First of all , I love Benedict Cumberbach
This man can do alot of incredible things and every work for him is masterpiece ...
This series is talking about toxic father son relationship and how it can affect on people years and years after sexual abuse or violence or any abnormal stuff
The photography was amazing the shots were incredibly fantastic
May be the first 3 episodes had a slow rhythm but eventually it's a good experience and I'll always be happy to watch Benedict Cumberbach acting
168 Reviews
Tour de Force
digigod-738-67152714 May 2018
Benedict Cumberbatch gets to show all his chops in this brilliantly written, directed and shot tour de force.
We all knew he could act, but here he gets to pull out all the stops. He is entirely believable as an upper class, abused and abandoned boy who turns his life and his will over to Heroin as his only source of succor.
The writing is sublime, you don't want to miss a moment of the razor sharp dialogue or of the inner monologues of Patrick.
The portrayal of a junkie at the peak of his chaos is completely and utterly believable. As one who suffered a childhood under a martinet father and is somewhat acquainted with the self medicating regimes that Patrick practices, I can testify to that.
I urge all viewers with an adult sensibility to watch this bizarrely charming, compassionate, tragic and comedic miniseries...
We all knew he could act, but here he gets to pull out all the stops. He is entirely believable as an upper class, abused and abandoned boy who turns his life and his will over to Heroin as his only source of succor.
The writing is sublime, you don't want to miss a moment of the razor sharp dialogue or of the inner monologues of Patrick.
The portrayal of a junkie at the peak of his chaos is completely and utterly believable. As one who suffered a childhood under a martinet father and is somewhat acquainted with the self medicating regimes that Patrick practices, I can testify to that.
I urge all viewers with an adult sensibility to watch this bizarrely charming, compassionate, tragic and comedic miniseries...
If only it weren't so true
jamesllewellyn22714 May 2018
I've never read the books prior to seeing this piece of work. The idea of a person from such a well off background suffering seems almost alien, almost contemptible. Who, as someone so fortunate can make themselves feel so small when those who have so little can be happy. It is this very dilemma which made me want to dislike the show. And yet, I found this episode, and hopefully the rest extremely touching. If you've ever had trouble with drugs or self-loathing you cannot help but feel the humanity and truth in the work. This work transcends class, the part where Melrose looks content after shooting up, staring aimlessly into the world is so understandable and relatable you can't help but feel compassion and emotion. If you've ever been high or on drugs and looked out to the world while sitting in your bed while content, you'll understand what it is like to be Melrose, that feeling is forever it seems. Yet, when you wake up, the fleeting happiness you felt dispels and you feel the sad self loathing of existence;the tomorrow.
Cumberbatch performs incredibly in capturing the second-guessing inner monologue of someone overwhelmed with emotions. His charisma and ability to act vividly using facial ques and ticks makes this work what it is, yes, the writing is fantastic, but the life Cumberbatch brings to those words is what makes it unique.
Cumberbatch performs incredibly in capturing the second-guessing inner monologue of someone overwhelmed with emotions. His charisma and ability to act vividly using facial ques and ticks makes this work what it is, yes, the writing is fantastic, but the life Cumberbatch brings to those words is what makes it unique.
Smashed it! Perfect adaptation of perfect books
tietjens-0227229 May 2018
The Melrose books are five of the finest of modern times. Short, sharp and endlessly enriching. For the TV adaptation to be so perfectly in synch with the tone and mood and truth of the books is beyond impressive. All components combine to form a complete and entrancing whole.
Superb direction by Edward Berger - that long tracking party shot in Ep 3 is of immense skill ans beauty - hits the subtly different style and heart and tone of each separate book, with the look of a Holbein painting and the unflinching eye of a Hockney. The result is exquisite and simply takes the breath away.
Design and period detail is mesmerising, even down to the Prozac label written on a daisywheel printer. Casting is sheer perfection. Mix the wonderful Pip Torrens with Indira Varma, Holliday Grainger Harriet Walter, Amanda Root and the cream of a British and American supporting cast, and a sensitive child actor in Sebastian Matz,with a chilling Hugo Weaving and a fabulous Jennifer Jason Leigh and any other show would be sublime in itself.
Add Benedict Cumberbatch as the eponymous Patrick Melrose and the whole series transcends into something far beyond sublime.
We are now used to seeing the actor of his generation taking complex and unique characters and making them deep and humane, but this takes performance to a different level and standard.
This is acting by inhabiting a role. This is acting at a dangerous level of self and self exposure far beyond mere performance; This is an acting consciously laying the soul on the line....and revealing that there is still more inside the heart of Benedict Cumberbatch to be revealed..
