While I have been greatly enjoying the BBC adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell as it has been airing in Britain, it's not entirely perfect. One of the best things about that book was the epic scale of it even though it was also mostly a character study of the two titular magicians. Years and years pass, wars are fought and ended and fought again. The tv show, squeezed as it is into 7 episodes, loses the passage of time to achieve a much quicker pace. Additionally, the sound mix is often off to me. Maybe it's just my computer, but the voices are mixed much quieter than they should be for my liking.
With all of that said, man, this show gets almost everything else right. Casting is perfect (though there are three brunettes who all look quite similar and it can be slightly confusing), the art direction is astounding, and the regular direction is just delightful. It captures much of the source's dry sense of humor and ironic wit without the help of the footnotes which really helped expand the world of the novel outside its main story. Pretty remarkable stuff. The effect work is also top notch. Loved the ships in the opening of the second episode. I hope those on this side of the Atlantic catch up, there's only two episodes so far that have aired on BBC America. It's delightful.