The Artful Dodger (2023) is a period piece about a surgeon in Australia, trying to repay his debt and stay away from his past. The show stars Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Maia Mitchell, David Thewlis, and Damon Herriman. It takes place in the 1800's in Australia during the British Empire. The show currently has one season, eight episodes, and is available to stream on Hulu and Disney +.
Jack Dawkins/Dodger (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) is a criminal turned surgeon who escaped London, England to Australia for a fresh start from pickpocketing and execution. Lady Belle (Maia Mitchell) is the Govenors Daughter who is passionate about medicine and hopes to become the first female surgeon in the colony. He meets Lady Belle on the street, when her carriage accidently ran over a childs leg. From there she finds out about his past and blackmails him to tutor her to become the first female surgeon in the colony or she goes to the police. Jack is trying to repay his debts with his old mentor, Fagin (David Thewlis) that made it to the colony from London, as a prisoner. The show goes through different medical cases each episode and introduces new medicine practices, such as ether, currently known as anesthesia, and carbolic acid, medicine to disinfect patient's wounds.
All of the scenarios were very in theme with how everything was in the 1800's from the costumes to the historical medicinal practices. It was pretty scary to see how people lived in that time. How crimes were punished by public execution or shipment of prisoners to wastelands such as Australia and Canada, and how surgeries were perfomed without anesthsia. There was no chance of survival or improved quality of life from any injury. There were multiple cases shown that involved amputation or no sense of knowing what they were doing inside the body. To see how Lady Belle changed the hospital and how patients were cared for was so powerful because she is a woman in a time where women aren't taken seriously, taking charge of a man's job. I think the show really promoted women working in that time where that's not really true.
The relationships between the characters were also fun to see. My personal favorite was obviously Jack and Belle. I'm a sucker for romance and theirs is amazing. The second one that's great is Jack and the officer, Captain Gaines (Damon Herriman). The villan story as well was captivating to watch. Watching them battling each other was intense because obviously you don't want the best surgeon in the colony to be arrested and hung to death. The Duel over Lady Belle as well was so fun to watch cause it's just her being grossed out by them and then saving them from each other.
There wasn't any promotion I feel for this show. I only found out about it after it was released by fans of the show online. Because of finals, I haven't really been able to get into a new show and it was a little hard at first to get into the show, but then I got used to the one hour episodes again and really enjoyed the story. Especially when Jack and Lady Belle start working together.
I want a season two. It would be so nice to see Jack and Belle's relationship grow and potential storylines such as Jack practicing in the shadows away from the police and Belle helping him or Jack still stealing because he can't make a living off of being a surgeon. I don't really see them using Jack stealing as a storyline because he's already imprisoned so him maybe sneaking out of prison and working quietly on the outskirts of town with Belle trying to clear his name with her dad, the Governor.
Overall, I really liked this show It kind of got me out of a tv slump, especially after finals. The episodes were a good length, running an hour each, with eight episodes in the season. I really hope to see how Jack continues to work since he seems to be the only one who cares about medicine and helping people.
Rating: 9/10