High intelligence,mordant wit, self knowledge and loathing, turning on a sixpence, great timing and awareness; not tricks, no weaknesses.. Whenever I watch a new Cumberbatch performance I marvel at his range and detail, physical and mental control, depth of understanding and even his eye placement. And this is what you get when heart, intellect and sheer technical skill combine with such fluent artistry. Something wondrous and joyous and with an indication that the tank is nowhere near empty, even when exposing his own soul like this.
How sad that there are people on here who are scoring this amazing series as a 1 and proud of their myopia. As the man said:' when someone puts you down, it is because they have a need to feel taller.'.
Stick with it.....
peterkbiu-293-82728122 May 2018
I have just watched the first 2 episodes and felt the need to comment.
I understand the complaints about the first episode, especially in regards to the self indulgent trip of substance and alcohol abuse. I'll be honest, it bored me, it became tedious and I almost gave up. Episode 2, however, is a different ball game. This goes on to explain his troubled childhood and puts the first episode into perspective. If you found the first episode difficult to watch, please stick with it, I have a feeling it will be worth it.
Useful and challenging
amindostiari24 January 2021
A fascinating mini-series with a challenging story. Benedict Cumberbatch played a great role and he was the soul of the series. The first episode was the best. This mini-series showed how hard it is to quit any addiction and, of course, it dealt with issues of sexual abuse that were challenging. Anyway, this mini-series should not be missed and watching it is not harmful.
Patrick Melrose Is Smashing
Film_Diva27 May 2018
Outstanding performances by all of the actors, especially the leads. It brings the books to life, which seemed to be an impossible task. The design, directing, sound/music all enhance a wonderful production.
Though the main character is rich and privileged, the stories and underlying themes apply to many who have suffered abuse of any kind. The narrative shows the hard work involved in becoming the person you were meant to be.
Kudos to all involved in this magnificent production.
Though the main character is rich and privileged, the stories and underlying themes apply to many who have suffered abuse of any kind. The narrative shows the hard work involved in becoming the person you were meant to be.
Kudos to all involved in this magnificent production.
Amazing acting if you can stomach the subject
timetraveller816 August 2018
Benedict Cumberbatch is brilliant as Patrick Melrose. I must confess that in the middle of the first episode I considered not watching anymore as it is a very distressing issue however I am glad I did. This series touches on many issues and speaking out against what is wrong and defending children at all costs is paramount.
Brilliantly acted; equal parts hilarious and harrowing
Bertaut21 November 2018
Directed by Edward Berger, and written for the screen by David Nicholls, this five-part miniseries is based on the semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St. Aubyn, published between 1992 and 2011.
Each of the episodes is based on a single novel, with each set in a different year. In the first episode, "Bad News (2018)" (set in 1982, and actually the second novel in the series), Patrick (Benedict Cumberbatch), in the midst of a debilitating heroin addiction, receives word that his sybaritic father, David (a truly terrifying Hugo Weaving), has died in New York, and Patrick must collect the body. In "Never Mind (2018)" (the first novel in the sequence), as Patrick goes through heroin withdrawal upon returning from New York, he thinks back to 1967 and his time on holidays in the family's French villa and the first day that David raped him. In "Some Hope (2018)" (set in 1990), Patrick, now clean, reluctantly attends a banquet for Princess Margaret (Harriet Walter). In "Mother's Milk (2018)" (set in 2003), Patrick, now sober for several years, and working as a barrister, visits the villa with his family. His mother, Eleanor (Jennifer Jason Leigh), is extremely sick, having suffered a stroke, and Patrick is shocked to learn that she wants to change her will, leaving the villa to Seamus Dourke (Jonjo O'Neill), a New Age guru whom Patrick believes is manipulating her. The stress results in Patrick drinking heavily. In "At Last (2018)" (set in 2005), Patrick's drinking has spiralled out of control following the dissolution of his marriage.
The show wastes no time in establishing straight out of the gate how severe Patrick's addictions are. In the opening scene of the first episode, he answers a telephone, to learn that his father has died. However, it's immediately apparent that something isn't right with the scene, with Patrick looking and talking as if he is slightly out of sync with everything else. Struggling to keep himself upright, he sways, droops, seems about to fall asleep, all the while holding the receiver in his hand. Then he bends over. Is he consumed with grief? No, he's just spotted a syringe on the ground, and he wants to shoot up. Upon hanging up the phone, he then stares at the syringe, and his eyes come into focus for the first time. It's a stark introduction to the character, immediately establishing where his priorities lie at this point in his life and indicating the hold drugs have on him.
