Prime Video’s Near-Perfect New Supernatural Drama Is One Of Streaming’s Best Reboots

At the end of April, Prime Video released its stunning new version of a 1993 supernatural drama that was in desperate need of a reboot. The second screen adaptation of a landmark novel by Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende, this miniseries has been widely acclaimed for its faithful and affectionate rendering of a masterful work of literature.

Developed by writer-director Francisca Alegria, Prime Video’s The House of the Spirits feels like the version of Allende’s story that the author herself would want to be made. As opposed to the 1993 movie, its cast is populated by native Spanish speakers, and it captures the magic at the heart of the titular house.

The rare case of a TV reboot that beats the original screen adaptation, this show isn’t just for those interested in Latin American history or magical-realist family sagas. The House of the Spirits is so beautifully crafted, visually arresting and narratively accomplished that anyone who watches it will almost certainly rank it among Prime Video’s best shows.

The House Of The Spirits Is A Near-Perfect Supernatural Drama

Written in the tradition of Latin American magical realism pioneered by Jorge Luis Borges and popularized by Gabriel García Márquez, The House of the Spirits is Isabel Allende’s greatest work, and a literary classic appreciated around the world. Yet, its many-faceted, multi-generational approach to storytelling has made it incredibly difficult to render onscreen.

The story of the novel centers on a single family across four distinct periods of Chile’s history, set against the backdrop of some of the country’s greatest events. In this sense, The House of the Spirits should be held up alongside some of streaming’s best historical TV shows.

It’s a model example of how to make geographically specific events from the past engaging and accessible for a modern global audience, through lively and sympathetic characterizations as well as vivid period details. Thanks to the personal story of Clara Trueba and her family, we become deeply invested in the fate of Chileans.

On the other hand, Clara’s powers of clairvoyance and telekinesis are suprahistorical elements of the story that help give her family’s singular journey through time special meaning. Prime Video’s The House of the Spirits works these elements into the structural and stylistic composition of its drama with the deftest of touches.

Prime Video’s Reboot Is One Of Streaming’s Best

Alfonso Herrera (Esteban Trueba) in The House of the Spirits on Prime Video.

Overall, this miniseries is one of the best examples of a TV reboot in the history of streaming. The House of Spirits fully deserves its success with viewers and critics alike, as it doesn’t put a foot wrong, and makes for a truly enchanting watch.

Streaming is littered with examples of reboots which should never have happened, from Heroes Reborn to Gossip Girl. However, Prime Video’s historical miniseries bucks this overarching trend with profound levels of cultural understanding and emotional depth that were sorely lacking from the film which preceded it.

The House Of The Spirits Was Previously An Underwhelming Meryl Streep Movie

Clara (Meryl Streep) hugging Férula (Glenn Close) in The House of the Spirits.

It’s worth remembering that Prime Video’s The House of the Spirits had a lot to redeem, because the 1993 movie version of Isabel Allende’s story is a damp squib all round. A considerable misstep from Hollywood A-listers like Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons and Winona Ryder, it never even remotely gets to grips with its source material.

Writer-director Bille August overemphasized the formal conceits of Allende’s multi-generational family saga when making the movie, to the extent that each storyline taking place within an individual time period feels forced and unfinished. Everyone involved in the film should thank Prime Video for consigning this work to the distant past.

Meanwhile, the new version of The House of the Spirits should go on to become not only the definitive screen adaptation of the novel, but one of the foremost dramas of Latin American television. Alongside Netflix’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, it could usher in a golden era for the magical-realist miniseries.