Drama
A Man in Full
Talent and intrigue ultimately can’t cloak the truth about this vulgar, crass and graphic drama on Netflix.
Jack Dawkins is in a tough spot.
Once upon a time, he led a street gang in London, headed by master thief (and Jack’s father figure) Fagin. Jack earned some notoriety as a crook and soon became known as “The Artful Dodger.”
But then Jack took a young Oliver Twist under his wing, hoping to turn the orphan into a pickpocket. Instead, Oliver got Jack caught with a stolen silver snuffbox. And the last we saw of ol’ Dodge in Charles Dickens’ classic novel Oliver Twist, he’d been arrested and was getting sent to a penal colony.
But while Dickens’ tale ended there, Jack’s didn’t.
Jack managed to escape prison with the help of the very man who sent him there, Captain Grimm. Grimm was impressed by Jack’s quick fingers and set the boy up to become a surgeon in the navy.
Now, 15 years later, Jack’s serving as a doctor in one of Australia’s penal colonies (oh, the irony). He’s an officer, a gentleman and a surgeon.
But perhaps not for long.
Jack hasn’t stolen anything since the day he landed in prison, but that hasn’t kept him out of trouble. His gambling has put him on the line for 26 quid. And if he can’t pay it in time, his creditors will chop of his hand. So much for being a respected surgeon.
Jack’s about to lose everything when who should show up but the very man who was willing to let Jack rot in prison in order to save his own skin; the man who taught Jack the skills that landed him there in the first place. Fagin.
Fagin offers to steal some jewels to get Jack out of trouble, but Jack doesn’t want to return to a life of crime. Plus, he’s still upset with Fagin for abandoning him in the first place. But with time running out (and Fagin threatening to tell the authorities about Jack’s shady past), Jack gives in, and the pair make their steal.
Unfortunately, they’re spotted in their thievery by the Governor’s ambitious daughter, Lady Belle. And she blackmails Jack into hiring her as the first female surgeon at the hospital in return for not tattling.
Jack’s comfortable life is quickly unravelling. He must find a way to stop Fagin’s pilfering, convince the hospital to hire on Belle, pay off his own debts and still find a way to keep his own job as a surgeon against a jealous superior.
The Artful Dodger, streaming on Hulu, is a fun continuation of Jack Dawkins’ tale. However, the Dodge isn’t 13 anymore: He’s an adult. And being an adult comes with more grown-up problems.
First, there’s some language. Whereas the original novel included a few milder profanities, this TV-14 show has multiple uses of the s-word and some crude British terms, such as “bloody” and “sod off.” (And God’s name is abused several times, as well.)
Then there’s the carnage. Compared to modern operating rooms, the tools and methods used on patients in Jack’s day are practically barbaric. Legs are amputated, blood spills off the table onto the floor, and at one point, we see a cat eating a dismembered finger.
What’s worse is that the doctors are often too busy competing with each other to deliver the needed care. Operating rooms become a spectacle. A patient dies when Jack’s drunken superior takes over a surgery and cuts the wrong artery in his addled state. (He then has the gall to blame Jack for distracting him.) And when the doctors are presented with better methods of surgery and diagnosis, most are too scared of failure to consider the treatments.
Add on to that some sensuality. We don’t see anything too scandalous onscreen. But Jack asks a woman to remove her dress so he can examine her properly, and the scene is paired with music that suggests the pair are attracted to one another. (She wears a thin undergarment that covers her entirely. And though Jack is completely professional, he must reach under the garment to effectively use a stethoscope.) In another scene, a married woman asks Jack to examine her, using her hands to move his up her thigh.
And of course, we can’t forget all the larceny. Theft is rewarded with a noose if you’re caught. But really, it wouldn’t be a story about the Artful Dodger without picking a pocket or two.
Jack Dawkins, now a respected surgeon, finds his life turned upside down when his old mentor, Fagin, turns up hoping to entice Jack back to a life of crime.
The people living in the penal colony have a macabre sense of entertainment. Crowds gather to watch an escaped convict hang (and children rush to take his boots once he’s dead). Folks swarm to watch bloody surgeries. Audiences aren’t spared either, since we see limbs chopped off, shattered bones, blood spurting and every other fleshy bit of gore that comes with archaic forms of operation. (And at one point, we see a cat eating a dismembered finger.)
The violence doesn’t stop there. Jack is punched in the face several times by a thug. (Though the thug does apologize since he’s only fulfilling his duties.) And harsh punishments are doled out for even the mildest of crimes. One woman is sentenced to death for stealing a chicken, but she’s saved from the noose by the governor’s kind wife, who intercepts the death order. Another is rescued by Jack, who sends the woman to work at the local school after she was arrested for stealing baby clothes in London. (The baby tragically died on the passage from England to Australia.) In a flashback, Jack is smacked and kicked by a prison guard for stealing the man’s flask.
An anatomical drawing of a woman’s womb includes her exposed breasts. A woman wears a low-cut gown. Another woman (who is married) uses her hands to move Jack’s hands up her thigh during an examination. Belle removes her dress and we see her in an underdress, which covers her fully but is rather thin. (And during an examination Jack reaches under the garment with a stethoscope.) Because society demands that older siblings marry before younger ones, Belle’s sister begs her to wed soon since she desires “sexual union.” Jack says Fagin looks like a “syphilitic scarecrow.”
Fagin steals small items throughout the show. Jack finally agrees to help him steal a ruby necklace. And when they’re nearly caught, Belle helps them avoid detection before blackmailing Jack into making her a surgeon. (Jack is also blackmailed by Fagin into giving him a better penal assignment.)
People lie, gamble, smoke pipes and drink. Nurses try in vain to prevent a drunken doctor from operating, but he takes over the surgery anyway and kills the patient. (Jack is later blamed for this.) Belle is rude to a suitor. A man is chastised by his wife for critiquing marriage.
A woman blasphemes by saying Christ’s words are precious and then trying to seduce Jack (she wears a cross necklace and we see several crosses in her home). Fagin, attempting to win Jack back, says he felt so badly about Jack’s imprisonment that he prayed to God for death. Jack says that the biggest risk to surgeons is the addiction to feeling like God.
When Jack tells a woman that Fagin was kicked in the head by a mule, she encourages Jack to beat Fagin since it can be “quite nourishing” to the mentally addled. Jack tricks Fagin into sniffing and licking a patient’s sputum. A woman says that fox hunting is barbaric and cruel. We learn a doctor hasn’t properly examined a sick woman because he’s scared of getting the diagnosis wrong.
There are a few uses each of the s-word, “h—,” and the British expletives “bloody” and “sod off.” God’s name is abused about six times, and someone exclaims “Jehovah!”
Jack has great bedside manner. Though he performs for the crowds that gather in the operating room, he speaks to his patients in softer tones, reassuring them that he will save their lives.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
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