Within this episode, an unusual stylistic device is used to draw us into Patrick's interiority. As he's getting higher and higher, he begins to employ more and more voices, carrying on a dialogue between them, but not in the sense that he speaks aloud in one voice and then answers aloud in another. Instead, the show uses voice-over, with some of the conversation delivered as standard dialogue, spoken out loud by Cumberbatch, and the rest coming from within Patrick's head, so that only the audience and Patrick himself can hear it. This sense of subjectivity is enhanced even further via a plethora of visual techniques. For example, unnatural lighting changes correspond to his mood and glitches in the actual picture of the show itself happen in sync with his psychotic breaks. Most of these techniques are confined to the first episode, but the most prevalent is a technique that's used many times across the five - the bleeding of the past into the present. So, for example, Patrick remembering David shouting at him in the past will jerk awake in the present; a room in the present will remind him of a room in the past, and suddenly he'll be there; a lizard walking on the wall when he was first raped by David is a recurring motif throughout the show; he opens a door in 1982, and we suddenly cut to him standing in an open doorway in 1967.
Whilst the first episode may be the most formally inventive, this is not to say the others are aesthetically uninteresting. Each one is grounded in a different genre, adopting the appropriate tone for that genre, and featuring a vastly different colour palette from the others. "Bad News" is a yuppie version of Trainspotting (1996), a dark night of the soul awash in non-diegetic purples and greens, where the formal chaos mirrors the breakdown of Patrick's mind; "Never Mind" is a lurid, lazy summer retreat, similar in design to something like Call Me by Your Name (2017), with a preponderance of deep yellows and reds, except, of course, the sensuousness of the imagery is here employed ironically; "Some Hope" is an Upstairs, Downstairs (1971)/Gosford Park (2001)-style comedy of manners, examining the ludicrousness of the class system, limiting the palette to mainly binary colours such as white and black; "Mother's Milk" (the only episode set over the course of several days) is partly a fish-out-of-water story and partly a psychosexual intellectual drama, wherein Patrick finds that although the French villa has lost its most hated figure, it still has the power to disturb; and "Mother's Milk" is a cold postmodern tragedy full of angst and unlooked-for self-discovery, dominated by metallics, greys, and blues. What Berger manages to pull off across these five hours is to force this compendium of different styles, themes, and tones into something resembling a cohesive artistic statement.
When it's not working to try to convey Patrick's subjectivity, the show deals with a number of themes; the ridiculousness of British royalty, the poisonous nature of the aristocracy, the corrupting power of wealth, the illogical importance of class, the unreality of the public school system, the cyclical nature of bad parenting, unfulfilled and/or thwarted ambition, depression, sexual abuse, and stoicism in the face of any ill (stiff-upper-lipped Britishness and all). However, perhaps the most salient theme is the idea that when you deeply hurt a child, when you do something to damage a child's very soul, the effects will continue to be felt by any who come into contact with that child for many years after the fact.
As is alluded to throughout the first episode, and as becomes painfully clear in the second, when he was a child, Patrick was completely at the mercy of an utter monster. After calling young Patrick to his room, ostensibly to tell him the story of King Shaka, but actually to rape him, David explains, speaking of Shaka's treatment of his soldiers, "what had felt like cruelty at the time was actually a gift. It was actually love. I don't expect you to thank me now, but I hope perhaps when you're older, you'll be grateful for the skill of detachment that I've instilled." Indeed, this scene is most chilling in what it doesn't show. When Patrick first comes to David's room, there is a shot of the perfectly-made bed on which David sits. After Patrick leaves the room, however, there is a shot of the bed in disarray. We never see what happens, because we don't need to. This is as well-directed a bit of cinematic shorthand as you're ever likely to see. Horrific in its simplicity.
For all this childhood trauma, however, the editing on occasion suggests, especially in episode four, that Patrick is turning into just as bad a parent as David (molestation aside). Seeing Patrick standing on the same balcony that David once used to lord it over his staff and family may not be particularly subtle, but it is effective. Indeed, this is the same balcony where David's sadistic power games were first revealed to the audience - spotting a maid precariously carrying a tray laden with china, David calls her, forcing her to stop, tray in hand. The longer he leaves her standing, the more difficult it becomes for her to hold the tray, and the more the china clinks, all the while he stares down at her, grinning, saying nothing, revelling in the power he holds over her.
Another important theme is a mockery of the aristocracy. This is seen most clearly in the third episode, and especially in the odious character of Princess Margaret. However, the theme is present throughout all five episodes in one shape or another. In "Never Mind", for example, the Melrose family and their circle of friends are shown to be humourless, vainglorious prigs. The show depicts a decadent, toxic, emotionally calcified, and morally bankrupt class of people belonging to another age, that has somehow lingered into modernity and is desperately holding on to its outdated traditions.
