Starz's The Luminaries fails to live up to its ambition

The A.V. Club

"The world of The Luminaries is rich with possibilities," says Saloni Gajjar. "Set in the mid-1800s during New Zealand’s gold rush, the series ventures into historical drama, romance, murder mystery, and mystical science fiction. The challenge lies in fusing these genres into a cohesive story, and The Luminaries, despite some strong performances and absolutely stunning cinematography, doesn’t quite pull it off. The series is based on Eleanor Catton’s award-winning 2013 novel of the same name; the author also wrote the series, but as she veers from certain elements of her book, the ideas don’t translate into a rewarding television adaptation. There are enough seeds planted for all the genres the show explores, but none of these ideas get the attention they need to flourish.

ALSO:

• The Luminaries is enchanting and enthralling: "Star-crossed lovers. Wheels of Fortune. The alignment of planets. Striking gold, and using toxic mercury to extract the pure metal from ore," says Judy Berman. "Debt, and its tendency to yoke the naive to the corrupt. Twins, siblings, doubles, assumed names, mistaken identities. Free will and fate. These are the metaphors and motifs of The Luminaries, an enchanting, enthralling miniseries based on Eleanor Catton’s Booker-winning 2013 novel, that will finally debut stateside via Starz on Feb. 14." She adds: "It’s remarkable that the miniseries, which distills a novel of more than 800 pages to just six hours of screen time, retains such thematic depth."
• The Luminaries is neither a coherent adaptation of a perhaps unadaptable novel nor a series that can fully stand on its own
• It took seven years and 300 drafts to adapt The Luminaries for television: "As enticing as it might have been in the abstract, it also presented obvious technical challenges: the book clocked in at a heaving 800 pages, followed a Dickensian assortment of nearly 20 main characters, and used an elaborate narrative format inspired by the signs of the zodiac," says Meredith Blake. Director and executive producer Claire McCarthy adds: "The joke between us was that The Luminaries was impossible to make."
• The Luminaries star Eve Hewson -- who's been spending the pandemic with her parents, U2's Bono and activist Ali Hewson -- can't discuss her top-secret Behind Her Eyes Netflix series