Critical Condition: The Miniaturist

The Miniaturist | SoHo, 8.30 Monday

➢ “The Miniaturist was enough to keep you awake all night. The opening episode served up the same breathless mixture of suspense, treachery, dread and creepily accurate craftsmanship that made the novel a best-seller in 2014 … Fom the rustle of silk on dark staircases to the pervasive atmosphere of watery menace, this was a spellbinding drama.” — The Daily Telegraph.

➢ “A drama based on the novel of the same name by Jessie Burton, it didn’t really put a foot wrong. It was set in 17th-century Amsterdam and every frame could have been painted by Vermeer. By the time you stopped being mesmerised by the beauty, you were transfixed by the plot.” — The Times.

➢ “From the off, The Miniaturist gears viewers up for something horrible, a notion heightened by the casting of current scream-queen Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Split), who controls the camera’s gaze masterfully …Taylor-Joy gives an excellent performance playing the innocent Nella who thankfully asks the questions viewers want answering rather than being a hopeless protagonist.” — The Independent.

➢ “There is lots to set up in the first episode of The Miniaturist, so if you’re wondering whether to hang on and watch the hour-long second episode, the answer is: stick with it. The pay-off comes, and it does not disappoint.” — Radio Times.

➢ “At first The Miniaturist promised to reimagine Daphne du Maurier’s mad nightmare of a masterpiece, Rebecca — in which a young bride finds herself trapped in a Gothic mansion, with a distant husband and a cruel tyrant of a housekeeper controlling her every step. No such luck. By the end of this costume drama, set in Olde Amsterdam, it was revealed as yet another man-hating slab of tedious feminist propaganda.” — Daily Mail.