So
Blackout, the BBC’s latest mini-series ended this week. Brought to
us by the same production team as last year’s infinitely cheerier Single Father, starring a
veritable dream team of David Tennant and Suranne Jones, Blackout starred
fellow ex Doctor Christopher Eccleston. Although he’d doubtless despise that
link.
Christopher
‘oh so very serious’ Eccleston , as we like to call him here at the Buffery,
plays alcoholic council worker Daniel Demoys, a gruff sort of chap prone to
bouts of violent behaviour when under the influence, none of which he can
remember the morning after. Set in a rainy undisclosed city clearly modelled on
Manchester, episode one charts Demoys’
slow realisation that he has killed a fellow council worker. Having coming to his senses after saving the life of a young witness in a drug trafficking trial, he must atone for
that, whilst simultaneously comforting the deceased’s distraught daughter, played with
appropriate distress by Rebecca Callard, as well as saving his collapsing
marriage with wife Alex (Dervla Kirwan). Oh and he also had an affair with a
rather over idealistic blonde woman by the name of Sylvie, (MyAnna Buring)
although that didn’t seem to consist of much more than the odd bit of action in
a club stairwell.
Got
all that?
In Episode
2, we see Daniel’s decision to become mayor, which allows him to set the world to rights whilst enjoying the professional success that goes along with it, earning him brownie points with wife Alex. It will come as no surprise
however, that darker forces are at work here, protecting Daniel’s secret and
burying any traces of the past for their own evil ends. These not so subtly
sinister undertones bubble precariously close to the surface as the episode
progresses, helped in no small way by Andrew Scott’s scene stealing Detective
Bevan, and all set to the show’s murky film noir style backdrop.
This
paved the way for the third and final episode, details of which I will not
reveal here in case any of you haven’t quite caught it on 'the Iplayer' yet.
There's a lot to like, here. Eccleston gives his usual dependably
intense performance, with atmospheric lighting and make-up allowing him to look
extra stare-y. Dervla Kirwan is an equally reliable actress, although I’d have
liked to have seen more of her.The dialogue is true to the unnamed gritty
metropolis (Manchester) it is written to represent, the production values are
excellent, and the storyline skilfully instils a sense of growing unease and
anxiety. Which obviously again ties in with all the shots of chlaustrophobic
skyscrapers, endless drizzle and murky grey-green street lighting of the city (Manchester).
It is
very stylish.
If I
have a problem with it though, it’s that it’s too stylish. Call it personal taste but I think it could have used just a touch more realism in places and a
little less glossing over the details. This is particularly apparent in any
scenes which even remotely consider alcoholism as a concept, as sufferers are
labelled simply ‘drunks’, with that being the end of it. ‘I’m a drunk’, they
say. ‘But why, how?’ we shout, unheeded at our screens. For a programme centred
on the idea of alcoholic blackouts, the alcoholic side of it is barely touched
upon. We see Demoys’ attempts to avoid the booze, but we have no idea how we
developed the relationship with ‘the sauce’ that he did.
The
same can be said of the ending. Again, I won’t give away too much, but it just
doesn't come across as having been well thought out. It’s hurried over and
unsatisfying- which is a shame when so much of the production is entirely the
opposite.
Worth
a watch, but possibly another sad case of style over substance.
Blackout
is available on BBC Iplayer until this Monday 23rd July.
-Jen
You can read more of Jen's writing here: http://memyselfandtheothers.wordpress.com/
Or follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/jenniferklarge
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