Bedlam Episode 1.02 Review

Car trouble. CONTAINS DETAILED SPOILERS

Writers: Neil Jones
Director: John Strickland

THE ONE WHERE A woman with car troubles is haunted by the tune “Walking Back To Happiness”.

VERDICT Episode two is pretty much the same mix as episode one, though perhaps with a little less Ghost Whisperer and a little more Hammer House Of Horror in the make-up. The acting and dialogue remain all over the place (both sometimes great, both sometimes slightly embarassing), but the ghost-of-the-week story is a neatly plotted spooky mystery, if a tad overwrought and hinging on outrageous coincidences at times. You do have to wonder, though, if ghosts in this show can read minds, since the link between this week’s spook and his victim is pretty tenuous; how did he know she was a hit-and-runner? Maybe there’s some kind of spectral internet? Certainly whatever is trying to give Jed warnings likes using the latest tech (mobile phones last week, laptops this week.

What’s more interesting (or perhaps irritating – this early in the show’s run it’s hard to tell if it’s intentional or just sloppy writing) is how the main characters keep acting unexpectedly. Ryan suddenly turns round and says that his brother’s killers can rot in jail forever (he seemed such a bleeding heart liberal!) and Molly the hippie befriends a petty-thieving party girl.

There’s a likeable camaraderie developing between Ryan and Jed, though. Could they become the UK’s answer to the Winchesters? They need a better car…

IT’S WASSISFACE Yes, gym guy is Krod Mandoon and Meet The Spartans ’ Sean Maguire, who can still count Grange Hill as his career highlight.

ANY SIGNIFICANCE? In what order are we supposed to read, “HELP HER” “YOU CAN’T” and “GO”? Does it mean, “You can’t help her. Go” Or, “You can’t go. Help her”? Significantly different.

BEST LINE
Jed: “You’re not trying to get me electrocuted are you, Uncle Warren?”
Warren: “It’s a pity they didn’t give you some of that at the hospital.”