Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Waking the Dead: Series 6, Episode 6 – “The Fall: Part 2” (2007)

 
Not quite sure what I think of the resolution to this story.  It’s a little too busy for my taste, going for convoluted in place of complex.  We ultimately wind up with five or six different plots, each branching out from the central mystery of the two dead bodies.  There’s self-flagellation and biological parent drama, there are gold bars and an ominously-padlocked freezer, there’s a memory of a family enjoying some Jonestown refreshment.  Something for everyone, I guess?
 
For his part, PC does well.  Lucien has some serious crazy going on, and PC offers a good range of insanity:  creepy-crazy, foreboding-crazy, and sad-crazy all get turns in the limelight.  Plus, we see a few flashbacks to Lucien’s life before the murder of the mid-coital couple.  Based on what the episode reveals about Lucien’s history, his mental state was probably just as fractured back then, but it certainly doesn’t come through.  He was a big-shot banker with incredible power; you’d think someone as unstable as Lucien wouldn’t be able to get the opportunities for such career advancement. 
 
But like I said, you don’t see it in the flashbacks.  He’s stressed, and he’s more than a little desperate, but he gives no obvious impression of his mental health issues.  That’s interesting to me.  Was he repressing?  Hiding – putting on a mask so no one would see?  Did he genuinely used to have it more together?  Has he just gone downhill in the past few years?  If he instead addressed his problems, could he have gotten help?  The episode doesn’t answer any of these questions, because it’s not interested in them, but it’s the kind of thing I get curious about.
 
Accent Watch
 
I’m gonna go with RP.  A number of Scottish slips, especially in the vowels, but I think he’s putting something on, and it sounds RP-ish to me.
 
Recommend?
 
In General – Not really.  A middling example of its type, and I wasn’t terribly impressed with the writing.
 
PC-wise – Maybe.  PC has lots of screentime and lots to do, but things do get a little scenery-chewing from time to time.
 
Warnings
 
Add in some dark elements from Lucien’s backstory.

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