{"id":229607,"date":"2026-02-17T20:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/?p=229607"},"modified":"2026-02-17T20:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:39:08","slug":"jack-thornes-lord-of-the-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/jack-thornes-lord-of-the-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Thorne’s Lord of the Flies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Thorne\u2019s 2026 Lord of the Flies<\/em> is a masterpiece of an adaptation. The four-part BBC miniseries captures the essence of William Golding\u2019s 1954 novel just as well as the 1963 and 1990 films but with much more emotion and depth. A group of schoolboys is stranded on an island and confronted with tensions between forces of technology, order, cooperation, community, and the forces of brutality, natural hierarchy, chaos, violence, and aggressive egoism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The series is visually beautiful throughout. The contrasting tropical beauty and hellish nightmare of the island described in the book really comes through. The soundtrack is haunting and the acting is incredible. Lox Pratt\u2014the 14-year-old British actor cast in the upcoming Harry Potter adaptation as Draco Malfoy\u2014perfectly embodies the demonic antagonist, Jack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lord of the Flies<\/em> could be described as a deeply evil book. I had a traumatic experience as a 12-year-old kid when I watched the 1990 film on TV. I was overwhelmed by a feeling of incredible evil. This film version captured the disgusting darkness that Golding was trying to convey in his book. The children are sadistic monsters, running around in filth. You feel the exhaustion and madness creeping in. The victimized children break down in tears. The evil is palpable and irredeemable. The idea of such evil overcoming a group of children was so disturbing to me that it sparked my earliest meditations into the problem of evil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For this reason, I never liked the Lord of the Flies<\/em> book. Golding projects too much of a Christian metaphysics into the story. The 2026 TV version softens many of these elements. We get a backstory for some of the characters, and we see major themes about fatherhood and motherhood. Jack\u2019s aggression and insecurity are loosely attributed to his absent father, but this isn\u2019t the \u201ccause\u201d of evil because Simon had the same issue and chose an alternative path. Piggy is a completely longhoused motherly figure, raised by his auntie, who annoys everyone with his constant rule following and concern trolling. Simon acts like a mother toward both Jack and Ralph and gets brutally rejected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no clear, heavy moralized formula to the metaphysics of evil in this adaptation. Jack is more of a Nietzschean figure and comes off as heroic and sympathetic many times. The show truly becomes about him and the story of his will. He is driven by passion and a desire to test himself. “I\u2019m not scared. I don\u2019t want to be tested, I don\u2019t want this to be a test\u2014I just feel like it is.\u201d He mobilizes his army to conduct a carefully organized hunt and utilizes the strengths of his subordinates while improving their weaknesses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n