Alias Grace on Netflix
The brutal series is the next Handmaid’s Tale
Netflix is owning 2017 with series like Atypical, The Defenders, Dear White People, and Sense8, among so many others, and they’re looking to continue their winning streak well into the fall.
One of their upcoming Autumn shows is Alias Grace, based on the 1996 novel by Margaret Atwood, a historian of the Grace Marks case. The novel weaves a fictional narrative into the real-life murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery in 1843 Canada. The series is being produced for Canadian television, but will stream on Netflix in the United States.
The hook of the book (and the series) is how it uses a fictional character, Doctor Simon Jordan (played by Edward Holcroft from Wolf Hall and London Spy), who is brought in to examine and study young Grace (Sarah Gadon from 11.22.63), who is serving a life sentence for the murders. He is shocked by how the meek woman he encounters is so unlike the image he had of a cold-blooded killer.
Just as the book did, the show looks to explore the story of Grace Marks by examining society’s treatment of women in historical context, the way they are forced into second-class citizenry to conform to the standards of the oppressive patriarchy.
In real life, Grace Marks was pardoned after spending 30 years locked away, at which point she disappeared in Upstate New York. Nobody knows what happened to her after that, but this new show proves that she is still remembered, nearly 175 years after that fateful double-murder.
All six episodes of Alias Grace will be made available November 2 on Netflix.