“Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” is all about magic — real, honest conjuring that can make statues come to life and maybe dead people too. But BBC America’s seven-episode adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s 2004 fantasy novel isn’t particularly magical, which is too bad.
Set during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century, the miniseries has a number of strong features, including an elaborate period look that blends British tea settings and Dickensian streets with just a bit of Monty Python. Enough strong features, I would say, to keep you moderately engaged. But ultimately, the storytelling fails to sweep us up, keeping viewers at a distance from the details of the plot and from too many of the characters.
The best pluses are a few extraordinary British actors in the cast. Eddie Marsan plays Mr. Norrell, an odd gentleman magician who works to usher magic back to respectability, since it all but disappeared 300 years earlier. Marsan, who is Terry on “Ray Donovan” and was Pancks in PBS’s “Little Dorrit,” cuts a fascinating figure with his long-sloped nose, a bushy wig, and eyes that can seem both innocent and cruel. On the one hand, his Norrell is painfully introverted and bookish; on the other, he suffers from excessive pride and pedantry. He’s fascinating.
As Jonathan Strange, a lost but charming soul who becomes Norrell’s student, Bertie Carvel is a treat. He brings a nice acerbic touch to the miniseries’ comic tone, and he promises to bring out new sides to the humorless Norrell — some laughter, and some competitive spirit. Their relationship looks as though it may evolve into a classic clash between intuition and reason, the master and his apprentice, the father figure and his son. Strange’s personal journey brings a much-needed human-scaled story line to the miniseries, as he works to succeed professionally in order to marry his beloved Arabella.
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And Marc Warren, who has stood out in many series including “Hustle” and PBS’s 1999 version of “Oliver Twist,” is also captivating. In order to bring an official’s newly dead wife back to life, Norrell has evoked a rather evil-seeming spirit, a faerie of some kind known as The Gentleman, whom Warren plays to perverse perfection. With his giant ducktail hairdo and his demonic aspect, The Gentleman, both a bully and a capricious child, looks something like a Gothic Billy Idol.
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The problem with the miniseries, written by Peter Harness and directed by Toby Haynes, is its lack of emotional potency, at least in the first two episodes. At moments, the amazingly constructed magical set pieces threaten to overwhelm both the fine points of the plot and the wonderful performances. Also, the tone veers almost randomly from terror to humor, from children’s fairy tale to adult nightmare, an inconsistency that can lead to gradual viewer detachment. The parts, in this case, from the actors to the costumes, are somewhat greater than the whole.
JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL
Starring: Bertie Carvel, Eddie Marsan, Marc Warren, Charlotte Riley, Samuel West, Edward Hogg, Alice Englert
On: BBC America
Time: Saturday, 10 p.m.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.