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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
9
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews
IndieWireMay 14, 2018
Season 1 Review:
Beautifully produced and faithful to the original story, the miniseries also captures the joyful spirit of the novel despite its many heartaches. For every generation comes a new Little Women, but PBS’ version promises to be the go-to standard for a long time to come.
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RogerEbert.comMay 14, 2018
Season 1 Review:
Caswill and her team wisely let these performances and this great writing do most of the lifting, but rest assured that the direction, cinematography, costume and production design, and the simple but intoxicating score are all capable at worst, lovely at best, and thoughtful all the way through.
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TV Guide MagazineApr 26, 2018
Season 1 Review:
Warm and intimate, with an unforced realism that keep schmaltz to a minimum. [30 Apr - 13 May 2018, p.12]
May 14, 2018
Season 1 Review:
Once director Vanessa Caswill boils away the innocence, Little Women becomes a more substantial drama. ... While the four roles could have been played by stronger actresses, they’re fairly well-matched. Watson and Lansbury are left to carry the subtlety. Both do it well, making us long for “Older Women,” a version that views the high-strung March girls from another perspective.
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May 11, 2018
Season 1 Review:
A new two-part series, premiering Sunday on PBS’s “Masterpiece,” feels a little weak at the outset, with the story streamlined by “Call the Midwife” creator Heidi Thomas’s screenplay and arranged by director Vanessa Caswill in such a prettified way that it looks more like a “Little Women” Instagram feed than a timely interpretation. ... The performances, however, rise to the novel’s reputation.
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May 11, 2018
Season 1 Review:
There's some sense of missed opportunity in how rarely this Little Women finds a distinctive way to view and interpret the travails of the March family, especially during the second episode, which lands several required emotional punches, but mostly meanders. Still, fans of the book will be pleased with the creators' relative fidelity to the source material, and will be appreciative of the strong, generation-spanning cast.
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May 11, 2018
Season 1 Review:
What we get is a fairly faithful rendition of the book’s events that lacks the warmth and depth of feeling that make the book worth reading. There are some flat-footed attempts at lyricism, or modernization, through the intrusive use of music, or short passages when the cuts come more quickly and the camera moves in for off-center close-ups.
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May 15, 2018
Season 1 Review:
To its detriment, Little Women returns to the classic PBS “Masterpiece” style of being true to a piece of literature nearly to the point of drowning it in formaldehyde. One positive note is Caswill’s cinematography, evocative of an aesthetic that resembles Hudson River School landscape art in miniature. Woefully, the action occurring within these settings is less interesting. ... It’s fine that no alluring strangers show up, and maddening that none of Alcott’s uplifting zest does either.
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May 7, 2018
Season 1 Review:
The camera plods along, lingering on pretty shots of nature. A bee buzzes a flower. Snowflakes fall on a New England square. Brooks babble. It begins to feel less like a drama than a giveaway calendar. Skilled as the actors are, it’s difficult for them to rise above the creakiness.
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May 10, 2018
Season 1 Review:
There’s a lot to dislike about these Little Women, not least the acting. Angela Lansbury as Aunt March and Michael Gambon as Mr. Laurence provide some sparks; Jonah Hauer-King as Laurie is perfectly fine. But Ms. Hawke in particular is overly earnest, never mind obvious. ... Emotionally, this Little Women is as thin as the pond ice that Amy falls through, or Beth’s chances of making it to the next pledge break.
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