Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit is anchored by an extraordinary performance by one of England's best actors. And like "Twist," that central performance is only one of many elements that make Dorrit not only terrific entertainment, but, in some ways, perhaps even better than its source material.

Dorrit is a gripping whodunit, a grand romance, and a timely rags-to-riches-and-back-again tale of financial corruption.

Andrew Davies, who made 2006's Bleak House one of the best TV shows of the year, crafts another superb script, with characters and incidents squeezing out the sides, just the thing to satisfy close observers, which anyone joining this maxi mini-series should be.

There's so much gaudy talent on display here that those with an appetite for it won't be able to get enough, and Little Dorrit gives them everything they could want in a big, gloriously messy package.

Little Dorrit is the closest TV has to a sure thing: a relatively short-term investment with a satisfyingly large payoff.

All in all, this is a dynamic, addictive rendition of a complicated novel that catches the spirit of Dickens' "roaring streets" where "the noisy and the eager, and the arrogant and the froward and the vain, fretted and chafed, and made their usual uproar."

Little Dorrit has so many virtues--indelible performances, stirring pathos, and an emotional and psychological heft unusual for Dickens--that you can forgive its one significant flaw.