Generally, news of a new adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray might be met, in the virtual hallways of Reactor, with enthusiasm. Here there be Oscar Wilde fans! But we are somewhat baffled by the latest Dorian Gray announcement. According to Deadline, Netflix is developing a modern series take on the story called The Grays. Plural! Which Grays will this streaming delight focus on?
Well, siblings Dorian and Basil, apparently. As Deadline blithely notes, “In a twist on the gothic novel, the series revolves around siblings Basil and Doran Gray.”
We have questions. We have questions about how very Vampire Diaries this immediately sounds—one sibling embracing his decadent ways, the other trying to hold him back—and we have questions about what kind of relationship these siblings are going to have. (The show is also being executive produced by siblings Katie Rose Roger and Robbie Rogers.) We have questions about whether the people making this show have ever read the original text of Dorian Gray. We have questions about where the queerness is going.
I’m going to borrow a snippet of text from the book that Emmet Asher-Perrin quoted when they wrote about Dorian Gray for our “This Book Queered Me” series. This is Basil, the painter of the powerful portrait, speaking to Dorian:
“Don’t speak. Wait till you hear what I have to say. It is quite true that I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man usually gives to a friend. Somehow, I had never loved a woman. I suppose I never had time. Perhaps, as Harry says, a really ‘grande passion’ is the privilege of those who have nothing to do, and that is the use of the idle classes in a country. Well, from the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me. I quite admit that I adored you madly, extravagantly, absurdly.”
Totally the way siblings speak to each other, right? Totally. (Please, not a Game of Thrones version of Dorian Gray.)
The folks behind this adaptation have quite a lot of TV experience among them: Arrowverse mastermind Greg Berlanti and his Berlanti Productions are on board; Katie Rose Rogers wrote for Supergirl and Fellow Travelers; director Lee Toland Krieger made the fantastic movie Celeste and Jesse Forever and directed episodes of Riverdale and Dead Boy Detectives; showrunner Rina Mimoun was a producer on Pushing Daisies, for crying out loud.
Perhaps there is just some key piece of information missing from the Deadline announcement that will make this all make sense. We will anxiously and curiously wait to find out what that might be.
