Netta Ulaby

I did not have the same response to the Golding original.

As a horror lover, he was a portal into a very scary world that I couldn't get enough of.

And I associate Golding with Shirley Jackson and Stephen King as one of these writers who just has this ability to stir up dread in the pit of your stomach.

And the menace just steams off the page for me with Golding.

This adaptation, with the characters, you know, I think it's very telling.

I felt lectured to by this miniseries.

The very first image we see is Piggy reaching for his glasses.

Can you guess what the glasses represent?

Like, there you go.

It's right there.

One of the first things Piggy does in the book is he evacuates himself.

He has terrible diarrhea from the fruit.

And that's the kind of like grossness that the book like traffics in.

This is a clean adaptation.

I agree with you about the child performances.

And I was listening to the Morning Edition interview with Jack Thorne, whose adolescence, by the way, I loved.

And he really identifies with the character of Simon, who's the sort of mystical one who has these ecstatic visions.

And his interior life is by far the most interesting of the boys.

And it's so polished.

One of the notes I had for myself is it's like a costume drama.