Of course, this also raises perhaps one of the most obvious objections to the show - "why should we care?" Well, in part, we shouldn't. Essentially, this is the story of a spoiled rich kid. It's the very definition of white male privilege, which isn't exactly a very sympathetic theme at the moment. And it never really manages to shake that identifying characteristic. But there is more to it than that. The narrative may not be especially interesting, focusing more on isolated anecdotal-type incidents rather than a classic cause-and-effect plot, but for the themes, for the humour, for what it says about the British peerage, and, especially, for Cumberbatch's performance, this is certainly worth checking out. True, so dominant is his work that on more than one occasion, it effectively turns into a one-man play, meaning if you're not a Cumberbatch fan, you definitely won't enjoy it. In that sense, he dominates proceedings too much. But despite the fact that we know Patrick is an obnoxious addict, there is enough humanity to ensure we remember the very real trauma beneath the bluster. And in that sense, it remains always compelling - brilliantly acted, and with a lot to say about a myriad of issues.
Each of the episodes is based on a single novel, with each set in a different year. In the first episode, "Bad News (2018)" (set in 1982, and actually the second novel in the series), Patrick (Benedict Cumberbatch), in the midst of a debilitating heroin addiction, receives word that his sybaritic father, David (a truly terrifying Hugo Weaving), has died in New York, and Patrick must collect the body. In "Never Mind (2018)" (the first novel in the sequence), as Patrick goes through heroin withdrawal upon returning from New York, he thinks back to 1967 and his time on holidays in the family's French villa and the first day that David raped him. In "Some Hope (2018)" (set in 1990), Patrick, now clean, reluctantly attends a banquet for Princess Margaret (Harriet Walter). In "Mother's Milk (2018)" (set in 2003), Patrick, now sober for several years, and working as a barrister, visits the villa with his family. His mother, Eleanor (Jennifer Jason Leigh), is extremely sick, having suffered a stroke, and Patrick is shocked to learn that she wants to change her will, leaving the villa to Seamus Dourke (Jonjo O'Neill), a New Age guru whom Patrick believes is manipulating her. The stress results in Patrick drinking heavily. In "At Last (2018)" (set in 2005), Patrick's drinking has spiralled out of control following the dissolution of his marriage.
The show wastes no time in establishing straight out of the gate how severe Patrick's addictions are. In the opening scene of the first episode, he answers a telephone, to learn that his father has died. However, it's immediately apparent that something isn't right with the scene, with Patrick looking and talking as if he is slightly out of sync with everything else. Struggling to keep himself upright, he sways, droops, seems about to fall asleep, all the while holding the receiver in his hand. Then he bends over. Is he consumed with grief? No, he's just spotted a syringe on the ground, and he wants to shoot up. Upon hanging up the phone, he then stares at the syringe, and his eyes come into focus for the first time. It's a stark introduction to the character, immediately establishing where his priorities lie at this point in his life and indicating the hold drugs have on him.
Within this episode, an unusual stylistic device is used to draw us into Patrick's interiority. As he's getting higher and higher, he begins to employ more and more voices, carrying on a dialogue between them, but not in the sense that he speaks aloud in one voice and then answers aloud in another. Instead, the show uses voice-over, with some of the conversation delivered as standard dialogue, spoken out loud by Cumberbatch, and the rest coming from within Patrick's head, so that only the audience and Patrick himself can hear it. This sense of subjectivity is enhanced even further via a plethora of visual techniques. For example, unnatural lighting changes correspond to his mood and glitches in the actual picture of the show itself happen in sync with his psychotic breaks. Most of these techniques are confined to the first episode, but the most prevalent is a technique that's used many times across the five - the bleeding of the past into the present. So, for example, Patrick remembering David shouting at him in the past will jerk awake in the present; a room in the present will remind him of a room in the past, and suddenly he'll be there; a lizard walking on the wall when he was first raped by David is a recurring motif throughout the show; he opens a door in 1982, and we suddenly cut to him standing in an open doorway in 1967.
Whilst the first episode may be the most formally inventive, this is not to say the others are aesthetically uninteresting. Each one is grounded in a different genre, adopting the appropriate tone for that genre, and featuring a vastly different colour palette from the others. "Bad News" is a yuppie version of Trainspotting (1996), a dark night of the soul awash in non-diegetic purples and greens, where the formal chaos mirrors the breakdown of Patrick's mind; "Never Mind" is a lurid, lazy summer retreat, similar in design to something like Call Me by Your Name (2017), with a preponderance of deep yellows and reds, except, of course, the sensuousness of the imagery is here employed ironically; "Some Hope" is an Upstairs, Downstairs (1971)/Gosford Park (2001)-style comedy of manners, examining the ludicrousness of the class system, limiting the palette to mainly binary colours such as white and black; "Mother's Milk" (the only episode set over the course of several days) is partly a fish-out-of-water story and partly a psychosexual intellectual drama, wherein Patrick finds that although the French villa has lost its most hated figure, it still has the power to disturb; and "Mother's Milk" is a cold postmodern tragedy full of angst and unlooked-for self-discovery, dominated by metallics, greys, and blues. What Berger manages to pull off across these five hours is to force this compendium of different styles, themes, and tones into something resembling a cohesive artistic statement.
