The Mysterious Benedict Society - Season 1 (2021) Review
Anyone ever tried Eggs Benedict? Recently tried it and my goodness is it good!! The poached egg covered with hollandaise sauce that’s is slowly soaking up the muffin that holds it all together....absolutely delicious.
Plot: Four gifted orphans are recruited by an eccentric benefactor to go on a secret mission; placed undercover at a boarding school known as The Institute, they must foil a nefarious plot with global ramifications.
Being brought up in a Russian family, I have missed out on a lot of western media and literature that many kids back then of my generation would have enjoyed. So it’s a rare case when I come across an adaptation of something I’ve actually read as a kid, and as such get the nostalgic feels for. In cometh The Mysterious Benedict Society, a new family friendly show on Disney+ based on the first book of a series by writer Trenton Lee Stewart. I remember as a child reading these books in my school’s library (as at home I only read Russian novels like War & Peace at that very young age!) and actually imagining how good these books would be as films. They had such colourful characters and such heart and the story had this element of spy-espionage to it, but because it was about kids it made one feel like they themselves too could too have the skills and special capabilities and be something great. No matter how weird or how much of an outcast you were or are, there’s always a place in the world for your weird or quirky nature. They were really inspiring and fun books, so I was so happy to hear now many many years down the line that they finally have adapted these books. Or at least the first one, let’s hope they got enough of a viewership to garner further seasons.
What a show this is. Talk about faithful adaptations!! You can tell how much love and passion the writers and producers of the show have for their source material, as this is a pretty straight forward book to screen adaptation. Yes there are minor additions and changes here and there, but overall this thing is devoted to please fans of the original book, but also welcome new ones into the fold. The minor changes mainly include that the villain isn’t in a wheelchair anymore, which is actually for the better to avoid any old-school villain stereotypes, and also Mr Benedict and his team get more of a prevalent role in this compared to the book where once he gives the kids their mission, him and his team kind of vanish until the end of the book. And the latter add on is evidently done to fill up the runtime of the episodes, however the characters are all so loveable that you don’t mind spending the extra time with them.
I love the way this show looks. The production design and extravagant outfits make it seem like a light version of a Wes Anderson movie. The aesthetic is that of a Willy Wonka chocolate factory with so many eye popping colours everywhere. But it is again the original book’s great narrative and characters that make this show so enjoyable. The central four orphan kids are especially good and one has to wonder where Hollywood producers keep churning out these talented child actors! Do they have a machine in a secret lab in Area 51 where upon a film studio’s request another special kid can be created that has the ability to manoeuvre their facial expressions with distinct precision and also deliver lines of dialogue with believable emotionally filled resonance? Nevertheless, the kids here are fantastic, which is good, since, you know, you kind of spend most of the show with them. But the adults are not to be missed either. Tony Hale, who is most known to all for his dumb and simple minded caricature Buster Bluth in Arrested Development, is sure to surprise in his double performance as the charming and sincere titular Mr Benedict, and the opposite sinister villain Mr Curtain, who I found to be a surprisingly menacing presence. Mr Benedict’s team also includes characters played by Kristen Schaal and MaaMeyaa Boafo both of whom fit in well with the quirkiness of the series, but it is Ryan Hurst as the sad and lost Milligan who provides most of the laughs as he captures the steadfastness beneath the weirdness.
At the end of the day the reason the show does so well is cause it recaptures the central themes and underlying messages of the original books so well. From the importance of how trauma and guilt can affect us later in life to the isolation felt from any neurodiversity that one may have outside what is considered the "norm" of society. Each person, mainly the kids, feels the impact of their world and expectations in different ways. From being unaware of bluntness in social interactions to hyper-fixations, the series shows the beautiful parts of neurodivergent minds while also exploring the ways society aims at taking that and moulding it into their concept of perfection. The power of an observant mind, empathy, and acknowledgment of the beauty in the ways that people's minds work differently from one another is all wrapped up wonderfully in this series. And that’s as deep as I’ll ever get in my reviews. Like phew, I sounded like a professional psychoanalyst just then. Too much. That was too much for my tiny little brain to handle! Any-how, The Mysterious Benedict Society - go watch it so we can get a season 2!
