Happy New Year and welcome to the review of the show. As I said last week, I only knew how the book ended from the show.

Also, a bit of housekeeping. The next two weeks we will be looking at Andy Weir’s The Martian and the movie adaptation.

“Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a BBC historical fantasy series set in 19th-century England during the Napoleonic Wars, where magic, long dormant, is resurrected by two contrasting magicians: the scholarly recluse Mr Norrell and the bold novice Jonathan Strange, leading to a rivalry and a deeper entanglement with the dangerous, ancient world of fairies, culminating in a battle for England’s magical future and the fate of Strange’s wife, Arabella, who becomes trapped in the fairy realm.”

If you are the type of person who is intimidated by the length of a book, you should watch the show. This adaptation follows the book closely. And when they do shift from the book, it is understandable.

Ok, for anyone who hasn’t read one of my TV show reviews, instead of going with my numbered thoughts, with Firstly, Secondly, Thirdly, I will write out my thoughts for each episode.

Episode 1: The Friends of English Magic. Ok, I enjoy the fact that it starts with Mr. Segundus trying magic. This is because in the book, it starts with him asking the Friends of English Magic what happened to magic.

The actor who plays Mr. Norrell (Eddie Marsan) is perfect, he is so nervous and out of place receiving attention of any kind. Also, this is great because in the book Mr. Norrell is not what people would expect from a practical magician.

The Cathedral scene is a lot of fun, the fact that the statue comes to life causing chaos. As the first true magic seen in the show, it certainly makes a point.

When it comes to the introduction of Jonathan Strange (Bertie Carvel) in the book, we don’t see him until much later. But it wouldn’t make sense if the show is called Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and Jonathan didn’t show up till the second or third episode.

I find the fact that Drawlight says the name Mr Norrell a bit funny because he stretches out the name like he is trying to make it sound more magical.

The Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair looks and feels so weird from the way that he holds himself to the sound of his voice. Marc Warren is perfect for his role.

Episode 2: How Is Lady Pole? Once again, magic is presented at a perfect level of realism. The idea of boats made of rain is one thing, but to actually see it done is another.

The first time we see Lost Hope, it feels completely unreal, the decay and the idea that there are different examples of the time periods of fashion, which could either be fairies who found a fashion and stuck with it or humans who are still wearing what they had on when they were taken.

Lady Pole in the book is unable to tell anyone about what is happening to her; every time she tries, she spews nonsense. Alice Englert is great at this role; it feels like she is choking on her words.

Episode 3: The Education of a Magician. Here, we have an example of the show going further than the book. Lady Pole in the show sees her trying to tell people what is happening to her by making a tapestry showing what happened to her. Mr. Norrell has her work destroyed, and then, after she tries to kill herself, Mr. Norrell visits her to tell her to stop trying to communicate with anyone. None of this is in the book, but it completely makes sense. Mr. Norrell is known to do whatever he needs to keep his reputation.

Jonathan Strange in the war. It is a great way to show the mess of war. In the book, we see how Jonathan Strange will just try things with no idea if it will work, especially at war where he is tasked with finding information on a cannon, so he resorts to reviving some dead soldiers, and after he gets his information, he doesn’t know how to send them back.

Episode 4: All the Mirrors of the World. Ok, when I first watched the show, this is where I got past what I knew happened in the book. So I had no idea what was going to happen.

When it comes to King George, this is a slight difference in the fact that it is both Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell who try to help the king’s madness. The fact that in the book the Gentleman tries to kidnap the king to Lost Hope. In the show, he momentarily succeeds.

Something I would like to point out, in the book, the Gentleman looks into the future and sees that Steven Black is meant to be king of a place he has been. In the show, this was cut out, and we go straight to the Gentleman trying to get Steven to kill the king and take over.

The King’s Road is so beautiful. Love the BBC CGI.

Episode 5: Arabella. Strange is back in the war. In the previous episode in this show, we see the line from Jonathan when he was asked whether a magician could kill a man: “A magician might, but a gentleman never would.” And now we see the point where he breaks that promise, but in such a way that is completely understandable. As strange as it is to say, I find it enjoyable that we see Jonathan look affected by what he had to do. This is not a show that trivializes death.

I would like to talk about Mr. Norrell after Strange writes a book of magic that completely challenges Mr. Norrell. Mr. Norrell takes this as a personal challenge. This is interesting because Norrell is acting like he has the first and last word when it comes to magic.

Props to Charlotte Riley for that fact that she can be both Arabella and the Moss Oak.Her performance as Moss Oak is unreal.

Yeah, Segundus is the first person to work out the pattern with Lady Poles’ “Madness”.

Jonathan’s grief is so real, from the way he just shuts down to his insistence that he can bring her back. And it can be said that his desperation to go mad in order to see fairies.

Episode 6: The Black Tower.

Mr. Norrell has gone further off the deep end and is fully trying to destroy Jonathan Strange, both his reputation and also removing almost every copy of his book.

Jonathan Strange going mad is so interesting. This is because Jonathan’s madness stems from illogical means. And his madness is not a specific mental disease.

Something that I find interesting about Vinculus (Paul Kaye), the man with the book on his skin, in the book there is a prophecy that only Vinculus knows and he tells the prophecy to many people. in the show they never show the prophecy. This is the prophecy in full

“Two magicians shall appear in England…

The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me;

The first shall be governed by thieves and murdereres; the second shall conspire at his own destruction;

The first shall bury his heart in a dark wood beneath the snow, yet still feel its ache;

The second shall see his dearest possession in his enemy’s hand…

The first shall pass his life alone, he shall be his own gaoler;

The second shall tread lonely roads, the storm above his head, seeking a dark tower upon a high hillside…

I sit upon a black throne in the shadows but they shall not see me.

The rain shall make a door for me and I shall pass through it;

The stones shall make a throne for me and I shall sit upon it…

The nameless slave shall wear a silver crown

The nameless slave shall be king in a strange country…” So if you had never read the book, you would have missed the whole thing with Vinculus calling Steven Black nameless slave.

In Episode 7: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Now we see the labyrinth in Mr. Norrell house. This is something you see in the book when we first see Mr. Norrell’s house, there is a line that Segundus felt there was magic in how long it takes to get to the library. This was obviously cut to make the stuff in the cathedral the first magic, so it is fun to see it here.

When we see the Gentleman go after Lady Pole after the spell on her is broken. the damage he does is mildly impressive because we see the true power that fairies have. Also, this is the only time we have a reference to the gentleman having thistledown hair.

The thing with the nameless slave is that the Gentleman in the book proceeds to do everything he can to find Steven’s true name and is about to tell him when he kills the Gentleman.

I enjoy the fact that Lady Pole goes off to do her own thing.

Thank you for staying with me. This is as of the point of writing; this is the longest review I have ever written, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope everyone will have a lovely New Year. And until next week.

Happy reading to all, and to all a good night.