Review: "Jekyll" (no spoilers)
Aug. 27th, 2007 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkayThis weekend, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kestrell and I watched the first season of "Jeckyl", a new show from the BBC. This is not just a retelling of Jekyll and Hyde, but a modern-day sequel, with thriller and SF elements added to the basic horror flavor. Tom Jackman is a research scientist with an unusual problem; it's *like* a split personality, but his alter-ego has physical differences as well. The two sides of himself have an uneasy truce, but it's showing signs of strain, especially once his dark side discovers that Tom has a wife and children. And who is behind the mysterious black van that has been shadowing (both of) him lately? Was Robert Louis Stevenson's book *really* a work of fiction?
This show is written by Steven Moffat, and cements my opinion that he is a writer to watch for. He also wrote the wonderful Britcom "Coupling", and several of my favorite episodes of the new Doctor Who. (A week from Friday, the Sci-Fi channel should be showing his latest ep, "Blink", which is far scarier than it has any right to be.) The dialogue scintillates, and the plot moves along at a serious clip. It's a one-hour show, but each episode feels like it's got a movie's worth of events in it. They play interesting games with flashbacks and flashforwards to fill in background and provide suspense, but not so much as to make the story hard to follow. It's well thought out, without any obvious plot holes leaping out at me (though some of the Bad Guys really need to review the Evil Overlord Handbook).
The actors are brilliant. James Nesbitt gets to display a broad range of technique as both Jackman and 'Hyde'. Gina Bellman (who I last saw playing a total ditz on "Coupling") plays his long-suffering wife Claire, who turns out to have a lot more strength of character than anyone thought. Paterson Joseph (who played the Marquis de Carabas in "Neverwhere") plays a delightfully slimy American secret agent (Kes thought he was channeling the Shrub). There's also a fun lesbian couple, but I can't say much about them without it being a spoiler.
There aren't a lot of special effects. Jackman and 'Hyde' differ mostly through subtle makeup changes. The part of me that pays attention to the craft of storytelling was impressed at the number of ways in which they managed to suggest visually impressive scenes without actually having to spend the money filming them. And, as this is a horror story, they leverage the viewer's imagination to powerful effect.
This first season is six episodes long. It comes to a good conclusion, but definitely leaves open the possibility of further stories about these characters. Highly recommended.
kestrell and I watched the first season of "Jeckyl", a new show from the BBC. This is not just a retelling of Jekyll and Hyde, but a modern-day sequel, with thriller and SF elements added to the basic horror flavor. Tom Jackman is a research scientist with an unusual problem; it's *like* a split personality, but his alter-ego has physical differences as well. The two sides of himself have an uneasy truce, but it's showing signs of strain, especially once his dark side discovers that Tom has a wife and children. And who is behind the mysterious black van that has been shadowing (both of) him lately? Was Robert Louis Stevenson's book *really* a work of fiction?This show is written by Steven Moffat, and cements my opinion that he is a writer to watch for. He also wrote the wonderful Britcom "Coupling", and several of my favorite episodes of the new Doctor Who. (A week from Friday, the Sci-Fi channel should be showing his latest ep, "Blink", which is far scarier than it has any right to be.) The dialogue scintillates, and the plot moves along at a serious clip. It's a one-hour show, but each episode feels like it's got a movie's worth of events in it. They play interesting games with flashbacks and flashforwards to fill in background and provide suspense, but not so much as to make the story hard to follow. It's well thought out, without any obvious plot holes leaping out at me (though some of the Bad Guys really need to review the Evil Overlord Handbook).
The actors are brilliant. James Nesbitt gets to display a broad range of technique as both Jackman and 'Hyde'. Gina Bellman (who I last saw playing a total ditz on "Coupling") plays his long-suffering wife Claire, who turns out to have a lot more strength of character than anyone thought. Paterson Joseph (who played the Marquis de Carabas in "Neverwhere") plays a delightfully slimy American secret agent (Kes thought he was channeling the Shrub). There's also a fun lesbian couple, but I can't say much about them without it being a spoiler.
There aren't a lot of special effects. Jackman and 'Hyde' differ mostly through subtle makeup changes. The part of me that pays attention to the craft of storytelling was impressed at the number of ways in which they managed to suggest visually impressive scenes without actually having to spend the money filming them. And, as this is a horror story, they leverage the viewer's imagination to powerful effect.
This first season is six episodes long. It comes to a good conclusion, but definitely leaves open the possibility of further stories about these characters. Highly recommended.