"Jekyll"

"Everybody has a dark side"

       So, I just found this awesome new show on Netflix: a six-episode miniseries entitled Jekyll. To start, let me say that I finished it in two days, and it only took that long because of school. Needless to say, it's really good! It was produced for BBC One, and written by Stephen Moffat; so, if you're a Doctor Who fan, you'll know that means that Jekyll is complicated, somewhat hard to understand, terribly heartbreaking, and fantastically brilliant.

       As Moffat explains, Jekyll is meant to be a modern-day sequel (not retelling) of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The story focuses on Dr. Tom Jackman (James Nesbitt), who, as a descendant of the original Dr. Jekyll, has inherited the family curse. Jackman has left his family, for their own protection, and spends most of his time in his secret hideout with his psychiatric nurse, Katherine Reimer (Michelle Ryan), who keeps an eye on both Jackman and his alter-ego, the infamous Hyde (also played by Nesbitt). Jackman and Hyde, at the beginning of the show, have a simply agreement and live in relative peace: Hyde is not allowed to kill anybody, or Jackman will turn himself in; and Jackman is not allowed to search for a cure, or Hyde will kill them both. Neither has the memories of the other, but they communicate via recording device. However, Hyde accidentally finds out about Jackman's family, his wife Claire (Gina Bellman), and their twin boys, which starts much of the conflict between Jackman and Hyde. Jackman fears for his family's safety when they are exposed to Hyde, who has not hesitated to torture or maim people.

Dr. Jackman attempting to restrain Hyde

       The real intrigue starts, however, with the introduction of the firm of Klein and Utterson, an organization which has been tracking Jackman/Hyde. Jackman's "friend," Peter Syme (Denis Lawson), and a mysteriously annoying American (of course!) named Benjamin (Paterson Joseph) are heading up the operation. When Jackman travels to Syme's house to confront and question his friend, he unintentionally releases Hyde upon his wife, Claire, who turns out to be far more feisty than she seems, and the two start an unusual and important relationship. Eventually, Benjamin and company corner Hyde in Syme's house and "explicitly" threaten Claire and the twins; at which point, Hyde officially kills somebody for the first time. Which lets you know that it's about to get interesting, because why would Hyde, a monster, defend Jackman's family?

Hyde being threatening -
Tell me the kid doesn't look like a psychopath!

      
       Soon after Jackman turns himself in for murder, he is captured by Klein and Utterson, and locked in a special box which "cures" him by killing off Jackman and leaving only Hyde in Jackman's body. Hyde is supposedly "the next step in evolution," and Klein and Utterson want to use his DNA to find cures for cancer and other such world-saving things. (But, I'm just saying, if Hyde was the next step in evolution, I'd like to stay just as I am, thank you, and not turn into a murderous psychopath!) What follows I really shouldn't reveal, and I left out a bunch of the plot, but it's definitely worth watching. James Nesbitt pulls off an excellent bit of acting, pretty much on par with Robert Carlyle's portrayal of Rumplestiltskin in Once Upon a Time. The physical differences between Hyde and Jackman aren't that great, besides different hair and eyes; yet you can't help but believe that these are two completely different men. Jackman is a timid, calm, cool, and collected man with a good heart, who just wants to be with his family and escape his dangerous alter-ego. Hyde, on the other hand, is a complete psychopath. You can't help but feel disgusted with him for most of the show. He threatens helpless girls, sleeps with just about everything that walks, beats up people to the point of near-death, and pretty much bites peoples faces off. He is, in a word (or two), creepy and insane!


Hyde and Claire

       The supporting cast is pretty good, too. I was impressed by Ryan's performance, and Bellman did her fair share of good acting most of the time. The storyline was pretty twisty and complicated, as I said, but good - and it had a very different take on the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Whereas in the original book, Hyde and Jekyll represent the best and worst of humanity in separate entities, and reveal the two conflicting ideas that reside in men, this representation of Hyde and Jackman represent something kind of different. *Spoiler alert, by the way! The Hyde of this version does not necessarily represent the evil nature of man, he represents love. This explains why Hyde never hurts the twins or Claire, and why he killed people who threatened them. His greatest purpose is to protect those he/Jackman love the most, his family. I thought it was very interesting, especially as a sort of conspiracy story, with the real-life Jekyll commissioning Stevenson to write the volume in order to throw others off the trail of how Hyde was really created.*

       So, all in all, I would definitely recommend this thrilling, intriguing, and mind-bending show, if you're able to handle the content - there are a lot of sexual references, threats, and scenes thanks mostly in part to Hyde, as well as a lot of high-end swearing, with a lot of dropped f-bombs and misuses of Christ's name. So, it's definitely not for everybody, but if you can get past those aspects you will find an excellent miniseries that makes you do what any good example of literature is meant to do - think.