This Historical Heist Thriller TV Show With A Harry Potter Star Is A Hulu Must-Watch

As individuals living in the age of streaming, we are both blessed and cursed with a preponderance of films and TV series begging for our attention. And because the whole streaming model is predicated on streamers offering a never-ending supply of media, we often wind up with projects that leave us scratching our heads, wondering how on earth they got green-lit and who're they even meant for. Enter "The Artful Dodger," a show that I'm half-convinced was engineered in a lab specifically for me and the dozens of other weirdos who simply can't get enough of this splendid confection of a series.

What's "The Artful Dodger," you ask? For starters, it's an "Oliver Twist" spin-off about its namesake, aka Jack Dawkins, one of the many kiddos forced into a life of crime due to their circumstances in Charles Dickens' classic London-set novel. But it's also a swooning period piece romantic dramedy that deals heavily with class tensions and gender roles ... which is to say, it's something "Bridgerton" fans should absolutely get a kick out of. At the same time, it's a show that could match the acclaimed Clive Owen-led series "The Knick" when it comes to realistically portraying the ghastly nature of historical surgical practices and doing its research on niche medical topics. And did I mention it's a zany heist thriller series that touches on the European colonization of Australia (and co-stars "Harry Potter" movie franchise veteran David Thewlis)?

Again, I don't entirely understand how "The Artful Dodger" creators David Maher, James McNamara, and David Taylor got the go-ahead to begin with, much less how their series has scored multiple seasons on Hulu. Actually, that's not true: It's because this show is kind of amazing and a must-watch for anyone who thinks it sounds remotely intriguing.

They don't make 'em like this in the States. Literally: "The Artful Dodger" is not only set in and filmed in Australia, but it also features lots of creatives from the Land Down Under on both sides of the camera. It helps to give the series more attitude, from its visuals (the familiar sight of Dickensian-era townscapes with unpaved roads just hits differently when juxtaposed with the sandy surfaces and forested areas of Australia) to the aspects that might've otherwise felt overdone, like its anachronistic needle drops. (Get ready to have Wolfmother's "Joker & the Thief" stuck in your head.)

Storywise, "The Artful Dodger" follows Jack Dawkins as a young man played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster (the "Maze Runner" movie trilogy, "The Queen's Gambit," and, yes, "Love Actually"). Now putting the nimble fingers he once used as a child pickpocket in London to work as a dashing surgeon in an Australian colony in the 1850s, Jack's far from pleased when his swindling father figure, Norbert Fagin (David Thewlis), pops by and threatens to bring Jack's past to light unless he (naturally) commits more crimes for Fagin. Meanwhile, Jack finds himself falling for Lady Belle Fox (Maia Mitchell), the daughter of the colony's governor and a tenacious young woman vying to defy society and become the first-ever female surgeon.

All three leads on "The Artful Dodger" are crackling (Thewlis, in particular, was apparently born to play Fagin), and their characters are far more complicated than you might expect, as are the assorted players that round out the show's ensemble. You could say something similar about the show itself: For those who love a star-crossed romance and law-breaking shenanigans as much as odd medical history facts, this is your new favorite Hulu series.