Ranking Every HBO Miniseries From Worst To Best
43. The Casual Vacancy
The miniseries is the perfect vehicle for the adaptation of a great novel. A single film usually requires chopping material, while a non-fixed length series can get iffy when the source material runs out. Unfortunately, The Casual Vacancy is not based on a great novel, but a rather dull one, and this permeates the series to its core.
A downright bad novel that wouldn’t have been published were it not written by the phenomenally successful JK Rowling, The Casual Vacancy fares slightly better on the screen thanks to its classy cast. Rory Kinnear, Keeley Hawes, and Michael Gambon are rarely less than good, and they elevate the material with spiky, witty turns.
The story, though - one of an idyllic village with a darkness at its core, is not only done to death but done much more interestingly elsewhere.
It's a simplistic look at class strife based on source material by a billionaire with questionable views, a collab between the BBC and HBO with the production values of the former.