If I’d only seen the first three of the six 70 minute episodes of this landmark BBC series written by Dennis Potter I’d’ve told you it was absolutely brilliant. After seeing the whole thing, even spacing it out, I found myself a little numb by its repetitive qualities. Even though that’s kinda the point — a sharp-witted author confined to a hospital bed reworking his first book in his mind and hyperlinking to key moments in his childhood again and again. (And hallucinating a plot against him, plus singing!) There is a lot of very sharp banter here and Michael Gambon is marvelous as the central, Proustian by way Mike Leigh character. When the whole shebang ended I realized it was all back story, nothing going forward. Our hero may’ve figured out some shit from his past, but I had no idea what his real, non-hallucinated relationship was to the people around him. Some on the imdb call this the best television series ever made. That may be true — there is a marvelous polished quality, rife with symbolism. But it is still a television series — and even the best ever made (I include The Office, the earlier seasons of The Sopranos. . . maybe even The West Wing) get dull after a while.
2 Comments
Welcome
Jordan Hoffman is a New York-based writer and film critic working for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Thrillist, Times of Israel, NY Daily News and elsewhere.
He is the host of ENGAGE: The Official Star Trek Podcast, a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and challenges you to a game of backgammon.
I too watched this recently for the first time. Did you watch it with the audio commentary as well? The reason for some of the repetiveness had to do with the fact that they had to refresh the viewers’ memories since a whole week would go by since the last episode.
Ever see Pennies from Heaven (not the Steve Martin version)? Although I think the budget for the Singing Detective was greater, I kind of like Pennies better. It sticks to the old BBC standard of shooting on video for interior studio sets, and shooting on film for location shoots. There’s even a boom shot in one of the scenes but Pennies is so much darker. It wasn’t possible for home viewing for years because MGM bought the rights for distribution and since they also made the Steve Martin version, the held back on releasing the BBC version. But now it’s on dvd and it’s incredible. I remember seeing a very brief clip of it as a kid and it totally creeped me out and made me want to see it.
Hey man, love the website. My question is have you seen the recent version of this starring Robert Downey Jr. and Mel Gibson? Robin Wright Penn is also in it. It’s a musical and really showcases Downey Jr.’s singing ability. The scenes are powerful and it’s just plain fun to watch. I had just wondered if you had come across this, especially since you liked this version so much. Thanks and keep up the good work. (O and Sin City is awesome 🙂