Patrick Melrose
2018
Original language: English
- drama
The story
A critical and often humorous look at the upper class, tracking the protagonist's harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery.
What it’s like
Crisp, elegant interiors dominate: sun-washed Riviera villas, cold Mayfair drawing rooms, and long, unhurried tracking shots that drift through parties and hotel suites while the camera lingers just long enough to make the wealth feel brittle. Light is often flat daylight or the bruised amber of late-evening drink, and the palette shifts from pale linen and cream to the sickly neons of bars and bathrooms as the story moves through its chapters. The score is sparse and sometimes absent, so the clink of glasses and the sharp Edwardian-inflected dialogue carry the sound. The vibe is acidly witty with a current of dread, a cool, sardonic melancholy that tightens into real anguish. Pacing is deliberate across five feature-length episodes, with comedy undercutting long stretches of grim self-destruction. The arc follows a man shaped by childhood cruelty as he slowly, painfully attempts to reclaim himself. Intensity is high in tone but restrained on screen: drug and alcohol use is frequent and unflinching, there are scenes of emotional and sexual abuse handled with discretion rather than explicit display, and violence is brief and sharp rather than gory. Made for viewers who enjoy literate, darkly funny character studies and can sit with heavy material.
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