by Helen Langdon
This week, the No. 9 we were Inside was a theatre dressing room, mostly set during a run of Macbeth. Of course, it being Macbeth, there were usurpations, manipulations and bloody hands galore.
This week, the No. 9 we were Inside was a theatre dressing room, mostly set during a run of Macbeth. Of course, it being Macbeth, there were usurpations, manipulations and bloody hands galore.
Each episode thus far has been its own self-contained story. But The Understudy felt less like a complete story and more like a series of scenes from different points in a film. This might be due to the division of the episode into a five-act structure, which works to echo the Shakespeare themes, but means that a lot of story feels like it’s missing. For example, why exactly did Laura kill herself? Just because of Jim’s rejection? That's hinted to be the reason, but given that she was earlier considering ending the engagement herself, it's a weak one. And then there's Kirstie. The reveal of her as a benevolent stalker was a twist, but it seemed to come out of nowhere. The only hint we really got of even friendly feelings was the gift she gave Jim on his first night. It’s definitely a surprise after Laura pretty much admitted that she’d had something to do with Tony’s accident, which is probably why Jim assumes her guilt.
But given just how hard we were being hammered about the head with Laura’s parallels to Lady Macbeth, she could never have truly been the culprit. The Shakespeare references worked best when they were subtle, such as the hallucinations experienced by Jim and Laura. The visions were so vague that they drew you in, and made you wonder why exactly Jim would end up with blood on his hands. But the best moment was when Laura heard something in the shower, tying in as it did with Macbeth’s speech over the intercom. As she creeps towards the shower curtain, where she will eventually kill herself, Tony is on stage lamenting his Lady Macbeth’s suicide. Soundtracking her reveal of the empty shower with the single word “nothing” was a beautiful piece of televisual suspense. More could have been made of that, using the unique location to its fullest potential, as opposed to limiting it to this and Tony’s accident.
But given just how hard we were being hammered about the head with Laura’s parallels to Lady Macbeth, she could never have truly been the culprit. The Shakespeare references worked best when they were subtle, such as the hallucinations experienced by Jim and Laura. The visions were so vague that they drew you in, and made you wonder why exactly Jim would end up with blood on his hands. But the best moment was when Laura heard something in the shower, tying in as it did with Macbeth’s speech over the intercom. As she creeps towards the shower curtain, where she will eventually kill herself, Tony is on stage lamenting his Lady Macbeth’s suicide. Soundtracking her reveal of the empty shower with the single word “nothing” was a beautiful piece of televisual suspense. More could have been made of that, using the unique location to its fullest potential, as opposed to limiting it to this and Tony’s accident.
This episode was beautifully filmed yet again, with the slight judder from the handheld camera just enough to be slightly unnerving, but not enough to detract from the actual action. And if not enough use was made of the setting in the narrative, it definitely was in the visual sense. The occasional harsh bright lights and the plethora of mirrors made for disconcerting viewing, as we saw characters reacting from different angles. A really trite comment could be made here about the mirrors showing the two-faced nature of the characters, but that’s about as obvious as pointing out that Jim’s two big roles are both deposers of kings.
In conclusion, another almost great episode. It looked good, Steve Pemberton’s acting was again outstanding, and given an hour-long slot, maybe the plot would have been tighter. Failing that, cut the character of Felicity and the cheap shots about how stage managers must be predatory lesbians, and maybe there would have been more time to expand Kirstie’s character. Then maybe her actions could have made sense. Instead, it’s like a Scooby Doo mystery – the villain is always the character who’s introduced first and is the least likely to have done it.
In conclusion, another almost great episode. It looked good, Steve Pemberton’s acting was again outstanding, and given an hour-long slot, maybe the plot would have been tighter. Failing that, cut the character of Felicity and the cheap shots about how stage managers must be predatory lesbians, and maybe there would have been more time to expand Kirstie’s character. Then maybe her actions could have made sense. Instead, it’s like a Scooby Doo mystery – the villain is always the character who’s introduced first and is the least likely to have done it.
RSS Feed
