Critics deem Netflix’s adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All The Light We Cannot See a “terrible mess” and slam the “almost uniformly bad” acting
Netflix’s adaptation of All the Light We Cannot See has been labeled a “terrible mess,” a “one-way ticket to Triteland,” and a “star-studded dude.”
Unimpressed critics branded the historical drama, which is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, a “horrendous failure.”
Directed by Shawn Levy, the show stars Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie, along with acclaimed German actors Louis Hofmann and Lars Eidinger.
But much of the fan buzz for the show has centered around its lead actress, Aria Mia Loberti, who is blind like the character she plays.
However, if the reactions of the reviewers are anything to go by, the expected hit sank against the weight of expectations.
The novel and subsequent series follow two opposing characters, a blind French girl and a German youth who becomes a soldier because of his skill with radio technology. Pictured: Aria Mia Loberti in the show
The guardLucy Mangan said the show had “all the subtlety of ‘Allo, ‘Allo!’ while Michael Hogan came out with the ‘sanitized’ adaptation for The Telegraph.
Elsewhere, The independentNick Hilton denounced the viewing experience for its “tweeification of horror.”
The novel, written by American author Anthony Doerr, was a hit with critics, who applauded its lyrical writing style.
All the Light We Cannot See was also a huge commercial success, leading to dozens of reprints after the initial print run sold out. By the end of 2021, the book has sold more than 15 million copies.
It was subsequently awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as that year’s Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was also one of the shortlisted selections competing for the National Book Award.
The novel and subsequent series follow two opposing characters, a blind French girl and a German youth who becomes a soldier because of his skill with radio technology.
Directed by Shawn Levy, the show stars Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie, along with acclaimed German actors Louis Hofmann (pictured) and Lars Eidinger.
Lucy Mangan of The Guardian said the show had “all the subtlety of ‘Allo, ‘Allo!’ while Michael Hogan hit out at the ‘sanitized’ edit for The Telegraph
The girl (Loberti) directs secret anti-Nazi broadcasts on a secret radio system with the help of her uncle (Hugh Laurie), while Ruffalo plays her father.
But as she tries to fight the Nazi occupation, the young soldier – who has been conscripted against his will – is tasked with uncovering the source of her transmissions.
THE GUARDIAN
The guard‘ Lucy Mangan has argued about the ‘terrible mess’ of a show, which has ‘all the subtlety of ‘Allo, ‘Allo!’.
“Prepare for twee acting, a sad script and accents that become swear words,” she wrote in a review.
The critic took issue with the “almost uniformly bad” acting and dialogue that is “getting progressively worse.”
She also says that the program – despite being beautifully filmed – loses all nuance, giving it two out of five stars.
Maybe this superficial, self-indulgent mess would have looked more favorable if war hadn’t just broken out again in the real world,” Lucy added. “But those are the breaks.”
THE TELEGRAPH
Michael Hogan, from The Telegraphgave the show two out of five stars as he accused Netflix of “reducing a Pulitzer winner to a hackneyed, turgid mess.”
“It’s epic, it has stars… and it’s as subtle as a doodlebug,” he wrote.
‘Steven Knight and Shawn Levy have dressed Anthony Doerr’s masterpiece in toffee.’
He said the inherently dark nature of the source material was adapted to be “more optimistic,” which ultimately feels “preachy, sanitized and sentimental.”
Elsewhere, Michael also felt that characters with developed, nuanced arcs in the novel are flattened into “rudimentary strokes” on screen.
THE INDEPENDENT
The independentNetflix’s Nick Hilton called All the Light We Cannot See a “shonky, star-studded dude” and gave it two out of five stars.
In addition to actor Lars Eidinger’s portrayal of Reinhold von Rumpel – a Nazi searching for a legendary diamond to cure his terminal cancer – which is “straight out of the Indiana Jones playbook,” he also found the show’s structure flawed .
“The problems of the adaptation are rooted in the problems of the book,” he said.
‘The structure, which is non-linear and follows Marie and Werner both individually and together, is easier to follow over 544 pages than four 50-minute episodes.’
He was also critical of the ‘twoification of horror’.
“Much has been made of the tactless use of war and genocide as mere backdrop in films like ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,'” Nick said. ‘This new adaptation arises from the same aesthetic impulse.’
FINANCIAL TIMES
Then Einav, from the Financial timesfelt that Netflix’s All the Light We Cannot See leaves “little room for nuance or ambiguity”, as he gave it two out of five stars.
The critic opined that director Shawn Levy and showrunner Steven Knight tempered the complex and nuanced source material, instead “bulldozing through author Anthony Doerr’s complicated, elegiac text” to present viewers with “a piece of melodrama built on expensive production and cheap sentimentality’.
He felt that the script felt both “overwritten” and “easy”, which did a disservice to the book’s central theme, which focuses on the beauty of things that are not inherently obvious.
“The series takes the easier option of telling rather than showing,” Dan said.
RADIO TIMES
Morgan Cormack gave the show two out of five stars Radio times.
She felt like it fell into the trap of storytelling, rather than showing the emotional impact of the stories.
“It’s the kind of series that, just by its premise, is quite poetic and metaphorical,” the writer said.
“But the series suffers from periods of lengthy dialogues and discussions about things we should actually see for ourselves.”
Morgan also found that the very real, heavy history at the heart of the drama is left undeveloped.