Friday, December 11, 2009

Netflix Friday #6: JEKYLL

You came thisclose to a long discussion about Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy Drew. That's also streaming on Netflix Instant. You can watch it any time. Instantly. In your home.

Any. Time.

Just lettin' you know.

Juuuuuust sayin'.

...

Now, a good chunk of you may have already seen this six-hour series from our friends at the BBC. But those of you who don't torrent probably missed this when the DVD blew through your local Best Buy.

James Nesbitt is Dr. Tom Jackman, a man with a problem. Michelle Ryan, rocking some seriously kicky boots, is hired to help him. Gina Bellman is Jackman's wife. She tricks you into thinking she's just playing the aggrieved wife role, and then transforms into an unexpectedly ruthless heroine. Gina was actually hired for Leverage based on footage we showed TNT from this show. As much as I love her work in Coupling, this is my favorite thing she's done.

Steven Moffat rolls the story out flawlessly, starting with what is easily the best opening on television in years. That opening five minutes is textbook. Little clues. Momentum. An actual goddam ticking clock.

Moffat expertly toys with the meta-text here. We know it's called Jekyll. He knows we know it's called Jekyll. He knows what clues we're putting together, and what conclusions we're drawing. He plays with that extra layer of emotion, laying it into his work as a crucial part of the narrative. Letting us draw the wrong conclusions is a crucial part of the mini-series. All the while this thing hurtles along at a classic pulp breakneck pace, with gasp-inducing acting moments that sneak up on you. Jekyll has a couple scenes that are textbook examples of:

a.) something's happened.

b.) the audience has to take a moment to figure out what's happened, yet it's timed perfectly so

c.) the characters are a perfect number of beats behind the audience, so the audience gets both the thrill of recognition and a horrible frisson of anticipation.

And Moffat knows who we're waiting for.

When ... he arrives, it's a triumph. Where an American show would fuck this up by ladling on special effects, this show, um, doesn't.

While the first hour is flawless, I think the back two sometimes get a little too clever/writery for their own good, even some of the beats I adore. A lot of things blow by unexplained in the end, and I can only hope that they'll be explored -- not cleared up, but explored -- if they ever get around to doing a sequel. Unfortunately Moffat's taken over a little show called Dr. Who this year, so he's a bit busy. Bastard.

BBC's Jekyll, streaming Instantly on Netflix, is your weekend recommendation. Tag your spoilers in the Comments -- there are moments in this show I am sorry I will never get to experience for the first time ... um, again (I'm honestly not sure how to construct that sentence). I want new viewers to get on the ride clean.

75 comments:

Lyle Jantzi III said...

I remember watching that when it came out. I can't recommend it enough. It was my introduction to James Nesbitt, Gina Bellman and Michelle Ryan. And what an introduction it was. Damn, I need to watch this again soon.

Anonymous said...

Great, adding this (and the Pamela Sue Martin laden Nancy Drew"), my instant queue is now at 163. Add this to my 464 disc queue and I am looking at a media saturated love hole that I will never dig my self out of.
You're killing me, internet! You're killing me!

Simon Underwood said...

I've had the DVD on my shelf for over a year now and not watched it yet. Funnily enough I took it down and re-absorbed the cover (translation: stared at the still of Michelle Ryan) just yesterday. This xmas, I'm definitely making the time for it.

Back recommendation for you John, though I don't know if you'll be able to find it in the US - 'Press Gang', Steven Moffat's first TV series, ostensibly for children/"young adults", but in reality probably one of the best shows of the 80s for anybody, anywhere.

Warren Terra said...

Given that this is a thread about a BBC DVD, I've got a question: why are the DVD prices in the US and in the UK so different? And more than that, why are they structured so differently?

Take Jekyll - new, not used - at Amazon US for $22 and at Amazon UK for 4 pounds (~$7).

But more generally, it seems that after the first couple of years DVDs are heavily discounted in Britain, even the older discs of current series (take the relaunched Doctor Who for an example: series 1,2,3, and 4 are 14, 14, 17, and 28 pounds, respectively). And this discounting of older discs in the UK isn't limited to British shows: The Wire is also noticeably cheaper in the UK than here (at the current rate of exchange), and unlike in the US the first season of The Wire is cheaper than the others in the UK.

