Watching the MT production of Charles Dickens' Bleak House was an eight hour commitment, but since it was broken up over several weeks (much like Dickens' own stories were published in installments), it went by quickly, and I was able to look forward to each viewing more and more as the weeks went on.

Bleak House is one of my favorite novels by Dickens, with quite a few stories all going on at once. While containing plenty of drama, it's the novel that I think we can hear Dickens "telling it like it is" more strongly than I've seen in his other stories. Many different aspects of London are focused on, including the judicial system, street life, debts, sickness and medical efforts, politics of the wealthy, servants, and military life. You might say that Bleak House pretty much has everything, and this adaptation does a very good job of capturing everything Dickens closely noticed in his novel.

I really enjoyed the performances from everyone all around. The casting was perfect, especially the choice of Anna Maxwell Martin as Esther. It was also wonderful to see Gillian Andereson on my screen again, with dark brown hair as a very compelling Lady Dedlock. She actually made me care for a character about whom I was very impartial when I read the book. I love seeing Dickens' oddball characters come to life as well, and Mr. Smallweed, Mr. Guppy, and Mr. Skimpole are all wonderfully played as terrible or miserable people.

A few stylistic choices of note are that there were some rather jarring camera movements and angles that seemed very oddly used in this type of production, although none were bad enough to make me like the movie any less.

All in all, a great adaptation and worth the watch! (Oh, by the way, while Bleak House may have its darker focuses, it's probably the least bleak of Dickens' stories--although some might find beginning it a bleak prospect, as it runs about 1200 pages in length!)