When it's not working to try to convey Patrick's subjectivity, the show deals with a number of themes; the ridiculousness of British royalty, the poisonous nature of the aristocracy, the corrupting power of wealth, the illogical importance of class, the unreality of the public school system, the cyclical nature of bad parenting, unfulfilled and/or thwarted ambition, depression, sexual abuse, and stoicism in the face of any ill (stiff-upper-lipped Britishness and all). However, perhaps the most salient theme is the idea that when you deeply hurt a child, when you do something to damage a child's very soul, the effects will continue to be felt by any who come into contact with that child for many years after the fact.
As is alluded to throughout the first episode, and as becomes painfully clear in the second, when he was a child, Patrick was completely at the mercy of an utter monster. After calling young Patrick to his room, ostensibly to tell him the story of King Shaka, but actually to rape him, David explains, speaking of Shaka's treatment of his soldiers, "what had felt like cruelty at the time was actually a gift. It was actually love. I don't expect you to thank me now, but I hope perhaps when you're older, you'll be grateful for the skill of detachment that I've instilled." Indeed, this scene is most chilling in what it doesn't show. When Patrick first comes to David's room, there is a shot of the perfectly-made bed on which David sits. After Patrick leaves the room, however, there is a shot of the bed in disarray. We never see what happens, because we don't need to. This is as well-directed a bit of cinematic shorthand as you're ever likely to see. Horrific in its simplicity.
For all this childhood trauma, however, the editing on occasion suggests, especially in episode four, that Patrick is turning into just as bad a parent as David (molestation aside). Seeing Patrick standing on the same balcony that David once used to lord it over his staff and family may not be particularly subtle, but it is effective. Indeed, this is the same balcony where David's sadistic power games were first revealed to the audience - spotting a maid precariously carrying a tray laden with china, David calls her, forcing her to stop, tray in hand. The longer he leaves her standing, the more difficult it becomes for her to hold the tray, and the more the china clinks, all the while he stares down at her, grinning, saying nothing, revelling in the power he holds over her.
Another important theme is a mockery of the aristocracy. This is seen most clearly in the third episode, and especially in the odious character of Princess Margaret. However, the theme is present throughout all five episodes in one shape or another. In "Never Mind", for example, the Melrose family and their circle of friends are shown to be humourless, vainglorious prigs. The show depicts a decadent, toxic, emotionally calcified, and morally bankrupt class of people belonging to another age, that has somehow lingered into modernity and is desperately holding on to its outdated traditions.
Of course, this also raises perhaps one of the most obvious objections to the show - "why should we care?" Well, in part, we shouldn't. Essentially, this is the story of a spoiled rich kid. It's the very definition of white male privilege, which isn't exactly a very sympathetic theme at the moment. And it never really manages to shake that identifying characteristic. But there is more to it than that. The narrative may not be especially interesting, focusing more on isolated anecdotal-type incidents rather than a classic cause-and-effect plot, but for the themes, for the humour, for what it says about the British peerage, and, especially, for Cumberbatch's performance, this is certainly worth checking out. True, so dominant is his work that on more than one occasion, it effectively turns into a one-man play, meaning if you're not a Cumberbatch fan, you definitely won't enjoy it. In that sense, he dominates proceedings too much. But despite the fact that we know Patrick is an obnoxious addict, there is enough humanity to ensure we remember the very real trauma beneath the bluster. And in that sense, it remains always compelling - brilliantly acted, and with a lot to say about a myriad of issues.
DRAMATIC ADDICTION
kirbylee70-599-52617928 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I wasn't sure what to expect when I put in PATRICK MELROSE. I'm a fan of star Benedict Cumberbatch since the Sherlock Holmes series. I'd never heard of the novels it is based on by Edward St. Aubyn but they must be popular since the series is promoted for that heavily. What I ended up watching was confusing at first and satisfying by the last episode of this mini-series.
The series is about the main character and jumps back and forth through time not only with the focus of each episode but in each episode as well. Don't let that scare you off though. And don't let the first episode scare you off either. I was dreading moving on to the second after watching it but now I'm glad I did.
Episode one takes place when Patrick (Cumberbatch) is at his worst. A heroin addict he wakes to the news that his father has passed away. He now must head to New York City to collect his father's remains and return them to England. As he heads out he tells his best friend Johnny (Prasanna Puwanarajah) that he's determined to stop doing drugs cold turkey. By the time he reaches NYC he's looking for a dealer to supply him. The episode is jarring in both subject matter and style with quick cuts and frantic pacing that pulls the viewer into the world of a heroin junkie. Not a pleasant experience both for the junkie and the viewer. But along the way we're provided small glimpses of the past that will eventually help us to learn why Patrick is the way he is.
