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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Jekyll #1.1 starts as Dr. Tom Jackman (James Nesbitt) explains to his new assistant & psychiatric nurse Katherine Reimer (Michelle Ryan) his little problem, he periodically turns into a completely different person who has a thing for drinking heavily, having sex with prostitutes, beating people up & generally being anti social. They talk to each other through recorded messages, Tom has his evil alter ego tracked wherever he goes & tries to keep him under control. In a search for answers Jackman discovers that he might be a descendant of the character Dr. Jekyll from the book by Robert Louis Stevenson who was obviously a real person & has inherited his unusual problems from him...The first of six episodes Jekyll is a 55 minute made-for-British TV Saturday night thriller/drama that I thought was OK but nothing special. The script by Stephen Moffat is a contemporary take on the novel 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' & it discards most of it's recognisable traits including not actually having a character named Jekyll in it. There are no potions which he drinks, no scientific experiments & it also adds things like a shadowy mysterious organisation which wants Jakman for some reason. I thought the Hyde character wasn't what I was expecting with plenty of jumping around & wisecracks along with an unexplained ability to climb a vertical wall much like Spider-Man! This first episode is alright & while it didn't exactly knock my socks off it was watchable & since it is significantly different from the book it doesn't feel too predictable or familiar. I'm not sure how it's going to maintain itself over six 55 minute episodes but for the time being I'll stick with it.This probably had a fair amount of cash spent on it, it looks nice enough with some nice camera moves & shots. I was hoping for a bit more horror content I have to say, this is as much a drama as anything else so forget about any gore or violence as there isn't any apart from a mugger being stamped on & a supposed head-butt which obviously misses by a mile. It's not scary & the contemporary setting doesn't do it any favours in the atmosphere department & I have to say I didn't like it much. The acting was OK but I had hoped for a bigger difference between Jackman & Hyde, hell I could barely tell them apart from a physical point of view. I have to admit Michelle Ryan is hot in this & I think I'm in love...Jekyll #1.1 wasn't what I was expecting, I'm not really sure whether that's a good thing or not though. Overall I'd say it was alright but nothing special, maybe episode 2 will be better...
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