite books as a child were about precocious children surrounded by ambivalent or menacing adults who were eventually outsmarted—a series of unfortunate events, harry potter, percy jackson.
enter the mysterious benedict society.
the premise for this series is that a group of unusually intelligent children are brought together by the genius mr. benedict, who enlists them to stop evil from destroying the world via brainwashing. thereafter, the children continue to adventure, meeting incredible danger, the dastardly ten men (when i read about them as a child, i could not look at my father’s briefcase for a week), and endless riddles. these children’s books treat their audience as intelligent, and as someone who has read a lot of fiction for children and young adults, i can tell you that the genre often stops short of this.
when i was eight years old, i had a really bad case of strep throat. there, now it makes sense. this sent me to bed for a week, during which i was bored and suffering from the infection. my mother, taking pity on me and knowing i loved to read, bought me a boxset of the mysterious benedict society. i devoured the books, eagerly reading whenever i didn’t have to swallow tea or soup, finding an exciting refuge in the pages of these books. i wished fervently to prove my intelligence to mr. benedict so he would take me in, to run away solving riddles with kate, sticky, reynie, and constance.
they were important books to me, and still are. when i heard that disney plus was doing an adaptation, i was excited but nervous about the way the story would be depicted. swamped with schoolwork when the series originally aired a year ago (and being terribly forgetful), i finally watched through all eight episodes on a nine hour flight (and had time left over to nap and watch the crown). i have some strong opinions on the series, mostly to do with the destruction of my dear s.q. pedalian and the gorgeous set design, and decided to lay my thoughts out in what will become a typical review format for this newsletter.
what i liked:
on a technical level, the show is just beautiful. i loved the set design, the costumes, the design of the institute and the whisperer, stonetown’s being brought to life… it’s both gorgeous and true to the books. there’s kate’s red bucket, mr. curtain’s tower, the dorms in the institute! i applaud every person who designed and built these elements of the show, because they came across beautifully (thanks to equally excellent direction).
the integration of the tests in the first episode! those initial testing scenes, where reynie does his best against mr. benedict’s hardest questions, are such a tense and memorable part of the book that’s translated onto the screen so well. my favourite aspect of this was the second test, where reynie discovers that the answers for the questions are hidden inside the test (a trick that i have since applied to every test i write).
the show—aside from some changes, which i’ll discuss in the dislikes section— was very faithful to the books, especially in tone and character. it displays not just an understanding of trenton lee stewart’s story but a genuine love for it, and most of the changes made serve to elevate and clarify the plot rather than rewrite it. i’ve loved the books since i was very small, and was so excited to find that they’d brought my favourite scenes and characters to life in such a lovely manner.
on the whole, i thought that expanding the storyline of the adults, unlike in the netflix adaptation of a series of unfortunate events, was well executed and appropriate to setting. in a series of unfortunate events, the point is that there are no properly supportive adults (even the concerned never try to get the children out of their environment) and the baudelaires are forced to be self-reliant, which is at odds with the depiction of active adults in the series. in the mysterious benedict society, there are lots of supportive adults who try to help the children by any means and try to avoid having to put them in danger. so the storyline here makes sense, and it’s thematically appropriate. i also liked that it was an avenue to develop the relationship between rhonda and number two, both of whom are brought to life in beautiful and accurate ways.
depiction of mr. benedict’s narcolepsy—not only is it clearly explained with appropriate terms, those around him are comforting and assist when he needs, just the way they do in the books. to build off of this, mr. benedict’s character is well-acted and well-adapted, meaning that his personality is faithfully conveyed and tony hale does a marvellous job at bringing it to life.
the expansion on martina crowe’s character is fascinating: she’s elevated from a self-involved bully to a kid who has a genuine friendship with kate. their relationship was such an interesting part of the series, and i think it fulfilled that rule for changes bringing something new to the source material.
CONSTANCE CONTRAIRE. all four of the kids were great, inspiring characters buoyed by strong performances, but constance takes the cake. not only are her fits and snark as funny as they are in the books, her accent is a joy to listen to. great work from such a young actress, and especially increased my love for the tiny telepath.
the way milligan’s role was portrayed and acted was both clever and true to the books in many ways. while the actor who was cast in his role looked nothing like the way i pictured him as a child, he nevertheless did an outstanding job at bringing a multifaceted and dynamic character to life. i applaud the portrayal and the writing of the role, which could have so easily become obnoxious or ham-fisted.
what i did not like:
the removal of the test question relating to the white knight, which is a key character moment for reynie (‘perhaps he doubted himself’) and plays a greater thematic role than ‘carrying the bird’ (the anecdote which the show replaces it with) ever does.
there isn’t a dramatic reveal about constance’s age, which i was awaiting for the entire last episode. i get that an actual toddler could not have done the role, but it’s such a self-evident explanation for all of her behaviour earlier in the book. she could’ve been said to be five or six and it still would’ve been big.
the ten men! i couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed by the initial invasion into mr. benedict’s home. maybe it’s because reading that scene in the books terrified me for weeks (‘they’re called ten men because they have ten different ways to hurt you’ is seared into my memory) or because the urgency feels so much more real in stewart’s prose, but their role being minimized and unexplained was disappointing.
why kill sticky’s parents? the aunt and uncle are unnecessary and fumble the original point from the books (i.e. even your blood family can make you feel isolated and alone, being an orphan isn’t a requirement to help mr. benedict. the point was that no one was supposed to look for them.)
mr. curtain didn’t have a wheelchair or sunglasses to hide his narcolepsy, which i thought was strange because there must have been a case or two where he would’ve had to conceal it. and it seems like they cut a lot of his intimidating and frightening aspect from the books (he seems more condescending than outright cruel in the show). tony hale, however, manages the material so well that that complaint is more of an afterthought.
the reveal that milligan is kate’s father was a bit underwhelming, and remembering he’s a chemist isn’t as moving as remembering he’s kate’s father (in the context of it being a catalyst for recovering his memories). i’m referring to the scene outside the tower here—when the two of them talk later in the episode, i was so touched i nearly cried. but we don’t get to hear that milligan is his name because kate wanted to go to the mill again, so i’m including it as a con.
s.q. pedalian! i was so confused when they introduced him on the show; i thought he was an entirely new character. this is probably my biggest complaint—he’s not the same, and his character in the books was so much more endearing and fleshed out. the show version feels like a less compelling version of his book character. the decision to make him mr. curtain’s official adopted son is narratively boring. where is my clumsy, thickheaded, unswervingly loyal boy with big feet, you guys :(
finally, and i recognize that this is a silly complaint, but absolutely no one looks the way i pictured them in the books.
so that’s my review for season one of the mysterious benedict society’s television adaptation, now streaming on disney plus. i cannot wait to watch season two when it airs this september, and i hope it will be as excellent as the first.