He wore large round glasses with silver reflective lenses, so that his eyes couldn’t be seen his cheeks and chin were reddened by a recent shave and his nose was large and lumpy, like a vegetable.Ĭarson Ellis’s illustration of Mr. Curtain was snugged into the padded chair with a seat belt across his chest and lap, and the chair rolled so quickly that his thick white hair flew back from his head. Curtain, meanwhile, is given an adopted son in a high-tech, super-fast motorized wheelchair, and Stewart describes him this way: The literary version deliberately plays on the ambivalence the four kids now feel at having trusted him. The depiction of Curtain himself is yet another radical departure from the book. By making him Curtain’s son, the show is very hurriedly making explicit an aspect of their relationship that was much more subtly drawn out in the written series-once again, perhaps losing patience or drawing out its contrasts too sharply. at once, but in what little screen time we’ve gotten of him thus far, he seems rather different from the good-natured, clumsy, befuddled figure Stewart wrote. Benedict serves as a surrogate father figure to the members of the Society, all orphans, though the series has rushed this process some. The most obvious is the dichotomy between the brothers, Benedict and Curtain. The series clearly keeps some of that, and episode three is slow-paced for a kids’ show, but it cannot match the incremental quality of the first novel.Įven more than the earlier episodes, “Depends on the Wagon” takes some of the book’s character nuances and throws them into stark relief. ![]() Written in 2007, Trenton Lee Stewart’s novel feels like a throwback to a much earlier era of writing, demanding patience of its readers with some sizable chapters, lengthy descriptions, and verbose dialogue. That same reviewer, however, also castigates the series for “feel too slow for both adolescent and adult viewers alike,” but while it certainly might be gradual by contemporary television standards, it still moves too quickly and shows too many cards too soon relative to the book. At times it seems the writers can’t wait to reveal their big moments. At least one reviewer has noted that the show “needs more mysteries and fewer answers,” and this point is well-taken. look as though they’ve stepped right off the TED-talk stage, and this satire gives the show some bite.This highlights one of the show’s problems, which I briefly suggested earlier: its impatience. Benedict’s long-lost twin brother.Ĭurtain and his fellow instructors at L.I.V.E. ![]() While the four members of the Society are suitably shocked, episode 3-called “Depends on the Wagon”-wastes little time in establishing the basic solution to this mystery: Mr. However, even for the few audience members left to experience this twist, its impact may have been a bit muted: though Benedict and Curtain are in fact both played by Tony Hale, they are styled so differently that some kids might have missed the doubling effect. Benedict who first brought the show’s child heroes together. Curtain, founder of the state-of-the-art academy L.I.V.E., is an apparent double of the very Mr. Truth, Empathy (and Virtue?) (Episodes 1 and 2)įor those unfamiliar with the book and who hadn’t already seen the trailer, episode 2 ended with the shocking reveal that mysterious Mr. ![]() This column will recap and analyze each episode, and it will contain spoilers for the show and the corresponding novel.** ![]() CBR **Disney Plus is airing the first season of The Mysterious Benedict Society, based on Trenton Lee Stewart’s book series.
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