Benedict Cumberbatch as the wealthy, dissipated Patrick Melrose in this adaptation of the acclaimed semi-autobiographical Edward St Aubyn novels. Photo: Ollie Upton/SHOWTIME
Run out of stuff to watch? Join us as we excavate the streamers' back catalogues for the shows we might have missed. This week: Patrick Melrose.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the wealthy, dissipated Patrick Melrose in this adaptation of the acclaimed semi-autobiographical Edward St. Aubyn novels.
We first meet Melrose in epsiode one, 'Bad News', getting a call telling him his father David has died. It's a landline call, because this is 1982. Melrose slumps to the floor, a smile spreading across his face as a syringe drops from his hand.
Melrose leaves London and careens through New York ingesting industrial quantities of drugs on a mission to collect his father's ashes which he cradles back to London on Concorde.
Episode 2 ('Never Mind') set in France in the 1960s, makes clear why the adult Melrose is such a mess. David, played with sneering malevolence by Hugo Weaving, rapes Patrick repeatedly over a four-five year period. His mother, heiress Eleanor, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, is either too wasted on cocktails and Valium to notice, or turns a glazed, blind eye.
Part brutal memoir, part searing satire, St. Aubyn's absence of self-pity and stiletto-sharp take on the snobbery, shallowness and sadism of the English upper classes is brilliantly brought to screen life by writer David Nicholls and director Edward Berger.
Cumberbatch is excellent here, in a role seemingly made for him, as he portrays Melrose recovering, building a family, relapsing and finally finding redemption and a kind of fragile acceptance.
Is it worth a watch?
Story: 5/5 (A top class cast at the top of their game)
Production: 4/5 (Melrose's New York drug binge is brilliantly directed)
Bingeability: 5/5 (All five episodes available)
If I liked this one, what shall I watch next?
A Very English Scandal
Fleabag
Patrick Melrose is streaming now on TVNZ+.