Lord of the Flies (2026)

This book came out in 1954. It was meant to be a retrospective of a WWII idea: kids surviving an airplane crash on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. Now the BBC has adapted it into a four episode series showing on CBC (and Netflix). The first episode was on last night.

Up until then, I had avoided reading or seeing anything about it. In reality, this is not a pretty sight.

William Golding perhaps set out to show us what happens when we are left to our own devices. Post war Britain was a very nasty dog-eat-dog situation. His novel becomes a microcosm of that time period. As always there are two factions in operation whenever people want to organize themselves. Political systems tend to do the same. Literally, there are hunters and there are gatherers: a bit of Cain and Abel.

Since this is only the first part of a four-part series, I haven’t seen the worst that these boys can do to each other, but it was implied right from the beginning.

“Just you see…”