aka the tv miniseries based on Margaret Atwood's novel of the same name. I have read said novel, but was many years ago. While I remembered roughly the plot, the characterisations and a few lines that stuck into my memory, many of the details had faded, and thus I didn't do a constant compare and contrast when watching. (Later, I checked, and the tv version is indeed very faithful to the book, minus the cutting and trimming of some subplots.)

Alias Grace could be described as many things: a historical series, a true crime series, an elegant variation of the unreliable narrator principle, a meditation on storytelling and gender - and much more. Margaret Atwood based her novel on the historical figure of Grace Marks, who arrived in Canada from Ireland when she was 12, and got convicted of the murder of her employer, Thomas Kinnear, and suspected of murder of his pregnant housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery, at age 15. I mention this above spoiler cut because it's brought up right at the start of both novel and tv show; their story begins about 15 years later, when the imprisoned Grace is also working as a servant in the home of the governor of the penitentiary she's serving time at, and starts to get visits by Dr. Simon Jordan, an alienist (= early version of therapist), who was hired to find out whether she is a "hysteric" rather than a criminal, and what lies behind her claim not to remember the murders.

Sarah Gadon plays Grace, Sarah Polley wrote the adaption, and Mary Harron directed all episodes. All of them deliver superb work. Yes, Sarah Gadon in the flashbacks doesn't look like a 12 or 15 years old girl, but you easily forgive that because she's so very, very good as Grace. Who, as a much later appearing character once observes, is Sherezade, telling stories for her life; what in these stories is true or false depends not just on the beholder and whom she's telling the stories to but how they are framed through the circumstances of Grace's life. If you're easily triggered, Grace goes through a lot of abuse, but it's never filmed exploitatively. At the same time, she's in the present day time frame always in control of herself and her stories, no matter how dire her situation, and that's breathtaking to watch. All the supporting players are excellent as well, up to and including Paul Gross (yes, that one) and Anna Paquin as the two murder victims in waiting. Given how much tv and film in the past and present is about male anger, it's worth pointing out this particular story is about female anger, and not in an easily solved way. And it's an enigma tale. DS9 joke at the end: Garak would approve.