DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
THE WOMAN IN WHITE
October 21, 2018  | By David Bianculli

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

 

MINISERIES PREMIERE: This new five-part miniseries import from Great Britain takes a novel published in 1859, Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, and adapts it anew, staying very close to the gothic novels’ plot, setting and characters, yet structuring the conflicts in such a way that it becomes a grippingly relevant drama about women’s rights and oppressions. Filmed in northern Ireland, this version stars Jessie Buckley as Marian Halcombe, who argues in court to protect the rights of her half sister, Laura, played by Olivia Vinall. Laura had been promised, without any say on her behalf, to the untrustworthy Sir Percival Glyde (Dougray Scott) – and, once married, she had been ordered by him to sign a paper without reading it, a paper which would transfer her family fortune into his name. Also figuring into this intrigue are Walter Hartright (Ben Hardy), who meets and loves Laura despite her commitment to Sir Percival, and Anne Catherick, the titular and mysterious woman in white Walter encounters early on a remote road. She, too, is played by Vinall (pictured), and the plot never stops thickening. Or being timely, to an almost absurd degree. Check local listings. For a full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.

 
 
 
 
 
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