Series review - Lord of the Flies on Netflix

The series is a four-part one adapted by Jack Thorne (creator of "Adolescence" which was another great four-series), based on the William Golding novel.

I saw the original 1963 black and white film, presented as a documentary, and it was very good. There was a 1990 film with the cast being American but I didn't see that one. I think it works better with British boys because of the more obvious class system in Great Britain.
The four leads are very, very good. For three of them, this is their first filmed work; all have been in plays.
I will note that the series changes the timing of a couple of events from the book but I had no problem with that. It also adds one thing that gets some of the boys more involved in looking different from the other boys.
The tension starts early and does not let up. Some of what happens still shocks.
As Thorne says:
“As a society, we’re having a conversation right now about boys,” he says. “We’re losing a generation of boys, and we’re losing it because of the hate they are ingesting — because it is an answer to their loneliness and isolation.”
Upon rereading Golding’s book as an adult, Thorne was struck by the “tender portrait” of “very complicated boys having a complicated relationship with their status and anger.” The story, he says, is a distillation of our contemporary problem."
I absolutely agree with him. 

As to allowing kids to watch, I would say no younger than 10. I think it would be a scary thing for younger kids to even contemplate - surviving a plane crash and it appears no adults are coming to help you. Plus, it has some frightening acts of violence.

I would also recommend watching with your child, even if a teenager, if only to gauge their reactions at certain points. There are no girls in this nor do the boys ever talk about girls. I still think it would be a series girls could be interested in watching if only to consider what they think a group of girls would do. 

(There is a Showtime series, Yellowjackets, that does explore that theme but at great length and with supernatural overtones.)


Recommended.

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