I was thoroughly looking forward to this adaptation of Edward St Auburn's unforgettable series of books featuring his alter ego Patrick Melrose. Adapting from novels that deal with so much interior monologue and streams of consciousness onto screen is a hard thing to do.
Not only did it not disappoint, but it exceeded my expectations.
Not only did it not disappoint, but it exceeded my expectations.
Directed by Edward Berger and adapted by David Nicholls, the story follows Patrick Melrose, a man born into an aristocratic family, brutally tormented by the sexual abuse of his sadistic father and the neglect of his alcoholic mother. Each episode is a key chapter in Patrick’s life and all have such a different feel to it that they almost could belong to another series.
Bad News, in my opinion was one of the most beautiful things I ever saw. Patrick flies to New York to collect his father’s ashes, while under the influence of every drug you can think of. I love pretty much every scene, but in particular the one that I re-watch over and over is when Patrick, in a frenzy of paranoid schizophrenia, tries on different voices and characters in his hotel suite. It's a disturbing yet funny depiction of the debauchery of drug taking, the cinematography and last but not least Benedict Cumberbatch's insane acting talents skyrocketing in every direction on screen. Perfect in every way.
"Life's not just a bag of shit but a leaky one. You can't help but be touched by it."
Never Mind, which deals with Patrick's childhood one fateful day in the south of France. The Melroses invite a few friends for dinner, while an 8 year old Patrick craves his mother’s attention while trying to avoid his father.
David Melrose manages to be excessively scary in every scene. He terrifies his maids just by staring at them and burns ants alive with his cigar. What is not shown explicitly is the rape of his son. Though not much violence is shown in the episode, the filmmakers have created a successfully disturbing, suffocating cloistered atmosphere with silences almost too horrible to bear.
David's best friend Nicolas Pratt is accompanied the young Bridget, a pot-smoking social climber who is entranced by the Melrose’s life at the house. Her infatuation with their lives bites her on the arse when David holds a knife to her leg at dinner. She attempts to leave with a friend, but he doesn’t come.
“You see?” Eleanor slurs from her car. “It’s not as easy as you might think.”
"I'm writing a cheque for charity for Save The Children. Because it's important when you have so much, to give something back."
Some Hope follows Patrick sober but rudderless at 30, as he is invited to a party hosted by Bridget. She has married Sonny for his money and title and has dismissed her middle class mother from the dinner to entertain cruel Princess Margaret.
It reminded me somewhat of Keeping Up Appearances, where an intolerable Hyacinth Bucket, tries at every opportunity to impress the upper class, but ends up making a fool of herself while trying to keep away her working class sisters and brother in law. She however continually makes a fuss over her other rich sister Violet, who is unhappily married to a cross-dresser.
And this tragically parallels to Bridget’s unhappiness. Bridget’s failure of giving Sonny a male heir leads him to have an affair with a younger American socialite.
This episode is particularly notable for the scene in which Patrick finally tells Johnny about the sexual abuse he endured. A weight has been lifted and he is finally settle down with a family.
"Everything is a miracle, man. It's a miracle we don't melt in the bath like a piece of soap."
Mother's Milk plunged Patrick into a new series of problems with the disinheritance from his mother, his struggles with raising his children right and a midlife crises which leads him to alcoholism, threatening to tear his family apart. It also deals with Eleanor's flirtation with assisted suicide.
"What do I loathe, then? I loathe the poison dripping down from generation to generation, and I'd rather die than inflict the same thing on our children."
The final episode - At Last, brings a stunning conclusion to the saga, and Patrick to a painful, yet satisfactory road to recovery.
It is Eleanor's funeral and Patrick is plagued with a whirlwind of emotions, as well as sinister people from his past.
It has the same powerful combination of heartbreaking and funny scenes as Bad News, with explosive, top of the range acting. There is a huge sense of forgiveness, as well as letting go of destructive tendencies and ghosts that plague our lives every day. The themes are quite relevant, the high rate of suicide amongst men and their struggle with opening up about their problems.
"Nobody should do that to anyone else."
Cumberbatch has a child-like quality to his vulnerability. When he screams, he is scary, but when he weeps or tears up, he is so young and delicate, you just want to cuddle him. I thought I had seen him at his best in The Imitation Game, The Hollow Crown or even Third Star. But he actually managed to up his game in this series.
His electrifying, magnetic performance in Bad News is the stuff of awards-winning. His mellowed, yet poignant presence and confession of his sexual abuse in Some Hope made us ache. In At Last, he confronts his demons head on, and we root even harder for him.
I've never seen something as special and rare as this series in a very long time. I did not want it to end. But, as demonstrated time and again, a thing is not beautiful if it lasts.
