White Teeth on TV: Incomplete Miniseries

I am not sure how to describe the White Teeth miniseries. It leaves one feeling incomplete, to put it bluntly. I understand how difficult it is to adapt a novel to film or television, and I respect the admirable attempt, but one cannot escape the feeling of a loss of wholeness. The miniseries hits most of the main plot points and retains much of the characteristic humor of Zadie Smith's first novel, but suffers from the loss of her witty narrative voice.

In addition, certain key parts of the novel, especially those pertaining to the Jamaican background of Irie, are silenced. Clara, after the first episode, becomes gradually less significant to the story, and while Irie does learn more about her 'roots' from talking to her Jehovah's Witness grandmother, all of the horror and critique of colonialism is lost by the lack of a flashback scene. The only time we are taken back to Kingston in 1907 is one single flashback, to the white colonial and his black lover who are the ancestors Irie desires to learn more about. None of the narrative voice's powerful critique equating colonialism to the poor treatment we give to our lovers is present in this miniseries, which is woefully incomplete.

Besides slightly changing the conclusion of the novel and omitting other plot developments, settings, and themes (such as the importance of the traditional pub for Irie's father and Samad, who never take their wives with them there), the miniseries could have benefited from illustrating the tense relations between ethnic minorities in London. Smith's novel is careful to display, for example, Alsana's racism towards Caribbeans and other minorities, but this brief miniseries only shows Alsana's homophobia towards her lesbian relative.

In spite of my aforementioned problems with the miniseries, I believe it's a worthwhile watch for any fans of Zadie Smith, multicultural London, or comedy. Again, much of the comedic voice has been changed because of the medium, but the actors carry it along quite well. All that would have been necessary to truly make this TV adaptation of Smith's novel a masterpiece is a few more episodes.