Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

A_Different_Drummer Living on this side of the pond, we tend to forget that our language, theatre, drama -- even our humour -- originated in merry old England. And, clever as we may be, these guys are often clever-er. (Factoid -- comparing the writing credits on American vs. British shows, one is forever amazed how the US products can list up to 2 dozen writers, and the UK version, usually just one!) So here is the deal. Someone decided, why not re-imagine Jekyll and Hyde? I mean, hey, Jerry Lewis did it and achieved a one-hit wonder (although arguably he produced a different film than he had originally intended). So off we go again, this time with a miniseries about a pretty normal guy who (one discovers later) is a descendant of the original Dr. J., and the awkward steps he must take to meld "two lives in one body." Including, on top of all the other bother, not telling the darker side about this wife and kids. Brilliant? It's "bloody marvellous," and James Nesbitt does a great job, acting in both roles (the two sides of the character) like a parent you really don't want to mess with. The ending is, to be kind, over-written, but overall a spectacular riff on an old theme.

Nikolai1968 I am shocked and amazed that anyone can endure watching more than 5 minutes of this program.Are the reviewers here on crack?To call it high camp is a compliment. To see the scene chewing, preposterous setups, painful expressions and cheap cinematography is horrific.If this is the state of British television then we are lost. Gone. Forever. The BBC controllers should stop watching ITV and start looking at HBO. This series is like Eastenders + Pantomime + a bunch of overly self confident actors 'reinterpreting' a script written by some white middle class idiot.***spoiler alert **** It's s**t!Poor Robert Louis Stevenson. Not good is an understatement. At least it leaves it open to be done again... :)

Charles Herold (cherold) This miniseries is absolutely electrifying, a dark, disturbing-but-not- too-disturbing drama with a truly amazing performance by James Nesbitt and many other very good performances. It is fast paced and absorbing with an elaborate story that keeps you on the edge of your seat.Unfortunately, it also doesn't make a lot of sense, and what little sense it seems to be making is pretty much obliterated in the final episode. The plans of the evil corporation are vague and ever-shifting, and the people who work for it seem incapable of understanding - and thus being scared of - what they're dealing with (and while portrayed as the best money can buy, they all seem wildly incompetent). The genesis of Hyde, when explained, makes no sense at all. The final twist is fun, but ultimately just offers more things to analyze and find wanting in the storytelling.Still, it's a great thrill ride, and the plot holes are only a minor annoyance until they final episode, where they get so out of hand that the original 9/10 rating I was going to give this dropped to 8/10. There's a lot of amazing stuff in this, but I can't even list all the things that make no sense because I don't have that much time.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU BBC series are rejuvenating when compared with the standard series we have elsewhere on the Anglo-Saxon or European markets. An old, old tale is completely redesigned to the modern world, more than one century later. No descendents he had that dear Doctor Jekyll since he died a virgin. But Mr. Hyde had a lot of descendents, because he was no virgin indeed, particularly with the maid of the family. And the very classic doppelganger living inside you, me, or anyone is back on track for one more series of adventures. Of course we are no longer in a jingoistic village society when London was a loose network of big villages and New York one big hamlet in America. So the state and private interests that want to take control of the world are tracking, tracing and hunting the descendant, Dr Jackman. One of the two will have to die, Dr Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. One has a family, wife and twin boys, one Jekyll and one Hyde of course. They, the bad ones, both military and mercenary, try to capture Dr Jekyll in order to turn Mr. Hyde into a super – killing? – machine that could be used in some shadowy and dark business. They had tried to clone the man but that never succeeded, so they want the real man. But Mr. Hyde is a monstrous super-person or superman and it takes more than one bullet to kill him. Dr Jackman is weak of course but he is protected by his doppelganger who will try not to share the damage. That idea has often been used in horror literature by Anne Rice, Stephen King, Clive barker, and quite a few more. But here we are slowly, at times too slowly, moving to a dramatic end that has to be de-dramatized if there is to be a sequel one day. But the best part of this series is not only the creative plot or intrigue, but also the great acting of these TV actors, who are not only TV actors, far from it. That's what is best with BBC programs: they use "normal" actors that act "normally", that is to say very well, and it is a pleasure to watch the episodes that never become humdrum and habitual. It is a very British syndrome: actors work both and equally well for TV and the cinema, and at times the stage. You can very well see an actor in a series tonight, in a theater in Charring Cross Road on the following night and in some cinema on the third night. And that actor, or actress, will be just as good in the three locales. So, what about the next season since we know now this doppelganger-ism can be carried by women and can be invested in twins? We are longing for the next series of six episodes, let's say ten years later.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID