Patrick Melrose (2018)
Benedict Cumberbatch steals the show in this deep and powerful portrayal of addiction
Spoilers ahead, but will try to keep it intriguing anyways.
The best thing about these mini series is that they have just about the perfect run time to narrate a story with fully developed characters, but no so long that it keeps us waiting for new seasons every year with the chance of losing steam or changing writers. For this reason, I’ve found myself watching more and more mini series over the past couple of years. Few of my favourites have been The People vs O.J.Simpson, The Night Manager, Big Little lies and all the three seasons of Fargo. For anyone looking to watch something this year, Showtime’s Patrick Melrose is a must. It’s a five part mini series based on autobiographical novels by Edward St Aubyn. Edward has been lauded famously for his work on the British upper class society. Patrick Melrose is an account of Edward’s life through drug addiction and depression as a result of his traumatic childhood. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the role of Patrick Melrose, a well-born Englishman addicted to a number of things, including shooting heroin, cocaine and needles themselves.
The first episode “Bad News” opens in 1982 New York, as the phone rings and a woozy sounding man lifts the call. “ I have some bad news Patrick, your father is no more”, says the person on the other side. There is a brief pause, and then Benedict Cumberbatch sinks to the floor, not in grief, but to pick up a bloody syringe he dropped. After hanging up, his face slowly transforms. His eyes close, he exhales through his nose and the corner of his mouth twists into a smile, because the heroin is now in his blood and also because he is now released from the abusive relationship and trauma of his childhood — the one which is responsible for his current state. He goes to New York to retrieve his father’s ashes, and tells himself that he will survive the trip clean. He barely makes it to his hotel room before he breaks that promise. He bargains his way into shopping for quaaludes and speed in Central Park, slipping into the oblivion. At this point the action begins, taking the form of a downward spiral. Most of his consumption takes place in his hotel suite itself, where he hides under sofas, lies in bathtubs and wretchedly rolls on the plush rugs. As Patrick goes through the process of disposing his father’s remains, a flashback sequence starts, which gives clues to why Patrick is the way he is, hinting that his father abused him throughout his childhood. The episode ends with a botched suicide attempt, and Patrick calling his friend Jimmy to inform him that he is quitting drugs.
The second episode “Never Mind” begins to describe Patrick’s childhood. We only see glimpses of adult Patrick in this episode, who is mostly lying around shivering in the back seat of a car or in a bed at home. He begins to recollect the suffering of a a childhood holiday to the south of France, where his father David (Hugo Weaving) and mother Eleanor (Jennifer Jason Leigh) played host at their house in Lacoste. The well shot gorgeous mansion, the trees and the warm background colour setting all form a style which stays consistent throughout the series. As we get to know David, we realise the kind of control he had over everyone. Friends, family and staff tiptoed around him, constantly being betrayed by creaking floorboards. The most innocent victim here being young Patrick (Sebastian Maltz), seen repeatedly trying to escape from his father, through the fields and into the woods. Even though David seemed like the villain, he was not the only one. With twitches and smirks he showed us just how much he enjoyed the suffering he caused, but also suggested the odd pang of conscience. All the visitors were too evil in their own ways. Through the dinner conversations, we see their vicious shades, particularly Nicholas Pratt (Pip Torrens), David’s schoolfriend. He blabbers rubbish and leaches on to David to the extent everyone leaves the dinner table. Meanwhile, his mother Eleanor, who has a stark resemblance to present day Patrick with all the woozines, spends her time hiding away from her husband for the same reasons as everyone, in a fog of pills and alcohol.
In the third episode “Some Hope,” It’s 1990 and we see a 30 year old Patrick, who is now drug-free or so it seems, as he simmers wryly and follows the same low-key self-loathing as before. Patrick is invited to a birthday party which is being attended by Princess Margaret. We observe Patrick trying to put his substance abuse in the past with help from his friend Johnny who, himself, is in a therapy group. Sonny is now married to Bridget, who was last seen taking pity on Patrick when he was a boy in France. She has transformed into an social climber, too involved with her peer group, that she is unaware of her husband’s philandering. The princess reminds us again of Nicholas Pratt, full with bitterness and pride, being nasty to people. As Patrick lights up old flames with Johnny’s wife upstairs, Margaret downstairs insults a kid for trying to meet her. Patrick later confesses about his traumatic childhood to Johnny. As we see him befriending Bridget’s cousin Mary , his future looks promising. The story seems to be coming out of the heroin arc and towards the light.
