The six-hour Netflix adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace looks like it’ll be full of menacing stares, violence, and bleak landscapes, just as any historical crime fiction set before forensic science should be.
Alias Grace is based on the true story of a servant girl who was convicted for murdering her employer and his housekeeper and lover, played by Anna Paquin. In the novel, Grace is imprisoned, and becomes the subject of interest of a doctor, Simon Jordan, who uses her to research criminal behavior. The book focuses on Jordan’s quest to find out whether she was taken advantage of, or an actual criminal.
“I think of all the things that have been written about me,” Marks asks in the trailer, as she’s slapped, sexed up, and experimented on. “That I am an inhuman female demon. That I am an innocent victim of a blaggard, forced against my will and in danger of my own life. That I am cunning and devious. How can I be all of these different things at once?”
Ah, the same problems modern women still face. The miniseries is set for release in November and will first air on Canada’s CBC, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Perfect time of year to watch a young woman get driven to the brink, then wander off into the snowy woods.