Great Expectations finds a perfect balance in crafting a faithful adaptation while recognizing the necessity of change. ... Whether this is someone’s first introduction to this piece of bildungsroman or the tenth adaptation they have consumed, they will find joy, sorrow, and beauty in what Steven Knight has constructed.

The set design is impeccable and the cast is exceptional. ... True representation is tricky and demands much self-interrogation on the part of screenwriters and viewers. Either way, as a thought experiment Great Expectations is certainly worth the pursuit.

Colman is her predictably excellent self; there is a risk she will reduce everything else to filler while viewers await her next mesmerising appearance.

In expanding the story the way he has, and giving far more room to characters who were perfectly Dickensian in their economy, Mr. Knight has lost much of the subtle psychology—especially regarding Havisham. ... Dickens was pretty adept at providing just as much about a character as was needed to make his point. Mr. Knight gives us more, and the point becomes elusive.

I did not love it. To be honest, I struggled to see the point of it, or much that was even very striking in the opening episode. When there have been so many adaptations of a great novel you need something remarkable to justify another, something beyond a stark opening suicide attempt and throwing in the F-word in at 21 minutes (the swearing doesn’t bother me since I’m fairly confident it happened quite a lot in Dickensian times, but it has got some people in a lather).

Only Miss Havisham pops off the screen, making this an adaptation lacking in a certain balance. ... Miss Havisham’s mansion — cluttered with detritus, almost impassably full of objects — may come to feel like a fitting device on a show on which a couple of breakthrough performances are surrounded by unmetabolized narrative clutter.

Except for some fine work by Olivia Colman as the iconic Miss Havisham, the embittered puppeteer who wreaks vengeful havoc on our hero Pip, I was by turns irritated and bored.