Written by Reece Shearsmith And Steve Pemberton
Directed by Matt Lipsy
Maureen (re blackmail letter): "Not again. Who could've sent it to you? They're all dead."
David: "Not all of them."
With this review, I've completed my watch along of the Shearsmith/Pemberton trilogy, even if I didn't do this in the correct order. Anyways, I liked the first series of this show a lot and this second series was just as fun to watch.
Kicking off with a Halloween special over a year after the first series cliffhanger and we got a sidestep into that big cliffhanger. The special has some non canon stories involving the likes of Mr Jelly (Shearsmith), Joy (Dawn French), Oscar Lomax (Pemberton) and serial killer obsessed duo David (Pemberton) and Maureen (Shearsmith).
As stories, each one of them stuck the landing while in between those you had a film crew member (Shearsmith) talking to a traumatized Drew (Alex Waldmann) about his own encounter with Edwina Kenchington (Eileen Atkins). Not only that but we do go back to the cliffhanger and set up the antagonists for this second series.
The antagonists being Grace Andrews (Imelda Staunton), her right hand man, Kelvin (Daniel Ings) and murderous detective, Finney (Mark Bonner). The latter who had no problem murdering the likes of Joy, Robert (Jason Tompkins) and Oscar within the first half of the series.
This was a series that had a secret organisation that not only tied in the deceased Kenchington but also Nazi sympathiser shop owner Peter Bishop (Jason Watkins) who was paired with Michael (Daniel Kuluuya). His murder of the latter was particularly brutal as like many characters they had been looking for Kenchington's locket.
The series had a slew of new characters that tried to tie into the main story and mostly worked. Obsessive librarian Jeremy Goode and his counterpart, the Silent Singer (Shearsmith) mostly worked but the man obsessed Hattie (Pemberton) and her mistreatment of Sharouz (Elyses Gabriel) were less successful as they were removed from the main story.
Along with Mr Jelly's pairing with Claudia Wren (Vilma Hollingbery) and the cancer plot with David and Maureen, those two elements for me worked the best this series. I also liked how the former pairing tied into the Andrews plot while the latter took a suitably macabre turn very reminiscent of Psycho.
- Episode titles for this series were Psychoville Halloween Special, Survivors, Dinner Party, Hancock, Sunnyvale, The Hunt and Andrews Nanotech.
- Characters like David, Maureen, Mr Jelly, Robin (David Bamber) and Emily (Sarah Solemani) would later appear in the Inside No. 9 episode, Death Be Not Proud.
- In scenes that haven't aged well, that scene with Maureen dressed as Tina Turner miming Simply The Best just felt tone deaf, even for 2011.
- Mr Jelly doesn't care for Exorcist: The Heretic. He also has sixteen appliances for his missing hand.
- Joy had taken to treating the catatonic Jenny as the new Freddie before she was killed.
- Chronology: Months after the first series ended.
Barring one or two bits, I'll admit this was a great second series for the show. The Halloween Special in particular was a delight while the surviving characters and most of the new ones worked well. I would've liked a third series but this was a good one to end with.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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