Patrick Melrose comes to Netflix as part of an upgrade to Cumber’s content. While the streamer already features Benedict Cumberbatch in dog power and The imitation gamethe premiere of his new limited series Eric will be accompanied by 1917 and this brilliantly caustic five-episode miniseries, directed by Edward Berger (The horror, All calm on the western front) and starring Cumberbatch in the title role, which originally premiered on Showtime and Sky in 2018. Based on the book series by Edward St Aubyn, Patrick Melrose received numerous Emmy nominations, won BAFTA Awards for Best Miniseries and Best Lead Actor, and features an all-star cast alongside Cumberbatch, including Hugo Weaving, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Holliday Grainger.
PATRICK MELROSE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?TO
Initial shot: The doorbell rings on a dark green tabletop rotary telephone. We are in 1982. “Patrick, is that you?… I’m in New York… More like bad news… Your father died the night before last…â€
The essence: While at first it appears that Patrick Melrose (Cumberbatch) has doubled over in pain upon learning that his father David (Weaving) has died, in reality he is simply bending down to grab a hypodermic needle, which fell under the side table after that Patrick’s most recent injection of heroin. Then the old bastard left and died, summarized in one of his frequent and frequently salty voiceovers. “How did that feel? Pain or anger? Were you scared? Were they scared? God, I hope so.” Patrick will seek comfort from lovers such as the willing Debbie (Morfydd Clark) or the cynical Julia (Jessica Raine); he will also take his Valium as he reiterates his adoration of heroin and muses that he might finally give up hard drugs. He could do that, and maybe he finally will. But what is the source of the emptiness inside him, which Patrick temporarily fills with heroin, coke, booze and liquor? His journey will begin with a frantic 48 hours in New York, where he must collect his father’s ashes, try to maintain external stability, and hopefully not submit to other, darker impulses.
With the death of David Melrose, we begin to learn about the rich man’s character (no compromises, the best or nothing, trust no one), but also about his fractured relationship with Patrick, which is revealed in flashbacks full of suggested trauma and abuse. emotional. (Sebastian Maltz plays Patrick Melrose when he was a child.) Starting in 1982, the series travels through the decades in five episodes. And by the time 2005 rolls around, Patrick will have encountered new highs and lows as a person, even as he continues to try to process how his father treated him and how his mother Eleanor (Leigh) seems to have allowed that to happen.
While the Patrick Melrose The cast is excellent, this is Benedict Cumberbatch’s show, and that makes it particularly appealing to anyone who is a fan of the actor’s trademark breadth and intensity and who may have missed it the first time around. There’s a lot of serious stuff here, including physical and emotional trauma, suicidal thoughts, rampant drug use, and revelations of old wounds reopened. But Patrick Melrose It’s also bitingly funny, powerfully directed, and full of opportunities for Cumberbatch to channel a kind of redemption for his very broken but very watchable title character.
What shows will it remind you of? Patrick Melrose is set, at least in part, in 1980s New York City, which is also the setting for the Netflix series. Eric, where Cumberbatch plays a puppeteer struggling with the disappearance of his son and the more frequent appearances of a giant blue monster puppet. And in 2020, Melrose director Edward Berger directed Your Honor for Showtime, which featured a gripping performance by Bryan Cranston. (All-consuming performances, of course, are the norm for both Cranston and Cumberbatch.)
Our opinion: In 2024, we know and love a Cumberbatch performance. The scope, the intensity, the unexpected ease with comedy. We know and love those things so much that Benedict Cumberbatch has developed them into a kind of humorous meta-extension of his established personality, like when he’s accommodation Saturday night live or even when he’s cutting up Tony Stark with one-liners like Dr. Strange. That’s why it’s so exciting to go back to Patrick Melrose six years after its debut.
Cumberbatch was already a star when it came out, of course. He had already won Emmy and BAFTA awards for sherlock. But playing the restless, acerbic, cynical, hilarious, self-absorbed and emotionally scarred Melrose took advantage of all of the actor’s considerable talents, and he often used them in the course of a single scene. Physically expressing the attacks and outbursts of an addict seeking his fix, diluting hours of soul-searching and clinical attention into an exhausted internal dialogue between him, his therapist, and his father, with additional input from his heroin dealer. from New York. and with Cumberbatch running through every one of his accents while Melrose stumbles and fidgets, high in his posh hotel room, it’s watching, fascinated, as an actor throws himself completely into a role. And what is equally fascinating? He makes Patrick, whom Allison Williams as Marianne rightly calls a “self-centered little shit,” into a totally compelling character despite his myriad flaws. And if none of that helps you, stick around to see Cumberbatch transform his features and limbs into Silly Putty once Melrose gets his hands on some ’80s quaaludes.
Sex and skin: There are some sexy situations and sex happens in situations. But maybe what you need to remember about this series is Jugo Mobile’s headline from when it premiered in 2018: “‘Patrick Melrose’ Is a Trap for Benedict Cumberbatch’s Thirst.”
Parting Shot: It is already decided. It took large quantities of illicit drugs and a half-baked suicide attempt, but Patrick Melrose decided. “I’m going to clean myself up.†Which is great! But then there is the idea of what will come next. And for the first time, Patrick really cries.
Sleeping star: It’s a duel between Hugo Weaving as the elitist, rude and deeply horrible David Melrose, whom we know by reputation and in flashbacks, or Benedict Cumberbatch’s apt impersonation of Hugo Weaving as the elitist, rude and deeply horrible David, whom Patrick knows it will never completely disappear from his memory.
Most pilot line: Patrick’s severe trauma can be quite delicious when it becomes fuel for Cumberbatch to deliver lines like this: “It’s ironic that my father’s remains were so hard to find, when I have no problem discovering them in myself.”
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. Benedict Cumberbatch is a revelation in Patrick Melrosewith a multifaceted performance (many moods, many accents, many states of relative sobriety) that focuses the series’ hard-hitting emotions on a character who is never too screwed up not to root for.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is a freelance writer and editor living in Chicago. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.AA
