Dark entertainment (Psychoville)

Member Name: Lady_Lazarus

Product:	Psychoville
Date:	01/09/09 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very interesting characters played by talented actors

Disadvantages: Dissapointing ending

This was a BBC 2 series written and directed by Reece Shearsmith and
Steve Pemberton, who were partly responsible for the epic series The League of Gentlemen. This series had similarities to The League of Gentlemen, especially the style of dark, black comedy although Psychoville was ever so slightly more upbeat/comical.

The series revolves around five different characters : David Sowerbutts (Pemberton)who is a serial killer obsessed man who still lives with his mother Maureen (Shearsmith). Maureen very much controls David, treating him like a child (he in turn acts like a child) and occassionally the relationship crosses over into something that makes for uncomfortable viewing (you have been warned!). Mr. Jelly (Shearsmith) is a bitter children's entertainer with only one hand due to an incident in hospital. Oscar Lomax (Pemberton) is a blind millionare who collects stuffed toy animals and gets quite scarily obsessed with them. Joy Aston (French) is a midwife who has a doll, Freddy, who she treats like a real child and sometimes takes the fantasy too far. Robert Greenspan (Tompkins) is a dwarf cast in panto who believes he has telekenetic powers. All five receive a strange letter with 'I know what you did' written on it.

The characters all start with their own stories which eventually start to intertwine with each other; starting with a series of flashbacks that reveal more as the storyline develops. Each individual story is fascinating; you feel almost wrong for watching the characters - uncomfortable, entertaining viewing in the same style as League of Gentlemen. The episodes usually concentrate on a different character each time; the one based around Joy is one of my personal favourites.

The only critisicm I have of this series is the ending. I found it dissapointing, especially after the amazing build up of story and the character development. The ending seemed to be a little rushed and did not reveal anywhere near the amount of information I was hoping for. Fingers crossed for a second series that will tell me more about the intreguing characters of Psychoville!

Summary: A must for League of Gentlemen fans!