Episode two takes on a whole different aspect. We see Patrick as a child and his parents, Eleanor (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and David (Hugo Weaving). The pair seem like complete opposites. Eleanor is an alcoholic and reclusive as she avoids contact with her own husband. David is a bully and mean spirited sort who not only belittles his wife and child but anyone else he comes into contact with. The entire thing paints a bad portrait of the upper crust of Britain going so far as to even take shots at Princess Margaret. Once more we have glimpses as to something troubling, destructive and truly evil that had an effect on Patrick but we're still not quite certain. Eventually all will be revealed.
I hate to go on about the rest of the series since its only 5 episodes long. Suffice to say that the acting on hand here is amazing to behold with complex characters that are delivered to us in bits and pieces with backgrounds that are peeled to reveal themselves like an onion, both in the fact that there are layers and that by the end you may find yourself crying. One could single out Cumberbatch as the best among them but at the same time Weaving creates a character that you loathe so much it will make it hard to not think of this role in future outings. And Leigh also is stunning here, so much so that at first I didn't recognize her. She's grown into a wonderful actress all those years since we can recall her in FAST TIME AT RIDGEMONT HIGH.
The mini-series opens as a complete downer with a topic most will feel uncomfortable with. By the end there will remain a feeling of discomfort but also a glimpse of hope as well. Patrick is one of the most well-rounded characters to be found and Cumberbatch gives him life. I don't know that this series should carry on but this one can be enjoyed and should be.
The series is about the main character and jumps back and forth through time not only with the focus of each episode but in each episode as well. Don't let that scare you off though. And don't let the first episode scare you off either. I was dreading moving on to the second after watching it but now I'm glad I did.
Episode one takes place when Patrick (Cumberbatch) is at his worst. A heroin addict he wakes to the news that his father has passed away. He now must head to New York City to collect his father's remains and return them to England. As he heads out he tells his best friend Johnny (Prasanna Puwanarajah) that he's determined to stop doing drugs cold turkey. By the time he reaches NYC he's looking for a dealer to supply him. The episode is jarring in both subject matter and style with quick cuts and frantic pacing that pulls the viewer into the world of a heroin junkie. Not a pleasant experience both for the junkie and the viewer. But along the way we're provided small glimpses of the past that will eventually help us to learn why Patrick is the way he is.
Episode two takes on a whole different aspect. We see Patrick as a child and his parents, Eleanor (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and David (Hugo Weaving). The pair seem like complete opposites. Eleanor is an alcoholic and reclusive as she avoids contact with her own husband. David is a bully and mean spirited sort who not only belittles his wife and child but anyone else he comes into contact with. The entire thing paints a bad portrait of the upper crust of Britain going so far as to even take shots at Princess Margaret. Once more we have glimpses as to something troubling, destructive and truly evil that had an effect on Patrick but we're still not quite certain. Eventually all will be revealed.
I hate to go on about the rest of the series since its only 5 episodes long. Suffice to say that the acting on hand here is amazing to behold with complex characters that are delivered to us in bits and pieces with backgrounds that are peeled to reveal themselves like an onion, both in the fact that there are layers and that by the end you may find yourself crying. One could single out Cumberbatch as the best among them but at the same time Weaving creates a character that you loathe so much it will make it hard to not think of this role in future outings. And Leigh also is stunning here, so much so that at first I didn't recognize her. She's grown into a wonderful actress all those years since we can recall her in FAST TIME AT RIDGEMONT HIGH.
The mini-series opens as a complete downer with a topic most will feel uncomfortable with. By the end there will remain a feeling of discomfort but also a glimpse of hope as well. Patrick is one of the most well-rounded characters to be found and Cumberbatch gives him life. I don't know that this series should carry on but this one can be enjoyed and should be.
One of the finest Mini-Series ever created with a man on top of his game
pere-2536610 March 2019
This is seriously superb filmmaking - incredible direction and wonderful acting, including a supporting cast which shines. Hugo Weaving and Jennifer Jason Leigh are outstanding. But, of course, it's Cumberbatch who steals the show. His range here is absolutely incredible; it's maybe his finest hour on screen. Well done, HBO!
Brilliantly acted but utterly depressing
xdxjnhuu24 November 2021
If misery is your thing then you'll love this mini series. It was step too far for me and I pity the author whose mind thought this whole plot up. I pray it's not biographical in any way. Now I'm off for a shower. I feel dirty.
Biggest load of rubbish I've seen in a long time!
andy74220 May 2018
I only kept watching it for so long because I was waiting for a good bit.
Maybe it's just not my style, ok, maybe some people really like it (honestly, I find the 10's hard to understand!). But I am entitled to my opinion, that's why the reviews are here. It just rambled on and on and... well I gave it a 1 because 0 isn't possible - there was nothing here
True to the Novels But Strong on it's Own
harringtonjacob15 May 2018
I finished the novels only a few weeks before watching the first episode and my rating thus far is only based on the first episode.
