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BEDLAM |
Ellie - Lacey Turner Kate - Charlotte Salt Dan - Nikesh Patel Max - Jack Roth Warren - Hugo Speer Kiera - Gemma Chan 
OTHER BEDLAM SERIES Series 1 THEY ALSO SEE DEAD PEOPLE Ghost Whisperer Medium Afterlife Millennium Haunted 
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Episode 1 - First transmitted 6th June 2012Ellie sees dead people. This is a recent development and a liability when it comes to being a paramedic. Learning of a mental patient called Jed, who overcame something similar, she travels to Brightmoor apartments. There she discovers a little girl ghost who likes marbles and a ghost who seems to want to hang her. This is a surprise. When the first series of BEDLAM came to an unsatisfactory end in 2011, we assumed that would be last that we would see of it, but the ghosts in the asylum-turned apartment building are proving to be as hard to get rid of in real life as they are in the show. The living cast seem to be a lot easier as almost all of them have jumped ship. So, in comes Lacey Turner as Ellie, a brave but brittle woman struggling with the sudden advent of her ability to see dead people. This turns out to be linked to what happened to Jed, though that makes little sense. Perhaps the transfer of powers will be explained in future episodes. As it is, Lacey Turner gives good angst and spends much of the episode either teary or scared. She's certainly better than the rest of the cast, none of whom can match her. Jack Roth's overearnest spook enthusiast is too obvious, but is a masterpiece of subtlety when compared to either Nikesh Patel's Dan or Gemma Chan's Kiera. Hugo Speer and Charlotte Salt return from last year's series to give a sense of continuation. The plot struggled with the burden of having to set out its stall again, introduce new characters and their backstories and so there wasn't all that much space to crowbar in the ghost of the week who turns out to be pretty creepy and to have an easily resolved issue. The matter of the little girl in the shining yellow dress is clearly meant as the arc for the series. BEDLAM's second series got off to a solid, if unspectacular start. The foundations are down now, so the next episode will say more about whether it should have come back at all. TopEpisode 2- First transmitted 13th June 2012Cass is a swimmer with a potential future living with an overbearing brother. She seems to have been targeted by a ghost who likes the water, something of a problem for a girl who is always in the pool. Swimming pools can be creepy; anyone who doesn't think so should check out the original CAT PEOPLE film. All those reflections, the echoey effect of sound when empty, the fear of the unseen thing beneath the surface; these are all things that are inherently creepy and the episode uses them to mild effect. The new character of Cass is nicely drawn and helps to flesh out Max and Ellie some more, though the plot demands that Ellie be a bit mercurial in her temperament and undermines her. At least the plot draws its parallels between Cass and the ghost without overemphasis and keeps the ghost's motivations a mystery whilst sticking to its convictions right to the end. A classic of horror it might not be, but it does demonstrate that there might be hope for the show yet. TopEpisode 3- First transmitted 20th June 2012A bride-to-be has a final fling with Dan only to find herself being tormented by the ghost of a woman whose own wedding day was interrupted and turned into a nightmare. Oh look, there's a shadowy bride over there. Oh listen, the music box is playing 'Here comes the bride' again. There is absolutely nothing scary in this episode at all, unless you count the plot twists that force Ellie to act so out of character as to be farcical. One minute she's cursing Dan for being profligate and then asking for a bunk up. The personal dramas are anything but dramatic and the show is seriously floundering. TopEpisode 4- First transmitted 27th June 2012A troubled child becomes the conduit for the ghost of another child who was tortured in the old asylum. His supernatural mastery of electricity places his older brother's life in jeopardy. Kids can be scary, but getting in one who looks a bit like the kid out of THE OMEN isn't enough and the devil child in this episode is anything but scary. Flickering lights and machines that play spooky tapes even when not plugged in are all old hat and there is nothing else new here to keep interest up. The soap opera of love triangles and family intrigues is just tedious and the addition of a new reason for Ellie to look glum is uninspiring to say the least. TopEpisode 5- First transmitted 3rd July 2012A group of would-be rebels take up residence in the asylum's broken down chapel and find that they are not alone. There's a dead priest there and he might have some answers about Eve. The rather tedious relationship tangles going on between the various protagonists are enough to kill this episode, burying the side story of the priest and the nobodies in the chapel before they can actually make an impact. Falling crucifixes? Ghostly priests with their mouths sewn up? All of this should be more involving than it is. Then comes the revelation about Eve and Ellie's connection. It's hardly a shock, but it is the only interesting thing that happens in the whole episode. TopEpisode 6- First transmitted 10th July 2012Max's dead father pays a visit and sets him on a course that will reveal Ellie's past and secrets about Warren. Now that we know the truth about Ellie and Eve, the show has only a couple of surprises left in store, specifically what Warren knows about it all and the relationship between Joseph the evil ghost and Ellie. These are given out in fairly perfunctory manner with no real tension to the story and even a wimp out on an apparently big shock moment. The show tries to set itself up for a third season, but we're even less interested in a continuation than we were at the end of the first. Top |
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