"The Artful Dodger" is back for a second season, another fun romp through 1850s Australia with a couple of Charles Dickens characters. After narrowly escaping the noose in the opening sequence, Jack Dawkins finds himself back under the influence of his old mentor Fagin, and forbidden from seeing his lady love, Belle Fox. Belle's manipulative mother, Lady Jane (Susie Porter), is bribing her with Jack's freedom and a potential medical career if the two of them stay apart, but of course Belle breaks her promise almost immediately. Much sneaking around and angsty love declarations commence. New characters this year include Belle's untrustworthy uncle Dickie (Jeremy Sims), a hunky new Inspector, Boxer (Luke Bracey), and Tim Minchin as a villainous harbor master, Cracksworth. We also see more of Belle's younger sister Fanny (Lucy-Rose Leonard), who discovers a talent for criminality.
There's a breezy irreverence to "The Artful Dodger" that makes it very easy to watch. Despite the subplots about plagues and criminal schemes and even a serial killer on the loose, the show stays lighthearted and very entertaining throughout. It's operating by the tried-and-true rules of more old-fashioned serials, where the lovers will always come back together in the end, despite being tested and pulled apart at every turn, and an old trickster like Fagin will always land on his feet, no matter how unlikely the circumstances. I find I don't mind the paper-thin plotting and the characters whose hearts can be swayed with the flimsiest arguments, because the show is so good about delivering satisfying emotional moments and everyone looks like they're enjoying themselves so much. I might grouse about David Thewlis being way too good for this material, but he's clearly having a ball with Fagin's florid patter and questionable hygiene.
The show is not a cheap production with its period setting, elaborate costuming, ambitious art direction, and frequent action and chase sequences, so we were lucky to get a second season at all. I suspect that the budget was a little more generous this time around, at least when it came to the money for music licensing. The needledrops are a lot more prominent this year. I was hoping we would get more of the Australian interior and indigenous characters in a second season, but this is not the case. Fagin's regular conspirators include locals Rotty (Brigid Zengeni), Flashbang (Aljin Abella) and Aputi (Albert Latailakepa), who are mostly comic relief, and though there's a lot of discussion about the unexplored Australian outback, the show never leaves Port Victory.
Instead, more of the spotlight is given over to the underutilized female characters. Lady Jane emerges as a primary villain, the one who's really running the show instead of the governor. Fanny gets her own love interest with her uncle's assistant Phineas (Zac Burgess), and then has a delightful arc where she embraces the dark side and decides Fagin and company are her new "bohemian friends." And while "Artful Dodger" does prominently feature the clinic, and medical procedures are still central to many episodes, there's less of a focus on surgery and medical mysteries. I'd go so far as to say that you could characterize the first season as a medical show, but not the second, which is shifting towards period romantic melodrama. Not that I'm complaining.
The show also moves even farther away from its Dickensian origins, though Uriah Heep (Benedict Hardie) becomes a recurring character this season, as a representative of the East India Company. Fagin is still pulling schemes left and right, and the rich-poor divide is a major theme, but the character dynamics have changed since the first season. Jack is rarely in danger of falling back into his criminal ways, and stays very committed to Belle. His relationship with Fagin is also more unambiguously paternal, and probably too one-sided - if there's one weak spot in this year, it's that Jack and Fagin don't get enough scenes together.
All in all this was a nice surprise, probably one that only happened because of the new Australian streaming quotes for local content. We might get a third season as well, but this season wraps up well enough that I won't be disappointed if we don't.
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