Sean Fagan said...

We loved this show here -- we caught it on BBCA, and as soon as I saw the US DVDs on Amazon, I ordered a couple sets. One for me, the rest for friends.

The show genuinely creeped me out on more than one occasion. (And when we finished watching Blink, and looked at the credits, we both said, "Oh, that explains that!")

Wesley said...

On DVD prices... the story I've heard is that, in the UK, most TVs can handle NTSC as well as PAL, and it's not too difficult to get a region-free DVD player. So when the BBC licenses its stuff here, it insists on prices that won't encourage people to import DVDs from North America.

I have no idea how true this is--I can think of a couple of possible holes in the hypothesis.

Mo said...

Heh, Jekyll is what led to my partner and I simultaneously developing huge crushes on Gina Bellman, which in turn led us to Leverage, so it fills me with glee that she was cast based on her Jekyll footage :) There was a brief power outage during the final episode when it first aired here, and we actually set the alarm for the reairing at 2:00 or 3:00 am. I also love Meera Syal (Miranda) a lot, even if I think it's fundamentally unfair that any one person can do so many things fantastically well.

alone in the dark said...

This series highlights why TV on DVD is so great. On BBC-A, the show started a little slowly, took a little while to get rolling. On DVD, without commercials, the pacing is perfect. My 14-year-old daughter has already watched it twice with me. Of course, she was sold when she knew it was written by Steven Moffat (She loves her some Doctor Who) and starred James Nesbitt (Millions). Some great father/daughter bonding.

Jay said...

I have to chime in with the Gina Bellman love, both in Leverage and in Jekyll.

USRaider said...

Although I have heard about this show (and its excellence) from many people, have never actually checked it out. May have to head over to Best Buy to see if I can find it.

One show that I have always wanted to see on DVD that has, to the best of my knowledge, never shown up is the old Fox series "Brimstone" that starred Peter Horton (think I remember that correctly) as a bounty hunter for the Devil. It was such an excellent show, albeit only on for 13 episodes, that I would have thought by now it would have appeared on DVD. Maybe someday it will.

USRaider said...

Also have to add in another one of my favorites, "Milennium." Great writing, excellent storyline and unbelievable acting. I have the entirety of the show on DVD and will start reliving that series now that I have exhausted my viewings of "Leverage" Season One!

By the way, any details on when Season Two of "Leverage" will appear on DVD?

John Seavey said...

I do have to agree--the final episode of "Jekyll" is great as a cliffhanger, but as a finale? Not so much. If I were running a comic book company, I'd have a little chat with someone at the BBC about licensing the series out as a comic book and continuing where it left off.

I'm just saying, if a comic book editor-in-chief happened to be a reader and sometime-contributor to this blog, I'd buy such a book, is all.

Just, you know, hypothetically speaking.

NinjaGoat said...

Another great British six-ep scifi show you might want to check out would be Ultraviolet about a covert government anti-vampire counter terrorism unit, starring Jack Davenport (Coupling/Pirates of the Caribbean); Susannah Harker (from House Of Cards); and a superb Idris Elba (from The Wire), who brings a very understated performance to the hate-driven, ends-justify-means army guy Vaughn.

I'm not sure how readily available it is in the US, but if you can find it, it's well worth your time.

Unknown said...

Yeah, I've loaned out my copy of ULTRAVIOLET more times than I can count. Amazing.

NinjaGoat said...

You know, most British prople don't even remember Ultraviolet exists, nevermind that it was that good.

Also, Phillip Quast is who I want to be when I grow up. And has been since I was fifteen.

Unknown said...

I must third emphatically both Ultraviolet & Jekyll. Both are incredible works that were very well constructed.

I would love Jekyll to have a sequel, those tantalizing clues that beg for followup...

Palamedes said...

I showed Jekyll to my daughter after watching it myself. She now makes a habit of showing it to any friend or acquaintance of hers that can spend a little time with Netflix online. They're usually transfixed through the whole runthrough.

