Black Narcissus

At times it’s an uneven mix of cultural period piece, forbidden romances and horror film, but it will hold your interest over the course of its binge-worthy, three-episode arc, and leave you hopeful for a follow-up, as the stories of Sister Clodagh, Mr. Dean and others are brimming with potential for further adventures.

"Black Narcissus" is enchanting and heady, and most people will be perfectly fine living without it.

The script, by Amanda Coe (The Trial of Christine Keeler), was mostly high quality, taut, lean and restrained.

It is succinct and well-told in the three hour-long episodes all due Monday at 8 p.m. on FX (and the next day on Hulu). But there are characters and themes that certainly could have benefited from intelligent expansion. ... Sure, three episodes of “Black Narcissus” is great, but I suspect that four might have been even better.

Too long to be a movie and too short to satisfy as a miniseries, this “Black Narcissus” dabbles in being all of the above, and, alas, doesn’t fully succeed at any of them. But it doesn't deserve a thumbs-down review, either. Thanks to some excellent and at times gripping performances — especially from its lead, Gemma Arterton — “Black Narcissus” remains intriguing while never quite getting to the point of riveting.

The result is visually beautiful. The series is solidly acted, occasionally expansive and never something I would ever choose to watch again rather than just checking in on the old friend that is the 1947 film.

Psychologically intense and erotically charged, Black Narcissus doesn't entirely resist the temptation of lurid melodrama, but Diana Rigg brings a little dignity in one of her last roles, as the mother Superior who sends them off. [23 Nov - 6 Dec 2020, p.11]

As a cross between Sofia Coppola’s version of “The Beguiled” and Martin Scorsese’s “Silence,” “Black Narcissus” works, but anyone craving legitimate spookiness should look elsewhere.

If you squint hard, you may see an allegory emerging from the sight of the white Christians imposing their ways and means on a populace that was managing perfectly well without them. But, for the most part, it feels as if they are just playing at it.

“Black Narcissus” is a beautiful production but its melancholic tone is a hard sell to keep audiences sustained over three episodes.

As could be expected from a collaboration between FX and the BBC, “Black Narcissus” is a handsome production that takes itself seriously. But it’s also ultimately and frustratingly, a bloodless one that doesn’t quite know how to get hearts racing like its tenuous premise requires.

We’re left with plot points from the novel explained in more detail than in Powell and Pressburger’s film, a novelistic but unexciting take on the material.

“Black Narcissus” too often spins its wheels, and then, somewhat like the original, hurtles towards its dark ending. Whereas that ending was enhanced by Powell & Pressburger’s amplified use of color and dread in the second half of the film, here it feels like a different show.

It ought to be a slow burn, but instead it just feels slow. Dame Diana deserved a finer farewell. She’ll be missed.