While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Wonderful but I wouldn't agree with another review that it warrants us paying this outdated BBC licence fee. Compulsory for UK residents who own a TV. If you don't pay then it's a whopping fine or, believe this, jail! The book was fantastic and this TV adaptation is absolutely brilliant. I love the actors playing Strange and Norrell, especially Strange, such a comic character initially. There are some great special effects and witty moments. I recorded it when it was first aired 2015, and watched it recently. Loved it, but as for the BBC fee......it has to be scrapped.

It was a decent show. I watched just about 5 episodes cause my friend Rich told me it was the best show ever. Finally I gave up. There's so much great content out there right now I wouldn't spend time watching this. Usually, I love BBC and I think they make fantastic content. This show just didn't seem to have the character build up that I've become accustomed to with BBC shows. For some reason, I just didn't get emotional attached to the characters and the storyline. I found it be pretty predictable. Although I enjoyed them trying to tie in some real history along with magic. My friend Rich, keeps going on and on about this show.

The plot is simple. The 'academic' magician (Norrell) has large ambitions and little experience. He blunders by summoning an amoral fairy in order to booster his reputation. The fairy does wicked things.Along comes a magician (Jonathan Strange) with little learning but enormous natural talent. He apprentices himself to Norrell and there is tension between the two.What kind of magic will prevail? How will science and magic co-exist? How many people will be victimized by the fairy before Jonathan Strange defeats him? What herculean tasks must Strange perform to retrieve his wife? Production value was very high. A good cast, decent dialogue and story line. In the end, the film was scary, heart rending and a spectacle. I cared for the characters, even flawed Norrell.At the end, the fate of Norrell and Strange are unclear. Sequel?

This will be spoiler free.I only just finished watching this series over the course of the weekend. As is evident by my rating, I enjoyed it tremendously. I did not know the book existed until I saw it mentioned in the credits, so I watched with no preconceived notions apart from what could be gleaned from the synopsis and cover image. In other words, a period piece set in England with magic playing some part. I did not know whether there would be magic performed, or just talked about. Whether it would be a costume drama, or something more.What a ride it turned out to be. I enjoyed literally every single character, which is unusual for me. For the most part, there tends to be some that just annoy me for one reason or the other. In this case, I even found the character that appeared designed to be annoying to be strangely entertaining. Multiple characters were believably multifaceted and conflicted with regards to their place in the unfolding events. This is something the British seem to be consistently far superior at compared to the Americans' penchant for more caricatured portrayals.I found the setting and world building to be a breath of fresh air. Granted, it touched on some familiar themes, but rarely in a straight forward fashion. I so wish television were filled with shows of this caliber. Sadly, reality will likely remain that a show like this comes around once in a while, gets poor ratings in comparison to shows that are so bland they appeal to everybody, and then time passes until someone is brave enough to try something new once again. We can do little but treasure these rare gems.