Cinemax's CB Strike is JK Rowling's baggage free storytelling
After the astronomical success of the Harry Potter series, author JK Rowling wrote a three novels featuring a private detective under a pseudonym.
'The Cuckoo's Calling', 'The Silkworm' and 'A career of Evil', written under the moniker Robert Galbraith, feature a London private detective named Cormoran Strike.
The books became global bestsellers, and it came as no surprise when BBC announced plans to adapt all three into a 7-episode series.
That series, 'CB Strike' has finally made its way to the US after its UK run last year, and ahead of its June 1 premiere on Cinemax, author Rowling revealed why she started writing again in the first place.
"I had thought about writing crime for years before I wrote The Cuckoo’s Calling," she told EW, "I just wanted to go back to the beginning – I just wanted it to be about the writing, and I had this dream I might be able to get three books out under the pseudonym before anyone realized it was me. The pseudonym was just a way of disconnecting myself from all of the baggage that comes with being me."
Unlike the HP series, this one is quite real. Set in London, the plot follows Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke), a war veteran who has lost a leg and has turned into a private detective and a bright-eyed assistant who wants to excel in a career she loves.
Strike and Robin Ellacott, his assistant portrayed by Holliday Grainger, solve each case they get their hands on and some of them are pretty strange (needless to say).
"Robin is the most purely lovable character I’ve ever written. I really enjoy the fact that these books are grounded in the real world. And I was sent to an office in Denmark Street years ago, and I was only there a week, and I loosely based Strike's offices on that place, where I temped," Rowling revealed.
Rowling's works have never been turned into any bad film adaptations, let's hope 'C.B. Strike' doesn't let us down either.
As the show has already aired in the UK, we have some reviews. And from the looks of it, this television series is everything you'd hope it would be.
The storytelling style has so many glimpses of Rowling's signature writing and yet at the same time, it's extremely different than what we know her works to be. Stay tuned to this space for more.