Looking for Alaska took a long road to the screen. John Green’s 2005 novel was set up as a film at Paramount and delayed repeatedly, until Hulu stepped in and ordered an eight-episode limited series from Josh Schwartz. It premiered on October 18, 2019, and the fans of the book, who had waited longest, were the ones who praised it most. That almost never happens.
Trailer, via Hulu.
Miles and Alaska
Charlie Plummer plays Miles Halter, a teenager obsessed with famous last words who enrolls at a boarding school looking for what he calls a great perhaps. There he falls in with a group of quirky students led by Alaska Young, played by Kristine Froseth, who is captivating and troubled in equal measure. They pull pranks and trade secrets, and then a night of celebration turns tragic, and the second half of the series is about the group learning how to grieve.
Plummer is exactly right. Miles is an observer who wants to be a participant, and Plummer plays that hunger without making him pathetic. Froseth has the harder job, because Alaska is a character seen almost entirely through someone else’s longing, and she makes her a person anyway.
The Colonel and the Rest
Denny Love plays Chip “The Colonel” Martin, Miles’s roommate, and he steals a good share of the series. Jay Lee’s Takumi and Sofia Vassilieva’s Lara complete the group. Ron Cephas Jones plays Dr. Hyde, the teacher whose lessons on the meaning of suffering give the show its frame, and Timothy Simons plays Mr. Starnes, the dean the students call the Eagle.
Faithfulness
Critics praised the writing, the acting and the series’ fidelity to the book, and the fidelity is the point. The novel is structured as a countdown, before and after, and the series keeps that shape. Schwartz’s writing understands that the book is not about a mystery but about the impossibility of ever knowing another person completely, and the show lets that stand as its answer.
Where It Falls Short
Eight episodes is generous for a slim novel, and the first half stretches. The pranks and the boarding-school texture are pleasant but not always dramatic, and the series takes its time reaching the night everything turns. The period setting is lightly handled, which will bother some readers and not others. And the show’s earnestness, which is its virtue, can tip into speeches.
The Verdict
Looking for Alaska is a careful, affectionate adaptation of a book that meant a great deal to a great many teenagers, and it treats that meaning with respect. It is not urgent television. It is honest television, and for this material that was the right choice.
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