Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See might be the most widely acclaimed book of the past decade. It won a Pulitzer Prize and was shortlisted for a National Book Award. Barack Obama made time to devour—and recommend—it while he was still in the White House. The New York Times called the novel “hauntingly beautiful” and named it one of the 10 best books of 2014. But it wasn’t just a critical darling. All the Light became a cultural phenomenon, selling more than 15 million copies worldwide by the time Netflix greenlighted a TV adaptation in 2021. That series, which arrives on the streamer on Nov. 2, isn’t just inferior to the book; it’s a schmaltzy, incompetent, borderline offensive mess whose mere existence tarnishes the book’s legacy.
One clue that screenwriter Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, See) and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Free Guy) have done…
