”One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.” - Aldous Huxley
Directors: Owen Harris, Aoife McArdle, Andrij Parekh, Craig Zisk, Ellen Kuras
Writer/Producer: David Wiener
Release Date: July 15th, 2020
Where Available: Peacock
Summary:
In an idyllic utopia whose peace and stability hinge upon control of monogamy, privacy, money, family, and history itself, everyone belongs to everyone else. Conditioned from birth at the Hatchery, residents of New London are assigned a letter of the Greek Alphabet and relegated to predetermined roles in accordance with expectations for their bio-engineered caste. As members of society’s upper echelons and those on the marginalized fringes begin to question the so-called faultless rules of their reality, perfection gets flipped on its head.
Review:
Some of you may be wondering what Peacock is, and I am here to introduce you to this new platform. Peacock is NBCUniversal’s new streaming service. It is Free, but you can pay $5 to get more content. Brave New World was one of the shows I was seeing frequently marketed by NBC for this new platform, and it didn’t disappoint. There are a few more shows on Peacock that I am adding to my list, and I really can’t wait to see what they bring to the table next.
(I am looking to reformat my reviews so that they flow a little better and are a little shorter so that I can post more frequently!)
Most students read this book somewhere in late middle school early high school as a requirement for their English class. The book is a struggle to get through at that age, especially because we weren’t reading it for our own enjoyment but for analysis. If I was to re-read the book now, I think I would appreciate the writing and the themes way more than at 13 or 14.
In Hollywood now, we are seeing more and more adaptations of books for the screen. There are some critics out there who think Hollywood is running out of ideas and is turning to books as a way to get its content. In my opinion, I love the adaptations we are seeing today, and Brave New World is an example of why we need to continue.
This Brave New World adaptation takes a more modern approach to Aldous Huxley’s 1930s Novel, and with that comes a few key differences between the two.
The name of the dystopian society in the original Aldous Huxley book was The World State. In this TV version, it is changed to New London. This name change doesn’t really affect how I thought about the show, but it was worth mentioning.
Bernard. Bernard is one of our main characters who is an Alpha+ citizen in New London. When comparing the two versions of him between the book and the show, he is extremely different for me. In the book I remember him being more of this villain that everyone ended up hating, but in the show he is more of an awkward coward who really only cares about fitting into society, which is ironic. Instead of manipulating characters in the original book, he just embarrasses himself at parties.
The relationship Lenina has with both Bernard and John in the show is COMPLETELY different than the book. In the book, Lenina is interested in Bernard because he elevates her social status, since she is a Beta+. With John, she only tried to seduce him because she has never slept with a “Savage” before. In the show, Lenina is much more sympathetic and “emotional“, even though that is the opposite of what she is supposed to be doing.
In this adaptation, Lenina and Bernard visit The Savage Lands and experience a bloodbath of events that catapult the rest of the show. In the book, nothing like this happens to Lenina and Bernard.
John’s introduction is EXTREMELY different between the movie and the book. In the book, John is seen as a little sexist and has this horrible view on women. He never actually “falls“ for Lenina like he does in the show, and I think that was a great addition in this version. Bernard simply asks John to come with him to The World State, while in the show John are actually hesitant to leave home after that bloodbath of events occur.
CJack60 is just not a character in the book. He is completely unique to the show in that him and the rest of the Epsilon Worker caste want to create this society that is perfect beyond what New London has already done. What they end up doing is completely the opposite of that, but you will just have to watch to see!
Our cast consists of Alden Ehrenreich (John the Savage), Jessica Findlay (Lenina Crowne), Harry Lloyd (Bernard Max), Nina Sosanya (Mustafa Mond), Joseph Morgan (CJack60), Kylie Bunbury (Frannite), Sen Mitsuji (Henry Foster), and Hannah John-Kamen (Wilhelmina Watson). Overall, I really love how well this cast blended together and really made me feel like they were all part of the same uniform society. Alden Ehrenreich and Joseph Morgan are the more well known actors to me in this show, so I was very excited to see them at work again. Alden Ehrenreich got his recent fame from Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Joseph Morgan is very popular from both The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. It always makes me happy to see actors do roles completely different to what I had seen them in before.
The overall aesthetic of the show is spectacular. This futuristic take on a super old book allowed for stark contrasts between New London and The Savage Lands. The white/grey/black/silver vibe right next to the unorganized and colorful was really awesome to look at throughout the episodes.
I usually take my own personal notes during shows and movies so that I can look back and possibly write a review or to help my friends figure out if they will want to watch or not. With this show, I binged all the episodes in 2 days and was so focused on the show that I forgot to write down notes. It was so engaging and entertaining and I can’t think of one thing I didn’t like about it.
I will give everyone a warning about the large number of sex scenes and nudity that comes with the show. In the words of Vanity Fair, “Behold the Most Immaculately Art Directed Orgy Sequence On TV.”
I hope this show brings back some awkward memories from when you and your classmates had to discuss what was going on in the book. It was a super awesome show and I hope they decide to bring it back for a season 2!!!
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