"Great Expectations."

The FX/Hulu limited series from the creator and writer of "Peaky Blinders," starring Olivia Colman, takes on Dickens in the Two Episode Test.

How about a little alliteration?

(Ahem.)

There are always creator and cast vs. concept considerations when it comes to a TV series.

In FX (and the BBC’s) “Great Expectations” the first thing you might think is, oh, another Dickens costume drama. Shrug. And then you might think, oh, but wait, there’s Olivia Colman. Or, Hell yes, it’s from the creator and writer or “Peaky Blinders.”

And yet, you may ask yourself again, just to be absolutely sure, “I have all of these unwatched gems on my must-watch list, do I really want to add…Charles Dickens?”

Obviously these are legitimate concerns or I wouldn’t be dropping this anvil on your head. I’m not sure “Great Expectations” is the same slam dunk that maybe “Succession” is on anyone’s Impulse Watch.

But Steven Knight knows how to make a drama (and he’s already done Dickens before, with “A Christmas Carol,” also for FX/BBC), while Olivia Colman can act in anything. I could feel the tilt in my initial reaction — which was skepticism — right there. I was going to watch, Dickens be damned (I love Dickens, but still) and I knew it would make yet another perfect choice for the Two Episode Test.

And just to be clear, I’m a firm believer that we are long, long past having to do Charles Dickens straight up. I mean, if anything, not enough TV or filmmakers have fucked with his oeuvre enough through these many years in search of creative lightning. I’m not going to spend four paragraphs telling you how Knight’s “adaptation” differs from the book because nobody in 2023 — or for that matter, 1973 — should give a damn.

Just know that it’s different. Understanding why Knight wanted it to be a fever-dream kind of difference is probably another thing entirely, but this is the ride we get, so let’s take it.