Since its publication in 1954, the William Golding novel Lord of the Flies has been one of the most popular books on many high school reading lists. It’s about a group of British schoolboys who survive a plane crash on a remote island, and are forced to figure out how to sustain themselves without any adult supervision.
Two movies have been made from the story, in 1963 and 1990. Now, Netflix and the BBC present the first adaptation for television. All four episodes of this new Lord of the Flies miniseries come from the same creative team, with Jack Thorne writing for television and Marc Munden directing.
Most of the show was filmed on location in the dense rainforest of Malaysia, and Munden makes the most of it, so the series looks great. More than that, though, this TV Lord of the Flies is such a faithful rendering of the book, and relies so much upon the acting and credibility of its fresh young cast, that Thorne deserves most of the credit for trusting the source material, and his cast, and writing such an unforgettable, sometimes haunting adaptation.
The most unforgettable TV drama I’ve seen in the past few years was another four-part Netflix/BBC offering, the Emmy-winning Adolescence. That was co-written by Thorne, and Lord of the Flies can be seen as sort of a companion piece.
Adolescence, about a young boy accused of murdering a classmate, was a stark, emotional look at how social media can lead some young people towards hateful, even violent behavior. In Lord of the Flies, there’s just as disturbing a descent into violence and murder — but in this case, it’s the absence of social influences that results in savagery.