The fourth episode is called “Mother’s Milk”. Picking up from the last episode’s newly found ray of light, we find ourselves in a farther future, where Patrick is visiting his old mother, who is on the verge of death, along with his wife and kids. Even though the self constraint to stay clean reminisces in Patrick, the loath is still there. Infact, it is worse now. He is very short tempered, constantly thinks about old wounds, and is on the path of self sabotage. The point where it gets really gloomy is when we see parallels from between his dad and Patrick, in his relationship with his son. Edward doesn’t back out at this point and stays bold, as we see Patrick also cheating on his wife with his friend Julia. I really like how Patrick’s life is messy and we are never allowed to assign binary moral labels to Patrick. Eleanor wishes for euthanasia, asking a disappointed Patrick to fulfil her wish as he still tries to comprehend how she stripped him of his inheritance by giving away everything to charity. The conversations in this episode are vile, but the background settings seem to be moving to a contrasting softer side. At this point, we see the bigger picture. Addiction is bad, but the depression that bundles along with it is worse. Patrick’s future starts to look pretty bleak at this point.
The final episode, “At Last”, is set even further in time, at Eleanor’s funeral. The funeral is probably the most fitting setting for the finale, with Patrick trying to gather all the thoughts and memories of his mother, only to end up with a question mark in his speech. We once again have a flashback, to the scene where Patrick tells his mother about his father. The whole show builds up to this point, and probably the most gut wrenching two seconds after which Eleanor shrugs away Patrick by replying “Me too” (when he tells her his father raped him). Even though it might feel anti-climatic, it definitely isn’t. As Eleanor brings the attention back to herself, the rage which was filled inside Patrick is now inside us, the viewers, and funnily enough, no more inside Patrick. Cutting back to the funeral scene, Patrick breaks down and walks out. There are intermittent scenes with Patrick in a psychiatric ward, scornful at first, later helped by the treatment. He has consolidated with his parents’ behaviour, realising that only the damaged can cause the damage. That message of love is what we’re left with as Patrick faces the fact that the last of his parents’ circle is gone. Patrick is faced with a choice in the end, where he has to chose to call the waitress he met at the funeral or have dinner with his family. “I’ve decided I’m bored of ghosts and want to see people instead,” he says on the phone, before we return for one last time to the house in France and the abusive dad. The last scene is an unclear conversation between Patrick and his dad. “It’s wrong, you’re wrong,” he asserts to his terrifying father. “Nobody should do that to anybody else.” It’s unclear whether the young Patrick really said this or it was just a figment of his imagination. Either ways, it doesn’t matter. What matters was Patrick finally triumphed the moment.
The premise of Patrick Melrose is almost like an extended sequence from the back half of The Wolf of Wall Street — think Leo barely able to make it to his car — as Cumberbatch’s character numbs everything approaching reality and nearly gets himself killed in about a hundred ways. The perfectly lucid descriptions of chaotic mental states, the murky psychology of Patrick is captured by Benedict Cumberbatch in what I can say, the best way possible. He compellingly froths, hops, and slithers with junk sickness, giggles with mania and writhes in revulsion. There’s always a feeling of “why should I care” all throughout the show. But Cumberbatch kept me engaged. It’s a one-man show for me, and he was entirely up to the twisted challenge, reminding you how really good he can be when given tricky material. He realizes that Patrick is more than just an obnoxious prick, finding the shades of clear trauma under the character, especially as he gets closer and closer to rock bottom.
Coming to the rest of the work, the dialogue is sharp and tight, keeping it a very intelligent adaption. There are other fine performances — Sebastian Maltz, very haunting as young Patrick; Hugo Weaving as his monster father; Jennifer Jason Leigh as his wasted, spaced out mother. The taking is very captivating — from the slow quaalude hits to the sudden jerky camera movements as Patrick rushes to the loo. All in all, it is an immersive experience — not just watching Patrick, but being him as well.
