Patrick Melrose

Each episode is different, interesting and inspiring in its own way. The first mainly stylistically, the second for its disturbing concentration of hopelessness and disjointed innocence, the rest as a blackly humorous and ironic portrait of a narcissistic social elite where the important values of life are blurred in a whirlwind of stiff parties and self-centred family attitudes. All this accompanied by a psychologically refined portrait of the title character, who’s an asshole and knows it, but how else to survive in this world, how else to maintain one’s own hated identity? I almost regret that it was so short and time-skipping, because the material for knowingly immoral smirks and the deepening of Patrick's relationship with his repulsive world was more than solidly set up. On the other hand, it’s better to stop when you’re on top, and I wish Edward Berger some proper feature-length flicks, because his great direction clearly pushes Patrick Melrose into the company of the most interesting TV series of the last few years – alongside, of course, the performances of Benedict Cumberbatch, who downright entertains with every line, and Hugo Weaving, who confirms his innate mastery of the bad guy even in a small space. Great. (26/06/2018)

Unlike the stylistically distinctive and entertaining first episode, this one is "just" a focused and brilliantly acted build-up to a sense of helplessness and inevitability (of what Patrick will become in the future), but it's still hard to take your eyes off of it, and every scene is absolutely correct given the complex psychological portrait of a personality that will surely continue to play a key role in the series. And is it just me, or is Hugo Weaving delivering his fourth iconic villain? He's never been this scary before... 85% (22/05/2018)