Around the World in 80 Days

 If you are part of my generation, you probably thius classic Jules Verne novel as a kid.  All of his novels have been hacked to bloody, incomprehsnible messes by Hollywood over the years including my favorite, Mysterious Island. There is a new BBC series on Masterpiece Theater.  It was spared no production costs but as usual the original novel has been hacked quite needlessly.  The absurd trip over the Alps by balloon from the 1950s musical is there but nowhere in Verne.

There are some excellent pieces of writing with no similar component in the original.

There are some substitutions that while a bit jarring really do no damage to Verne's story: Passepartout is now a black French valet, although very true to Verne's characterization.  His backstory in Verne is both more interesting and comfortable to the plot than this production.  The female stagecoach driver in the Old West is atypical, but not imaginary.  There were such.

I knew that what is one of the more exciting parts of the novel -- San Francisco to New York City -- could be told with modern sensibilities as our travelers deal with a Sioux Indian raid on the transcontinental railway (which I am pretty was quite imaginary when Verne wrote this).

Dep, Marshall Bass Reeves appears although in an ahistorical context.  Again, this is more about making the "woke" happy than spending the time to tell theinteresting story of Reeves, from slave to federal law enforcement.

The biggest surprise was the replacement of an overzealous police detective chasing Phileas Fogg around the world with a female jouirnalist of the same name recounting Fogg'sadventures for her stick-in-the-mud newspaper editor father.  There are 19th century female journalists such as Nellie Bly, but she feels like a sop thrown to modern audiences.

It is still a bit of fun to watch, with often clever dialog.  The ersatz Western Battle Mountain, Nev. has a Sweenet's Butcher Shop, just to see if you are payimg attention.