The Midwich Cuckoos provides suspense but not spectacular thrills.The Midwich Cuckoos is inspired by the 1957 science fiction book by British author John Wyndham. The story will also look familiar to observant movie fans. The book has already been filmed under the title Village of the Damned (1960 and 1995). This modern adaptation turns it into an exciting contemporary translation. This time no children with striking white hair, but children who look just like all the other children. The fact that they possess something menacingly peculiar makes it extra exciting.
Something strange and scary is going on.
The citizens of Midwich are suddenly overcome by a moment of deep sleep or unconsciousness. When the authorities want to intervene, they find out that no one can reach the crime scene. Anyone attempting to enter the area faints. Just as quickly as the phenomenon begins, it also ends. The citizens of Midwich wake up without anyone realizing what has really happened. If after this episode it turns out that the women are pregnant and have a feeling that they have been visited by an entity, the village is shielded from the rest of the world.
The children that are born seem ordinary but possess strange powers. These forces become more and more emphatic as they get older. Something strange and scary is going on. The parents feel pressure from their own children to take actions that they normally would not do. The game between love on the one hand and threat on the other is becoming too much for many residents of Midwich. Framed and guarded by the government, however, there is no escape for them. The tension is rising, the threat is getting bigger and bigger. So the question is where this will all lead.
British television knows very well how to tell stories like this. By using contemporary time, the story comes close to the viewer. The protagonists are people you can encounter every day. They just ended up in a very strange situation. The pressure and fear this produces feels natural. Sometimes the story is aided by a coincidence or imperfection. The question why one child is completely under the spell of the apparently evil force and the other is not remains only partly answered. It does ensure that the story has a nicely rounded ending.
The imagery and the acting performances are again perfectly fine.
The imagery and the acting performances are again perfectly fine. As we are used to from British productions. The modern techniques ensure that more is possible than in the earlier film adaptations of the book. Yet they have not opted for an excess of CGI. It helps the story as this is more about suspense and suspense than brutal violence or gory horror. The Midwich Cuckoos knows how to build up the tension well. The series will feel like too slow for some people. This is done purely to deepen the story and the characters. The series has a nicely rounded end. That is a positive thing in this age of unfinished series. Fans of the genre should definitely give this series a shot.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
