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滨苍听, literary critic Dorothy Van Ghent suggested the author had an unusual way of writing about the human form.

She identified his 鈥渉abit of seeing the parts of the body as separable and manipulable鈥� in a descriptive technique of 鈥渟urgical division鈥�.

While these surgical divisions were often figurative, there were plenty of literal examples in Dickens as well. The most notable sees one of his characters聽聽in the seedy anatomical emporiums of London.

The new Australian series The Artful Dodger pursues this surgical fascination in a reworking of Oliver Twist. Its irreverent intentions are clearly marked by its substitution of the cheeky but lovable Dodger for the too-good Oliver, who鈥檚 summarily dismissed in the first episode as so much 鈥渨et lettuce鈥�.

It is 15 years after the end of the novel and the Dodger 鈥� Jack Dawkins (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) 鈥� is in a fictional Australian town where he鈥檚 turned his pickpocket鈥檚 dexterity to the purpose of surgery.

Jack has fallen into an enormous gambling debt to a local crook (Tim Minchin), who is threatening to collect by taking off one of his precious hands.

At the same time, Jack鈥檚 old boss and bad father figure, Fagin (David Thewlis), arrives in town on a convict ship. Thrown into the mix in a meet-cute that takes place over a heinous compound fracture is the Lady Belle Fox (Maia Mitchell), who intends on becoming the colony鈥檚 first female surgeon.

In the vein of a show like聽, the series鈥� writers stitch together miscellaneous bits and pieces from the author鈥檚 canon.

They borrow the Dodger鈥檚 naval surgeon training from Bleak House and its kindly love interest, Mr Woodcourt. Rather than hanging, Fagin meets the fate of the transported convict Magwitch of Great Expectations. And in one of the show鈥檚 more creative additions, the hospital鈥檚 artificial limb maker (Luke Carroll) evokes Dombey and Son鈥檚 charming duo Solomon Gills and Captain Cuttle. His complex mechanical arms and wooden legs recall both the scientific instruments manufactured by Gills and the prosthetic hook the captain uses in place of his hand.

Playing up the spectacle, speed and savagery of surgery before anaesthesia and antibiotics, the series presents its public operations as something between pantomime and blood sport. But despite all the viscera and violence, it refuses to double down on Dickensian misery, largely playing its most gruesome elements for laughs.

Bleakness has long been the stock-in-trade of Dickens adaptations. But in the midst of all their Dickensian fog, many forget the fun of the author鈥檚 books.

This isn鈥檛 true of The Artful Dodger. Taking notes from the recent success of pop period dramas like聽, the new adaptation is loud, energetic and refreshingly bright. It鈥檚 full of Australian sun and sound, each episode starting off with an Aussie rock track from the likes of Spiderbait and The Cruel Sea.

While these stylistic revisions reinvigorate, the show鈥檚 jokes and subplots are more hit and miss. Caricature has always been key to Dickens鈥檚 fiction, but the sheer silliness of Lady Belle鈥檚 unwanted suitor and her domesticated sister don鈥檛 serve the series well. Despite being a show that itself centres a minor figure, it fails to give some of its best side characters room to breathe.

The most significant issue facing the series is its central romance. The key erotic scenes between the Dodger and Lady Belle just don鈥檛 crackle as intended.

There鈥檚 frankly much more on-screen chemistry between Brodie-Sangster and Thewlis, so the show is at its best when the Dodger and Fagin are keeping company. The pair skilfully tap into the troubling mix of affection and abuse in this relationship, with Fagin longing for a past that to Jack is the stuff of traumatic childhood memory.

Given the enormous quantity of screen adaptations of Dickens, do we really need another reworking of the old Victorian?

In a recent essay,聽, Zadie Smith discusses her complicated feelings towards the author. With self-conscious hyperbole, Smith recounts how she went so far as to flee London to avoid writing her new historical novel and, in particular, to avoid everything Dickens.

Long story short: she couldn鈥檛 do it.

Returning home to work on聽, she found him an irrepressible presence haunting both her city and her story. And so, she set about聽聽by writing his death into the pages of her book.

As Smith aptly concludes, Dickens鈥� (sometimes irritating) ubiquity doesn鈥檛 mean he should be handed the last word.

If Smith鈥檚 strategy was to kill Dickens, we might say The Artful Dodger鈥檚 is to perform hacksaw surgery on him. The series slices and amputates and stitches back together with a welcome revisionism.

If the result is a little uneven, it works well enough. As Victorian surgeons knew, sometimes you have to be brutal to keep things alive.

The Artful Dodger is streaming on Disney+.

Dr Megan Nash teaches in literature and film in the School of Art, Communications and English. Her research interests are in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novel, with a focus on its histories and theories of emotion. Trained in both arts and science, she employs her cross-disciplinary training in a research practice that operates at the juncture of the two. This story was first published in . All photos supplied by Disney.