The Midwich Cuckoos, a Sky screen adaptation of the legendary 1957 novel by John Wyndham was released on Sky (and accompanying streaming service NOW) last week, Jun 2, 2022. Previously, the novel has been adapted twice before, and this is perhaps the most disappointing adaptation overall.
What is The Midwich Cuckoos about?
The Midwich Cuckoos follows an unexpected event in a small town named Midwich wherein one day, all of the residents within the town seemingly fall unconscious. When they awaken, they find that all of the women of child bearing age within the town have mysteriously fallen pregnant — even those that have not had sex recently. What ensues is a 7 episode long wherein the mystery of how the women fell pregnant unfolds. At times, there are elements of suspense, but also elements of pretty poor acting from the cast overall; nonetheless, the suspense and desire to find out more outweighs the poor acting from some of the cast.
What’s interesting too see, however, is that the creators have brought the series up to date with modern ideals. Gone are the homogenous characters of all blond-haired kids and, instead, the creators brought ordinary, mixed characteristic kids with a much more rounded and grounded feel.
The series is quite fast paced, but slow in some places. For example, there are several flash forwards, sometimes months or years in length that shows the kids growing at a much more rapid pace than usual. I’ll applaud the directors on this one, and the flash-forwards are pretty decent in comparison with what has been seen from other series of the same nature. Unfortunately, however, the script drags out several of the key elements which is sometimes a bit annoying. This drags out the series to 7 episode which, if I’m totally honest, could have been shortened which would’ve been sweeter and perhaps a little better than the 7 episodes we got.
The Music
The Midwich Cuckoos is accompanied by a pretty good score, with solid orchestral chimes and suspenseful music which accompanies some of the most important and visually striking elements of the series as a whole. On the topic of graphics, the special effects are pretty solid, but aren’t anything out of the ordinary or anything special — after all, this is a Sky production, and not one of their best, so don’t expect anything major.
Overall, I’d say The Midwich Cuckoos is a good watch, but don’t expect anything major. If you’re going into watching the show with comparisons to the other productions based on the 1957 novel, then don’t. You might be disappointed.
You can check out The Midwich Cuckoos over on Sky, here.
