The Luminaries Review: Is This BBC Drama Worth Watching?

The Luminaries is based on the Eleanor Catton page-turner of the same name that has won the Booker Prize. The six-part mini-series is filled with great acting and colorful visuals of 19th Century New Zealand.

Featuring greed, political ambition, opium addiction, and a murder-mystery, The Luminaries has tried to stuff too much into the show, making it confusing.

1. Quick Review

Supported by strong performances, BBC’s The Luminaries is a confounding murder-mystery that, despite its name, manages to leave viewers in the dark. The story unravels in two parallel timelines, set nine months apart.  Trying to stuff 800 pages worth of material in six hours, The Luminaries its viewers and comes off as confusing.

2. Info

3. Is It Worth Watching?

5.3 million people in the UK watched the first episode of The Luminaries. Soon, however, complaints started pouring out on twitter about how the show was puzzling and, ironically, visually dark. Catton worked on the screenplay to perfect the adaption of her novel, has failed horribly in trying to make a plot that is easy to follow.

The Luminaries: Trailer - BBC

I. Plot

The cold open of the show features two men on horseback, chasing a woman in a voluminous pink gown through the woods. They reach a shack inside, which lies a corpse. The woman faints, and the men carry her off as another accomplice of hers watches on.

From this point itself, The Luminaries bombards the viewers with information and characters at every turn. We flashback to nine months ago, where we met the woman in pink, coming to New Zealand on a cruiser. Her name is Anne Wetherell, a hopeful lady flocking to New Zealand alone in the hope of striking gold.

The Luminaries is set during the 1860s gold rush of New Zealand.  Anne meets a man named Emery Staines on the boat, and the two immediately hit it off. As Staines tells his friend later, there is a spark between them. The two plan to meet once they get ashore, and Staines gives her the name of his hotel.

But he is not the only one who has his eye on Anne. A local innkeeper and madam named Lydia Wells doesn’t want the pair to meet for some mysterious reasons. Lydia dabbles in astrology and fortune-telling and tells us that both Anne and Emery share the same birth date and time, and have a unique bond.

Anne is illiterate, and Lydia intentionally sends her to the wrong hotel. This starts off a chain of events that see Anne struggle to survive in a new country. As the story begins to connect the dots through the two timeline narrative, it isn’t easy to comprehend much of what’s happening on screen and its need.

Anne is addicted to opium; Emery is missing, there is gold involved, a local politician named Alastair Lauderback is involved, and a murder is at the center of it all.

II. Cast & Characters

Eve Hewson does a great job portraying Anne Wetherell. She captures the distress and uncertainty of being a woman in a strange country. Her fall from grace and memory loss due to opium addiction gives us two very different portraits of the same character.

Eva Green commands every scene she is in as the fortune-teller Lydia Wells. There is an air of mystery surrounding her and her establishment. Himesh Patel as Emery Staines and Benedict Hardie as Alistair Lauderback also turn in excellent performances.

III.Visuals

The parts of The Luminaries that are visible are breath-taking. Director of Photography, Denson Breaker, ensures that the plot unravels against a background filled with the beauty of New Zealand. Form lush forests to icy, flowing rivers, the studio, and the people get their money’s worth. The sets and costumes are also extravagant, colorful, and eye-catching.

But, there are parts of The Luminaries, which ironically are very dark and difficult to see. The opening sequence and pilot feature many scenes of grunting and whispering characters in the dark, as people cannot figure out who is talking to whom.

This hurts the show, which adapts a complex story but doesn’t manage to give the viewers precise details.

4. Grade

5. Final Thoughts

The Luminaries tries to pack too much in too little time and spoils the adaptation of a great novel. The story is told in two timelines and the dark visuals that taint many critical moments of the series is a definite setback. The show goes on with stunning cinematography and acting, but it leaves the viewer on the side-lines, dazed and confused about the plot.