"Jekyll" (2007) TV series 2007-????

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Seasons:

1

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

Everyone Has A Dark Side

Plot:

London, 2007. Tom Jackman is the only living descendent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He has made a deal with his dark side: a body share...

Plot Keywords:

Split Personality | Jekyll And Hyde | Lesbian | Murder | Beautiful Woman

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 nomination

Cast

James Nesbitt	...	Dr. Tom Jackman / ... (6 episodes, 2007)
Gina Bellman	...	Claire Jackman / ... (6 episodes, 2007)
Denis Lawson	...	Peter Syme (6 episodes, 2007)
Michelle Ryan	...	Katherine Reimer (6 episodes, 2007)
Meera Syal	...	Miranda (6 episodes, 2007)
Fenella Woolgar	...	Min (6 episodes, 2006-2007)
Linda Marlowe	...	Ms. Utterson / ... (5 episodes, 2007)
Matt King	...	Freeman (5 episodes, 2007)
Paterson Joseph	...	Benjamin (4 episodes, 2007)
Andrew Byrne	...	Eddie Jackman (4 episodes, 2007)
Christopher Day	...	Harry Jackman (4 episodes, 2007)
Bruce Mackinnon	...	Malcolm (4 episodes, 2007)
Malcolm Storry	...	Colonel Hart (3 episodes, 2007)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:15 (video) | Australia:M | Australia:MA (DVD version)

Filming Locations:

Bognor Regis, West Sussex, England, UK

Company:

Hartswood Films Productions

Trivia:

The Klein and Utterson Institute is a reference to Robert Louis Stevenson's narrator from "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Mr. Utterson.

Quotes:

Mr. Hyde: Ever killed anyone, Benjamin?
Benjamin: Not personally. I have people.
Mr. Hyde: You're missing out. It's like sex. Only there's a winner.

Great

Great show. James Nesbitt is mesmerizing as BOTH Tom Jackman, a modern day Dr Jekyll, and Mr Hyde his vicious alter ego. This show is part sci-fi, part psychological drama, part conspiracy actioner. It's not perfect. The American accents are atrocious and some of the explanations and conspiracy elements are a bit weak, but it's riveting TV.

James Nesbitt plays Tom Jackman, a British doctor who discovers that he changes into someone else. That someone else is Mr Hyde, a superhuman driven to indulge his impulses. As one character says "Hyde is a child with all the urges and needs of a grown man." Jackman seems to be the descendant of Henry Jekyll, who was the real life inspiration for the Robert Louis Stevenson story. This is despite the fact that Jekyll had no known descendants, and apparently died a virgin. Jackman himself had no known parents, being found abandoned at a train station and raised in foster care. That's the basis for a somewhat intiguing mystery and a sometimes disappointing conspiracy plot as Jackman is targeted by a powerful multinational corporation.

But the real attraction here is Nesbitt and the interaction between the Jackman and Hyde personalities. Nesbitt, who will be familiar to British, and some American viewers, from the show Murphy's law, and the film Bloody Sunday, shines here and gets to show off the full range of his acting chops. When he's Jackman he's a somewhat nebishy man who loves his family so much that he leaves them in order to isolate them from Hyde. It's a very real and dramatic performance. As Hyde he is all flamboyance a swaggering bon vivant who could have stepped out of a Broadway show, except for the fact that his shirt is covered in blood and he could turn violent at any moment. Nesbitt doesn't play Hyde as a macho bully, but rather as someone even more dangerous, a creature with no boundaries, driven only by passion, whether that's for food, sex, or violence. The interplay between these two aspects of Nesbitts performance is a joy to behold.