Critical Condition: The Frankenstein Chronicles

The Frankenstein Chronicles | Netflix, from Tuesday

➢ “The Frankenstein Chronicles does have Sean Bean, and for that we should be thankful. The legendary Yorkshireman is the star copper of this beguiling and very dark period drama, which takes as its inspiration Mary Shelley’s Gothic classic about the fictional monster … The imagery is bleak, windswept and will require a tough stomach to watch … The show is also, like the bolt-headed stereotype, quite slow. But not slow enough that I won’t shuffle on to episode two.” — Radio Times.

➢ “Set in 1830s London, Bean plays John Marlott, a war veteran and river policeman. Season 1 of the serialised show sees him investigating the case of a corpse made up of body parts from different children, and finding the matter involves senior establishment figures and demonic forces … The show has been well-reviewed, but the ITV Encore pay-TV channel only attracts a modest audience in the UK … The Frankenstein Chronicles deal opens the way for Netflix to make further seasons should it resonate with its U.S. and global subscribers.” — Variety.

➢ “This gory drama was rather like a Frankenstein’s monster itself, constructed from stitched-together elements of Sharpe, Sherlock, Oliver Twist, Ripper Street and Penny Dreadful. However, it was bold, eerily effective and chillingly atmospheric. Bean’s always a gruffly engaging screen presence and the all-star supporting cast was strong.” — The Daily Telegraph.

➢ “TFC is as serious as Jekyll and Hyde is playful — although Mary Shelley appears next week so postmodernism cannot be ruled out. It takes its history seriously with Tom Ward strong as the home secretary, Robert Peel. The opening was slow, however, highly reliant on Bean fretting it as Marlott. The shocks were mostly achieved by loud clangs of incidental music. An hour, and still no sign of the creature. Scary scripting.” — The Times.

➢ “It’s genuinely rather good, and a beast of wholly different hide to Jekyll … this offers real rare shivers, missing children and children returned polluted – parts sewn together, abominated – and I’m quite itching to see where it goes next … Also, and unusually for this kind of programme, the makers have finally listened to the only 99.99% of the population who can’t abide watching drama so verite that it looks like it’s been filmed from behind a heavy Victorian Welsh dresser through a clump of Swarfega wrapped in staunch blackout curtains tucked inside the Earl of Hell’s waistcoat: a lighting technician has finally done his, rather than an auteur’s, job.” — The Guardian.