The new series The Mysterious Benedict Society (Disney+) is based – and fairly strictly so – on Trenton Lee Stewart’s fizzingly intelligent and fun 2007 book (and beginning what became a consistently charming and rewarding five-volume series) of the same name.
It is a tale of four gifted orphans – Reynie Muldoon (a borderline genius at everything), George “Sticky” (because of his eidetic memory – everything “sticks” in his mind) Washington, Kate Wetherall (and her bucket of tools that her ever-practical mind can use to improvise a host of inventions and emergency solutions) and tiny Constance Contraire (who … well, of whom more later). They are recruited, via a newspaper