By Danielle Cherry
A medical professional and a wealthy socialite, seem like a pretty good fit. Both well educated, and high up in society. Except that’s not all Jack Dodger and Lady Belle are. Let’s try again.
A crook and a toff – that’s better. Jack Dawkins (Thomas Brodie Sangster) finds himself in two worlds: his past as a crook and his present as a medical doctor in a small town British colony on the shores of Australia. Lady Belle (Maia Mitchell), while still being a social elite, is considered by Jack’s kind to be a nuisance, especially because of Belle’s superior medical intellect.
Jack’s crooked counterpart, Norbert Fagin, who can only be described as deceptive and cunning, is Dawlkins’ less-than-loving uncle. Caught up in Fagin’s schemes, Jack is unable to leave the world of crime behind – chasing the thrill at the peril of losing the only love he has ever found.
“The Artful Dodger” is artful, set in the 1850s with period costumes, drama and social classes. Belle sports voluptuous dresses while Jack is stuck in colonial-style tops – very unsuitable for intense surgeries. Knowing current medical sanitation practices makes me cringe as I watch flowing sleeves dip into gushing blood.
Jack and Belle are far ahead of their time, medical advancement speaking. Leading the small hospital, they find themselves involved in solving complicated cases that only modern technology has recently been able to fix. Classic illnesses like cholera are handled in a historically accurate medical context, with Jack and Belle being leaders in ratifying medical change.
But the couple faces challenges: Lady Belle is a woman. In the 1850s, women as doctors were unheard of. As Belle faces intense push-back from the social elite, including her own mother, Jack is stuck under scrutiny of the law because of his criminal past, being blamed for serial murders he didn’t commit.
A beautiful part of this show is the tension Jack constantly finds himself in. He is a man of two worlds – both of which he loves. Jack craves the thrill of thieving, which he finds in the intensity of surgeries, but despite that crossover, Jack is unable to give up crime altogether.
With Fagin’s bad influence, Jack walks through this season struggling with who to be loyal to: Fagin or Belle.
Belle is a medical genius, well read and intellectually hungry, her passion to be a surgeon gets in the way of her family, as she goes against their wishes to provide medical help to those who can’t get the care they need.
This is the classic story of impossible love, but Thomas and Maia’s chemistry makes it more real than Romeo and Juliet. Thomas is a master of small glances that convey deep meaning, with Maia bringing the emotion openly and rawly.
The medical accuracy in this show was clearly painstakingly researched. The way Jack and Belle operate on patients is historically precise and correct in how surgeries and medical thought proceeded. To make surgeries realistic takes an intense amount of makeup and fake wounds, with each one looking gruesome and bloody.
In terms of medical shows, “The Artful Dodger” does not hold back on the gruesome reality of wounds and surgeries, showing poking needles and cuts into skin with prolonged camera holds, keeping them in focus while other medical shows would shy away.
On top of the medical accuracy, the camera takes the viewer into the feelings of patients, especially during the cholera outbreak. Shaky, nauseating camera spins and blurred images put the audience in the place of the patient – visually showing us what the sickness felt like.
While a historical piece, the show takes an odd stance on music. A lot of background songs are modern pop classics rather than traditional instrumental. While off-putting at first, the songs create the right jovial atmosphere that conveys the fun-spirited nature of getaways and close calls more so than instruments alone could.
Even with the romance and intrigue, the ending was subpar. Despite watching a lot of tv-shows and movies, I am terrible at guessing the endings. With this show, that was not the case. With an easy setup to guess the “major plot twist,” the impact of that reveal was dampened. Regardless, the setup for another season was clear, not resolving issues that began in the finale.
With a criminal doctor and a medical Lady, Jack and Belle find themselves in quite the predicament for romance. Yet, within the stressful environment of the hospital, Jack and Belle find their real love – a desire to help those who are at their lowest and bring comfort to those in their greatest time of need.
“The Artful Dodger” is currently streaming on Disney+
Danielle Cherry is a sophomore communication major and writer for Cedars A&E and Sports. She is a Missionary Kid from Germany and loves to travel, play volleyball and really wants to know about sanitation in Jack’s hospital.
Images courtesy of Sony Picture Television
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