The Artful Dodger — Catch the exciting first season before the next arrives soon

Review by C.J. Bunce

Taking an idea that sounds unusual on paper and making it into a success is the kind of accomplishment that can result in the best kind of TV series. Take the premise of The Artful Dodger, for example, which has its first season now streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ elsewhere. Jack Dawkins, the “artful dodger,” is a character from Charles Dickens’ 1838 novel Oliver Twist. The book has maintained its fame over two centuries, such that the phrase “artful dodger” has maintained its meaning as someone who uses skillful deceit to accomplish his ends like the pickpocket in the story. The TV series takes this supporting character and makes him its anti-hero lead, with his old mentor Fagin, also from the novel, along for the ride. This is a sequel faithful to its roots, a historical drama full of action and humor, also pulling in historical, scientific, medical, and technological achievements of the era while moving the characters to Australia to unveil the rest of the story, all backed by familiar modern pop music infused into instrumentation of the era. It’s a brilliantly good romp, with The Queen’s Gambit co-star Thomas Brodie-Sangster as the Dodger, and the ubiquitous David Thewlis as a bedraggled but feisty elder Fagan–both delivering the kind of performances that have earned awards and nominations. The late 2023 first season of The Artful Dodger will see its second season arrive in February 2026, so let’s get caught up before it arrives.

Brodie-Sangster’s Dodger, or “Dodge” as Thewlis’s old frenemy Fagin calls him, is savvy and sharp after escaping England following the events in the Oliver Twist novel. But the con artists in Australia can be even more savvy, as he finds when he is cheated at a card game in the opening scene, leaving him threatened with having his right arm chopped off if he doesn’t pay up promptly. A bad result for anyone, but we flash to the next scene where we find the Dodger is also a skillful surgeon. This is the grotesque and grimy world of the mid-19th century, where the idea of sterile surgery is only just taking hold. Jack siezes every opportunity to make money and that includes flipping a coin to do the surgery with a higher ranking doctor, to perform in theater in front of a crowd like a modern boxing match–some of these surgeries including a wager to beat a certain time limit.

The town is led by Troppo and Harrow actor Damien Garvey, who plays Governor Fox. Fox is a hands-off leader who is easily bribed with stolen spirits by a henchman, Captain Gaines, played by Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Quarry, The Bondsman, The Tourist, The Portable Door). This is another seething villain role for Herriman, who has perfected the form. Jessica de Gouw (Arrow) plays his wife, who is quick to leave him when she has the first chance.

But it’s Governor Fox’s daughter who is the center of most of the episodes. Maia Mitchell plays Lady Belle Fox, a well-read, modern woman who does not have aspirations to marry as her sister does, Lucy-Rose Leonard’s Lady Fanny Fox, whose only aspiration is to marry well. Belle is so well-read that she is more up to date on scientific improvements than the local medical establishment, and it is there that she encounters the Dodger, spying on his criminal sideline mischief. She uses this knowledge to blackmail Jack into letting her assist him with surgeries. Ultimately he sees her value as an expert and lets her take on her own surgery work. Mitchell becomes an equal co-lead of the series with Brodie-Sangster and Thewlis, sparring with Jack while they both grow closer. It’s not quite a “will they or won’t they,” but the relationship grows naturally over eight episodes. Lady Belle has her own sad secret that could mean a future for these characters and the show–or not.

How the heck is David Thewlis able to inhabit characters so well? He flips so easily from this boney wisened con artist as Fagin to a stalwart Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock & Daughter and back again. He’s so believable as Fagin you couldn’t possibly imagine anyone else ever playing this character. And for his part, Thomas Brodie-Sangster performs raucously and passionately, expanding beyond his slight stature to be Thewlis’s equal somehow in scene after scene. They are a great match.

A solid supporting cast fills in the rest: Kim Gyngell is the frequently intoxicated head of the hospital, Susie Porter is the governor’s wife and Belle’s mother, Nicholas Burton is the competing doctor, Brigid Zengeni is Rotty–the governor’s mistress and a local bartender of some influence, and Hal Cumpston plays a grown-up Oliver Twist.

Consider the first season of The Artful Dodger as must-watch TV. Oddly enough this show did not win top honors at home in Australia, despite it being one of its best series. Had it made it to the States in wider release in 2023, it would have challenged the year’s top awards at borg. The first season is now streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ elsewhere, with Season 2 available February 10, 2026.

Catch up with our reviews of other quality British TV series (including Australian and New Zealand shows you’d find on PBS, BritBox, or Acorn TV) beginning with our Top 10: Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Zen, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, Mr. Selfridge, Guilt, The IPCRESS File, The Hour, The Gentlemen, Black Doves, and Shetland. You could stay pretty busy with our full list of top British TV recommendations, including The Artful Dodger (which earns it’s place to debut way up here on the list), Van Der Valk, the first season of Sherlock, Deadloch, Troppo, Case Histories, This is Going to Hurt, the second season of Black Snow dragged the series from the Top 10 tier down to here, Mystery Road: Origin, Death Valley, Dept. Q, Bodkin, The Bletchley Circle, Good Cop/Bad Cop, Grace, Hinterland, Glitch, Mystery Road, Culprits, Harrow, Annika, The Day of the Jackal, Code of Silence, Luther, Professor T, and Supacell. After you’ve seen all of those, try Viva Blackpool, Marchlands, Lightfields, State of Play, I, Jack Wright, Population 11, Protection, After the Flood, Traces, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Ordeal by Innocence, Unforgotten, The Bay, Wild Bill, Quirke, Requiem, The Gloaming, The Clearing, The One, The Tourist, The Tower, Collateral, Roadkill, Stay Close, The Salisbury Poisonings, and A Confession.

Other British series across genres that are worth checking out (a few still to be reviewed here) include fun romps like Monarch of the Glen, Para Handy, Cranford, Viva Blackpool, and As Time Goes By, and cozy mysteries Rosemary and Thyme, Father Brown, Hetty Wainthropp, and Death in Paradise. One of the best of all British productions is the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, which is in our British Top 10 (and the original is good, too). Of course there’s always Doctor Who for your sci-fi fix (and spin-offs Torchwood and Class), The Watch for your fantasy fix, Truth Seekers and Sea of Souls for your supernatural fix, and Spaced for more sci-fi fun, and we really should add House, MD, for Brit lead Hugh Laurie’s one-of-a-kind performance. (We’ve also reviewed but don’t heartily recommend so much Dublin Murders, The ABC Murders, The Pale Horse, Reef Break, The One That Got Away, The Silence, The Five, The Missing, Thirteen, or Broadchurch, as well as No Offence, which could have merited a review for its first season but, like Sherlock, its later episodes were a disappointment).