Wednesday, 3 December 2014

the fear

the fear is a four-part crime drama that was broadcast a couple of years ago and is currently available to watch on 4od. it stars peter mullan as a brighton crime boss who starts to lose his mind at a point when his two sons become embroiled in a brutal gang war with an eastern european gang.



i'm not the biggest fan of crime dramas but peter mullan is always worth watching (he was in a brad anderson horror film called session 9, which you should check out if you haven't seen it). also, it was filmed in brighton, where i live. it's pretty amazing watching car chases and gun battles taking place on the streets i walk down on my lunch break every day. the filmmakers really make brighton look pretty too, with some fantastic shots of the seafront. there's this great moment that opens the series where mullan's character is completely dwarfed by the ruined west pier, and the pier looks like something straight out of lovecraft, like it was built by the old ones. third reason to recommend it, harry lloyd is in it. you may remember him as the dickhead brother of khaleesi in game of thrones. in this he plays the most sympathetic character in the whole story, plus he is incredibly fucking hot. also, richard e grant, fucking withnail himself, is in it. that's an awesome cast and they all do a great job.

on a more critical note, i felt like the dementia plot kicked in too early. like everyone is talking about how great mullan's character is and how fucked they'll be if he's lost his mind, but when we meet him he's already losing his mind so we never get to know what he used to be like. also, there's one moment when he's walking along the seafront and he's almost knocked over by a fleet of unicyclists. now, i know people who ride unicycles in brighton, i've seen maybe two at most on the seafront at any one time, but this was like ten of them, as if everyone in brighton rides a unicycle because we're all a bit wacky. but these are minor issues.

overall this is a classy series with awesome performances and a great setting.


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