Last night, I started and finished The Singing Detective, starring Michael Gambon. Hey, I love Harry Potter and the BBC and this was one I never would have taken on my own, but it was recommended by my friend Paul.
But, the short and sweet of it is I only watched the first two of the six episodes. I almost started the third one, but I realized two things - I didn't care so much about two of the three story-lines and that I would likely do bodily injury to myself from the vast and overpowering depression this show was creating in me.
The rub of it is (a little pun for those that have watched this show), Gambon is brilliant as the aged, ailing writer. In the younger version of himself that is also the main character of his novel which the series named after, less believable and in fact I spent most of the time he was on screen dressed as he was marveling how much he looked like Stephen Frye circa his Jeeves and Wooster days.
I can understand why IMDB (see link above) gave this series an 8.8, but there should be a disclaimer that this show will take any happiness residing in your soul and crush into dust to be dumped into the Thames like so much dirt swept off the boardwalk into the river.
In case you're wondering, the Singing Detective is just that - a lounge singer who is also a private detective. I don't know if it was Gambon singing, but suspect it was - he doesn't have a bad voice, or didn't in '86 when this came out. There are a couple of musical numbers with lounge singers (Gambon's character and another), but there is also one per episode that is a full-on broadway style number that is in hallucination that Gambon's writer persona is having.
I can't with a good conscience recommend this show. It is really one of the more depressing things I have ever seen. But, if you can handle that, the acting by Gambon is brilliant and the main storyline is good, though I won't go that far for the other two which didn't hold my mind as well.
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