Bedlam

The much advertised first episode of Bedlam aired on Monday. While it is a good premise for a show, the idea of a creepy mental asylum is an exhausted location in TV and film (Kingdom Hotel, Shutter Island, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, even Supernatural had an episode based on a haunted asylum).

The first episode ' Cohabitants' centers around Kate, an estate agent working with the sale of Bedlam Heights, a mental asylum being renovated into apartments. The character of Kate sort of rubbed me the wrong way, she came across as cold and uncaring to me. Kate lives in Bedlam Heights with her flatmates, Ryan and Molly. Her cousin, Jed, turns up to 'Save Kate' after he receives numerous text messages from an undisclosed source.

The characters are not very deep and the acting is a tiny bit stilted, I hope there will be more time given in future episodes to learn more about their histories, as it seemed we were only given a crash course into their past. There was subplot, involving Ryan's brother who had died a year ago but not much else was mentioned about Ryan's life.

I don't see how they'll stretch a whole season out of it, the plot has a lot of clichés and it was quite slow moving in parts.It is defiantly influenced by the horrors and thrillers that have gone before it. Having said that, Will Young put in a surprisingly strong performance and the action scenes were quite well done. For a British show with a low budget, it's a breath of fresh air for Monday night viewing. I'll be very interested to see how the show and its characters progress and I will be tuning in next week.

Sorry. I hope they either make it more scary, or cancel it.

It is a young peoples soap opera, just like Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place.

it is just so....well, not scary. There isn't enough creepy stuff, but if there were more, everyone with a brain would just move out.

Please cancel this show. Do it softly, and file it with Outcasts and Defying Gravity.

Do these directors and producers know about Event Horizon, or Battlestar Galactica? They need to watch them carefully before making any more "scary" soap opera's or good Sci-Fi drama's.

Thanks!

Chris

The series is set in a large apartment block (apparently a work in progress) located in the old Bedlam mental hospital. The reactions from our small audience were very mixed - between finding it very addictive to others (including myself) who found it to be a badly written piece of entertainment. The actors are all very competent and give their best but the characters are not well developed and so much more could have been achieved by making this first episode a two-parter with a more involved story and a rich tapestry of background for the building and its inhabitants. Hopefully, as the series progresses, it will find its feet.

Ignore the flaws - this show is terrific.

Cast is terrific, even if the characters motivations and history are almost non existent. Theo James is brilliant as the main character, a person who not only sees ghosts but how they die. Charlotte salt is also a standout but her character lacks a back story to explain why she is the way she is.

The setting is terrific - an old asylum, renovated as a high level apartment building. Oh, and it is haunted! Each episode is well directed, music is spot on for frights, and the writing is excellent. Each episode delves into the history of the asylum with the lives of the new tenants triggering off the ghosts.

While I am a huge fan of British TV an American season length would enable more character depth. 6 episodes are just not enough!

I think the show is really worth watching. It's short, condensed, well balanced between the self-conclusive episodes and the main plot. Nothing new, slightly flat characters, but a whole lot of entertainment.

That said, it's interesting how much derivative the show is. The locations, the iconography of the ghosts, the dynamics between ghost and characters... everything seems to convey a sense of deja-vu. And it's surprising how much this show tries NOT to be British while still remaining it; the reference is more or less the recent American horror (and, indirectly, the Japanese new wave) but many things in the production (good lookin', sexy actors; cinematography; editing, ecc...) just seem to try and be in that trend, maybe to be "easy". On the other side, a kind of British aftertaste still remains and the writing (characters issue aside) is really good.

It has it's flaws, but still works better and better each episode, till the great, though a bit "tecnical", final cliffhanger.