The genius of the novels is turning such ugliness into something beautiful. The bookend decision to start the first episode with the second novel was a smart one from the overall story standpoint as well as thematically.
However, the downside, is that the second novel/ first Espinosa is probably the toughest watch/ read as it is Patrick at his worst.
Having said that, in a mannner true to the source material, the show creators have managed to take license where necessary in order to stay true to the character as well as the themes.
The "plot" is not relevant. It's takes a long term view to realize that. If you had to pick the worst day of your life and watch it, that would not be pleasant either. But the genius of the source material as well as the first episode is that we can relate to Patrick- warts-and-all.
Self loathing is relatable to manner, no matter how extreme. This is the first chapter in the story of a man deciding to stop reacting to life and start responding.
If you can see past the "ugly" you will find the beauty. Much like in life.
I look forward to seeing the upcoming episodes and watching the brilliant Benedict Cumberbatch play the role that I can no longer see anyone else in.
Funny, disturbing, tragic, brilliant.
david.sampson115 July 2018
Superbly scripted drama, definitely not an advert for drink or drug abuse, harrowing and at times painful to watch, yet surprisingly touching and hilarious in places. Benedict Cumberbatch absolutely acts his socks off, surely he is one of the finest actors of his generation. In the final episode he achieved something very rare indeed, I forgot I was watching Benedict Cumberbatch and that the events causing him such pain had not actually happened to the actor. A slight watering of the eyes occurred for thIs chap, such was the intensity of the performance I was watching. Glorious.
Beyond good!
tonytomato913 May 2018
Favorite line from episode 1: "What's the the point of a f*cking window when you can't jump out of it?" Patrick Melrose is awesome. You won't be able to take your eyes off the screen. I only wish that I could binge-watch the entire series, but tonight is only episode 1. This show is a triumph. One more thing: This is only my first time seeing Cumberbatch in anything. I'm now obsessed with him.
Stick with it....
fluffy25605 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
I don't know the books, never heard of them or the author but I dipped in. I absolutely hated the first episode, so self-destructive and crazy. But I stuck with it through episode 2. Only in episode 3, you see what the previous two were about. After that you need to binge it. It gets overwhelming and suffocates you when you finally understand. The cast is stellar, beautifully acted but never sentimental. The characters are superbly portrayed. It must have been an actor's dream to be cast in this mini-series. You just want to slap Patrick's father (Hugo Weaving) and give his mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) a good dunking from a bucket of cold water for being in the centre of a circle of utterly dysfunctional people feeding off each other like vampires. Benedict Cumberbatch does more than an excellent job of portraying the broken but eventually stable Patrick. The actor young Patrick (Sebastian Maltz) is excellent too. All I can say is stick with it, it's worth it.
What a brilliant, brilliant... brilliant performance!
Gernot S.14 May 2018
Just stunning. I hope the story holds up, yet the skills of Mister Cumberbatch are worth the while all alone. I'm pretty old now (in fact, almost, to the month, exactely as old as Mr. C.), but there it is. A performance that still amazes me.
Thanks.
Amazing Choice from Amazing Actor
rnafady22 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
SPOILER: I just watched "Infinity War" in the theater and I adored Mr. Cumberbatch's performance, as usual he's elegant, neat and handsome, I saw "Melrose"'s poster while surfing the internet, I dug deep, then watched the stunning first episode, shocked when I knew it's all based on a true story!
I know how a child's molestation can ruin his life, everything happens to us in childhood leaves scars, and Patrick was molested, abused by a cruel father who's played my Mr. Hugo waiving "Perfect Casting" FTW!
I'm expecting so much from this series, love how it's condensed in 5 1-hour long episodes, unlike the other verrry long very boring series! watching the first series, seeing the colors, chroma and the cinematic direction worthes 10 full stars, it's very hard to any actor to do a role like "Patrick" specially when your most of your lines are a "Monologue", acting all by your self, representing the addict's suffer, the addict is not a happy person, not a high person all the time, he's just a person in constant severe pain like "Patrick".
willing to see the next episodes and Hail Mr. Cumberbatch!
I know how a child's molestation can ruin his life, everything happens to us in childhood leaves scars, and Patrick was molested, abused by a cruel father who's played my Mr. Hugo waiving "Perfect Casting" FTW!
I'm expecting so much from this series, love how it's condensed in 5 1-hour long episodes, unlike the other verrry long very boring series! watching the first series, seeing the colors, chroma and the cinematic direction worthes 10 full stars, it's very hard to any actor to do a role like "Patrick" specially when your most of your lines are a "Monologue", acting all by your self, representing the addict's suffer, the addict is not a happy person, not a high person all the time, he's just a person in constant severe pain like "Patrick".
willing to see the next episodes and Hail Mr. Cumberbatch!
