The first episode was incredibly slow and now we are onto episode 2 of 3. At the moment this mini-series isn’t what it should be, it is quite disappointing. There is no real excitement and it feels as if everything is taking a really long time to happen.
In this second episode, the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge on a journey into his past to discover secrets he is hiding. We learn more about how he made his business and the consequences some of his actions have had. We also discover the secret Mrs Cratchit has been hiding from her husband which is quite unexpected yet interesting to watch.
At the very beginning of this episode, we get an unexpected visitor from Scrooge's father, this scene really hints how dark this adaptation is compared to others. It is interesting to see the relationship between Scrooge and his dead father, getting to see this on screen makes it clearer the troubled upbringing Scrooge had. This is excellent performances from both Guy Pearce who plays Scrooge and Johnny Harris who plays Scrooge's father. The relationship these characters have is challenging to watch and we feel pity for Scrooge yet later on that pity is gone. We get an insight into the such troubled childhood Scrooge had due to his father and his schoolmaster; this makes us feel bad for this character yet we can't feel too sorry for him as we see only moments later the harm, he has caused other people.
The Ghost of Christmas Past gives us a real insight into the dark soul of Scrooge. Throughout The Ghost takes on various forms to make important points to Scrooge, these forms are normally of someone he looked up to or helped him in some way in his past. Quite a lot happens, plot wise in this episode yet it feels really slow to get going while watching.
Even with the plot really slow to get going, the acting is really strong and we get to witness some strong performances. Andy Serkis as the Ghost of Christmas Past does an amazing job in portraying this ghost who is trying to see if there is any hope in saving Scrooge's soul. While Guy Pearce puts on another good performance as this iconic character, the finale scene in particular is especially memorable as we see the really dark side of Scrooge which can be difficult to watch.
This second episode is better than the first but still feels slow while watching. With that being said this is truly a darker interpretation of this classic story but it also has its own spin on this classic story to keep it interesting. This is done by making Scrooge the victim of abuse and then also becomes an abuser. This is completely different from the original story and some viewers aren’t happy about it but this twist does make this story interesting to watch as with this change, we aren’t sure what may happen. Especially as this is a darker interpretation of this story Scrooge may not be redeemed but we only have one more episode to find out the fate of this iconic character. Hopefully the final episode will be a lot more interesting than the first two considering there must be quite a lot to get done in just an hour. Episode two is good but still slow, the performances are good but this adaptation isn’t as memorable as maybe we hoped it would be at the moment and that is a shame.
Is this adaptation too dark for Christmas? It doesn’t put you in a festive mood and you doubt whether there can be a happy ending for Scrooge. It is a shame that these episodes weren’t better, hopefully the final episode can make up for this disappointment.
