Bedlam: Season 1.

What, Bedlam? Where the hell did Modern Family go? I'm sorry okay, I caught this by accident on TV, became hooked and thought hey, a six episode season could be manageable in one review, so I'm gonna review it! I know I'm basically going against everything I said in the last post... Enjoy!

Okay so basically the story of the show is this, there is this guy called Jed, he is adopted and can see ghosts and is put in a mental asylum because of it. And despite the fact that he has been in an asylum is central to his character the show never questions whether he's nuts or not and just presents his ghost seeing powers as real, okay so it doesn't specify one way or another but it just cuts out the explanation entirely and runs off with its plot so I'm assuming we aren't meant to question his powers which is a shame because the whole 'Is this real or is it fantasy?' (I wonder who gets the reference) cliché always adds an interesting dynamic. Jed through contrivances ends up staying at a former mental asylum that is being renovated into flats by his family, who happen to own it. Jed then takes it upon himself to become a ghost fighting superhero while being surrounded by a bad modern drama as mysteries start to unravel all around him.

There are lots of things I really don't get with Bedlam but nearly all the things I don't get and subsequently are faults with the show come down to pacing. I personally hate TV shows that start off with one mystery, spend six seasons forgetting what they were even answering while piling on loads of mysteries on top and never providing a satisfying conclusion, COUGHLostCOUGH but what I am learning more and more is there is always another end to the scale and this is true of Bedlam because rather than being an overlong convoluted fuck mess Bedlum is just...something else.

What do I mean by that? It's hard to explain when you haven't seen the show but the show is almost a show of two halves on the one hand there is the human drama of the day to day lives of the characters who live in the building and on the other is the supernatural half as Jed fights ghosts. If you think that sounds like it probably doesn't fit together very well... you are right. It's strange enough they decided to build all these characters around Jed and his fight against ghosts but the execution makes it seem even stranger. I assume Jed is our main character because he is our hero, but very few of the real life segments of each episode have anything to do with him meaning he vanishes for most of the episode while people sit around and drink wine and have affairs and they seem to move on a completely different timeline like two completely dramas have been stitched together and placed in the same setting, with a few characters making cameos in either half to present some sort of continuity. Different timeline, you may ask? For some reason the writers wanted to both create a show set in the same location every week, so they could slowly build up a mythos for their show, then for some reason at the same time they seem to try and make the show completely standalone so each episode can be viewed without needing to see any others. So it's sorta like: -Sex scene, camera cuts to the room next door, 'Hi, I'm Jed, you may remember me from such things as the main character of this show, I'm researching ghosts with my possibly gay sidekick', camera cuts to a man on a treadmill planning an affair on his wife- does this show have ADHD?!

They attempt to do this by trying to resolve ALL issues raised in an episode (other than the overarching mystery each week) by the end of the episode to the point where sometimes things are literally just dropped. They are raised and important in one episode and then never mentioned again. Kinda like most of the characters in this show....

What generally happens each week is one of the main cast meet a character living in the building and become either friends or lovers with them, eventually a ghost becomes involved in some contrived way and the love interest of the week reveals to have some kind of dark past or secret, with their character arc finished the ghost is defeated and we'll never see this character again. Now for the main cast to get involved with someone else in the building!

This becomes even more noticeable and problematic when the supernatural mystery half of the show is working at a completely different pace, with perhaps only one or two big reveals an episode while an entire character arc is racing past it for the drama portion of the episode. It makes the normal drama portions of the show feel like they are on fastforward and it's really jarring for characters to have sex one episode and then have no interest eachother the next one and never mentioning them again or ever see them again.

This becomes especially problematic early on - I can ignore like the dynamics of the flat mates and stuff for the most part if I really must but BIG story changing reveals are made very early on - they have a huge moment when they are revealed and then are subsequently swiftly dropped except perhaps in passing to what I can only amount to the producers not wanting to alienate new viewers. Which is just plain annoying for the people actually trying to follow this bloody thing because it makes every episode feel pointless, we get no payoff if every big moment isn't allowed to have a fallout and is instead pushed under a rug.

Another problem that unfurls from this style is that because each characters problems are generally resolved by the end of the episode, they don't really have anything to do any more, so the writers just send them down exactly the same character arc again to make the same mistakes. Seriously, most of the characters surrounding Jed feel like they were added in post production. Like the character whose apparently only role in the show is to be emotionally involved with whoever is being haunted this week before their new emotional partner vanishes from the show never to be seen again to the point where she in the finale episode is the one actually being bloody haunted, it's just hilarious, way to escalate TV show. It is really annoying. I mean the season finale didn't even bother completing most of the arcs it recreated in its story and with the cast change next season, I don't even know if all it will even be resolved - it doesn't even have a proper ending an there are a lot of threads left dangling.

Now that doesn't mean the show is all bad. Because we have complete story arcs each episode as Jed is battling a new ghost each time and that it's only six episodes means there is enough conclusion at the end of every episode to not really be all that bothered by the slow development of the mysteries (except maybe the last episode) - even if it the rest of the world around it is whizzing past. The show does a really decent scare too, the atmosphere is always great, as are the action set pieces and the ghost of the week too - I mean it's actually bloody scary for once! Plus although it isn't quite unique as such, I kinda like the fact Jed doesn't just avenge peoples deaths and shit. Like most of the time the Ghosts just want something, emphasis on the thing. The first episode the ghost just wanted its ring back, the second just wanted a woman to come clean, the third just wanted someone to know the truth...and so on. And the show is just really engaging and addictive, although much of the drama portions as stated are kinda redundant each episode, the overarching mysteries stay to give you a reason to keep watching. And the whole 'it's only six episodes thing' is a lot easier to stick through even if you weren't enjoying it, than six seasons.

Admittedly though a lot of the shows best points start to fall apart when you apply logic. Although often the show can be extremely scary for this kind of programme most of what the ghosts do...just makes no sense when you really start to think about it. I mean what is it with the motif of ghosts pissing around with technology? Symbolism?! A majority of ghostly goings on throughout the show involve making annoying noises or other minor nuisances like leaving the taps on, calling late at night and so on, it's just kinda stupid and pointless. Damn I hate being haunted my electricity bill is huge with the ghost not turning the lights off! Another problem is the ghosts abilities are never really explained making a lot of the actions the ghosts do, feel really odd. Like ghosts can travel in cars? They can make unplugged phones ring? They can tamper with iPod's and other electrical equipment? And so on, with no rules for what the ghosts can do, most of the stuff they do is just stupid and weird. I mean you have no rules except for budget limitations and this is what you do with the ghosts? Without the creepy atmosphere these ghosts aren't threatening, they are just a little irritating. The most powerful ghost is the fire one in the season finale who is left half finished.

They also don't keep Jed's powers very consistent either, originally it seemed set up that his visions of how people died only worked if he touched something they came in contact with, later it was if he basically touches anything they may have once been near, until it basically became when the plot said so. I guess you could just argue he is becoming stronger because of all the ghosts he's defeating but if the show doesn't establish this, it just looks inconsistent.

So do I recommend this? Bedlam clearly doesn't do well against any kind of scrutiny and I wish it held up better because Bedlam is an enjoyable, addictive series - extremely oddly paced but enjoyable and I wish this review could be more positive because I like this show but reading the review back it sounds like I hate it. Although it must be said, the ending to the finale was a real bitch and I'll have to wait and see season 2 before I can answer whether they were being cunts or not but I do find it unforgivable there were plot threads left dangling in a show only six episodes long.

Think About It!

-Locke