Beyond Exceptional
DeadPool_1214 May 2018
Ahhh, the suffering of the super-rich...
korereviews25 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
10 stars for the performances, especially Jennifer Jason Leigh's, but -5 for the story, which feels entirely anachronistic, tone-deaf and out of place in the 2018 cultural context. Honestly, who thought another story about the suffering of uber-privileged white males needed to be told now, and why? And the female characters aren't much more sympathetic or interesting here either. Everyone is rich, perverse, lazy, and entitled. And some of the male characters are psychopathically misogynistic and cruel. Of course, the suffering of young Patrick is terrible, but the underlying assumption here (as ever with these things) is that his suffering is somehow more interesting, sympathetic and special because he's a good-looking, aristocratic male. As far as I'm concerned, every character in this story can throw themselves out a window. How about creating some decent roles for the excellent female actresses so they can use their skills to play something other than abused alcoholic housewives or gold-diggers?
Superb Drama portraying Human Frailty
tm-sheehan5 September 2018
Don't often review Television series but Patrick Melrose is a stand out -.
It Convinced me that Benedict Cumberbatch in my opinion is one of the finest actors on the planet.. His role of Patrick Melrose is his finest since his acclaimed dual roles as Victor Frankenstein and his monster in the National theatre 2011 production.
Based on a novel by David Nicholls and directed by Edward Berger this series is at times confronting and very disturbing especially episode 1 in its portrayal of addiction and the family secrets and dysfunction.
If you enjoyed August Osage County or the frailties and dark humour ofTennessee Williams and Edward Albee 's characters and style I'm sure you'll enjoy Patrick Melrose.
All the cast are superb , especially Hugo Weaving as Patrick's sad angry and monster of a father and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Eleanor his alcoholic mother also great performances from Jessica Raine ( Call the Midwife) and Pip Torrens .
I've ordered the DVD for my collection.
It Convinced me that Benedict Cumberbatch in my opinion is one of the finest actors on the planet.. His role of Patrick Melrose is his finest since his acclaimed dual roles as Victor Frankenstein and his monster in the National theatre 2011 production.
Based on a novel by David Nicholls and directed by Edward Berger this series is at times confronting and very disturbing especially episode 1 in its portrayal of addiction and the family secrets and dysfunction.
If you enjoyed August Osage County or the frailties and dark humour ofTennessee Williams and Edward Albee 's characters and style I'm sure you'll enjoy Patrick Melrose.
All the cast are superb , especially Hugo Weaving as Patrick's sad angry and monster of a father and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Eleanor his alcoholic mother also great performances from Jessica Raine ( Call the Midwife) and Pip Torrens .
I've ordered the DVD for my collection.
Proving again that every novel is an act of revenge?
skepticskeptical25 July 2019
Pretty sure that I won´t be reading the semi-autobiographical novels of Edward St. Aubyn, on which Patrick Melrose is based. I am so very sorry that any boy (or girl) should be put through such an ordeal, but I am equally sad that the rest of Aubyn´s writerly life then evidently became a quest for revenge. Well, it looks like he got it. Both his mother and his father are now etched into history as villains for eternity--or until the books and this series disappear.
On a brighter note, Patrick Melrose displays consistently excellent cinematography, and the acting of the lead protagonist (Cumberbatch) is quite good. I should say that the first episode struck me as gratuitous and sensationalist, and I am surprised that I continued on. It does get much better, but throughout all five episodes of the series the content is a clear and simple victimology theme repeated in a fugue-like manner.
One small nit-picky thing: how could the eight-year-old boy have such dark brown eyes, when the man had light blue? Does that ever happen in reality, where the color of eyes changes from dark to light over time?
On a brighter note, Patrick Melrose displays consistently excellent cinematography, and the acting of the lead protagonist (Cumberbatch) is quite good. I should say that the first episode struck me as gratuitous and sensationalist, and I am surprised that I continued on. It does get much better, but throughout all five episodes of the series the content is a clear and simple victimology theme repeated in a fugue-like manner.
One small nit-picky thing: how could the eight-year-old boy have such dark brown eyes, when the man had light blue? Does that ever happen in reality, where the color of eyes changes from dark to light over time?
Abuse by Silver Spoon of Fakery
industrialwonk20 May 2018
I don't think many people would Identify with a biopic character that has no connection with real people or even reality. I have little room for contrived stories because film and television has done such a good job portraying flawed people such as Larry Flint, Kurt Cobain, Hunter S Thompson, Steve Jobs, Johnny Rotten, and a near endless list of of others tormented by the human condition. If over the top behavior and psychodrama was the objective then Real Housewives would have sufficed. Frankly I don't care who the actors are, stories are all about people; there is nobody to identify with here.
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