Anonymous said...

Steven Moffat is absolutely brilliant. I have loved loved loved everything I've seen by him. I am keenly looking forward to a season (and more, hopefully) of Doctor Who with him as the show-runner.

hodag said...

Jekyll is one of my favorite modernizations of a classic ever. Rogers, you have to get James Moffett cast as an opponent or a mark.

GinaFan said...

I thought the best part of Jekyll was the first five minutes of Episode 4. It was a stark contrast to the rest of the series because it was so playful and funny. That smoldering look she gives him across the table really caps it off.

The lighting in the outdoor hug scene at the end took Gina's loveliness off the charts.

You can count the smooches she gets in in this series, unlike some others. :)

hodag said...

Duh, I meant James Nesbitt but I am an idiot.

Pirate Alice said...

I have loved James Nesbitt since I first saw him in Cold Feet. When BBCA aired Jekyll I caught the first episode then I managed to miss the whole rest of it. When I saw it as a disk rental from NetFlix I popped it to the top of my list so I could see the whole thing. I was not disappointed. If you could get James Nesbitt on Leverage, I'd be such a happy happy girl. To see Gina Bellman with James on the same show, and one I love, AGAIN I'm not sure my neighbors would enjoy the amount of squeeing coming from my apartment. But who cares about my neighbors?

Brad said...

Jekyll was amazing, but I found the last couple episodes less satisfying somehow.

Also, did anyone else notice that Moffat used the same audio-reveal trick he used in "The Doctor Dances", "Girl In The Fireplace", "Blink", "Silence In The Library"... every single Who episode he's written? Now that he's taking over as showrunner, will that trick become mandatory?

Anonymous said...

also, since we're talking about British TV featuring Gina Bellman: please, pretty please, cameo-appearance of Richard Coyle. That would SO rock.

Nato said...

Oh, man.

The lion.

The awesomeness of Gina Bellman.

The hotness of Michelle Ryan.

The crazy Southern-fried awesomeness of Patterson Joseph, who takes a bog-standard role and comes at it from an angle so unusual, he nearly steals the show.

And that ending. That final line. Brrrrrr...

Cunningham said...

The one writer-craft aspect of this show that I've always loved (beyond what you've already mentioned) is that the audience learns things emotionally instead of chronologically. We see the characters say or do something with an emotional significance (for them) and THEN learn how that came about.

The emotional hook is just a so much better hook because it instantly adds the mystery -- well why do they feel that way? As soon as you're asking those questions it's too late - Moffat the story shark has you and is dragging you under.

Delicious.

kkisser said...

This is a genuinely creepy story. Especially the scene at the zoo. Yowza.

Good Dog said...

answer for Warren:

Jekyll can be picked up here in the UK for only a few quid, either from Amazon UK or even at some stores. It has been in the sales for ages. But if you check Amazon UK, you'll see that originally it cost just shy of thirty pounds when it came out on disc almost two and a half years back.

If you or Mr Rogers or anyone here wants to be blown away by British drama, you seriously, seriously, seriously need to watch Edge of Darkness, released in the US as: 'Edge of Darkness: The Complete BBC Series'.

Treat yourself for Christmas and see it before the film version starring Mel Gibson bowls up next year.

Mike Cane said...

*sigh* Another one in my Backlog.

So, to try to make myself feel better, I wonder if you've seen this new BBC series called PARADOX?

It's a weird mix of PDK Pre-Crime and CBS's EARLY EDITION. Imagine no newspaper, no cat, and the future coming down a Ministry of Defense secure sat channel so that a group of three cops can figure out WTF is going to happen prevent it!

I tripped across it on the Net. It's only 6 episodes long and #4 airs tomorrow (Tuesday) night.

Someone else recommended MISFITS to me. That's in the backlog now too. Sheesh.

Gareth Thomas said...

This was extremely good. Crisply written, intelligent, very funny - everything you would want from popular sci-fi drama.

The ending, though... Not to give too much away, but I felt pretty unsatisfied with it too. It makes sense in context, but I still felt a little let down by it.

And there are some pretty important things unanswered...

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