BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Patrick Melrose

besleybean · June 10, 2018 7:01 am

Well I enjoyed the first 10 mins of the last episode, that's when my streaming service cut out and I can't get any others to work...will I have to wait for the DVD after all?

Yitzock · June 10, 2018 1:41 pm

That's too bad! Maybe you'll have to try again later? Or else I guess you will have to wait for a DVD.

SusiGo · June 10, 2018 5:08 pm

Besley, please look into your inbox.

besleybean · June 10, 2018 7:10 pm

Thank you so much, you absolute darling.

nakahara · June 11, 2018 10:10 am

HBO and Cinemax both announced that they will broadcast Patrick Melrose from 7-th of July onwards!
Hurray!
And they have those smashing TV adds to announce the series (i missed them so far). Almost magnetic in their intensity. Plus wonderful Benedict´s voice to accompany them - I always forget how enchanting that deep voice is and I am shocked anew by it every time I encounter it so unexpectedly.

SusiGo · June 12, 2018 12:45 pm

Someone has been very busy - here are the scripts for everyone who is interested:

https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/episode_scripts.php?tv-show=patrick-melrose-2018&season=1

nakahara · June 14, 2018 6:36 am

SusiGo wrote:
Someone has been very busy - here are the scripts for everyone who is interested:

https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/episode_scripts.php?tv-show=patrick-melrose-2018&season=1

Wonderful, thank you!

Vhanja · June 18, 2018 7:02 pm

There, just finished the last two episodes tonight. What a great series. Both funny and tragic at the same time. The tragedy of not being able to bring part of the horrow from your childhood with you to your own children, truly heartbreaking.

I also like that there is no perfect ending. How could there be?

And whan an acting tour-de-force from Benedict, amazing work. How do you cope with your parents never realizing what they did? Never having a "good ending"?

diva · June 19, 2018 5:52 am

Episode screening plus Q&A with David Nicholls in Melbourne on Friday, 20th July.
https://www.acmi.net.au/events/david-nicholls-conversation/

SusiGo · June 19, 2018 11:51 am

Very high praise from a physician and drug expert:

http://www.indiewire.com/2018/06/patrick-melrose-dr-drew-pinsky-addiction-alcohol-showtime-1201975919/

Yitzock · June 19, 2018 3:25 pm

Thank you for sharing that article, Susi. It's nice to know that it's an accurate portrayal of addiction, since I think a lot of people still don't accurately understand how it works.

I watched the last episode, "At Last" on Sunday. I thought it was interesting that the topic of the mother's wish to die, that I thought was being swept under the rug at the end of the last episode, was in fact being saved for this episode. I think this is one of the episodes I liked the most.
As Vhanja alluded to, it's not a completely happy ending. Patrick still has problems, but he seems to have been able to get past some of the pain of his childhood by the end, even if it will probably always be haunting him, as the flashbacks throughout the series show. I think this series showed how really bad trauma stays with people, which is something else that I think a lot of people have trouble understanding if they haven't gone through it themselves. You can't just "get over it" quickly or instantaneously forget about it.

EDIT: I just remembered something else interesting. At the end of the episode, after Patrick walks out the door in the final shot, my mum thought that Patrick was going to go and spend the evening with his wife and kids. But after the phone call, I had assumed that when he was joining "the living" instead of "ghosts" that he was going to go see the server. I prefer my mum's interpretation, and I think it makes sense, but because of things that had happened previously in the series, I had asssumed he was going to have another sexual encounter.
I was wondering what all of you thought about where Patrick was going.

Last edited by Yitzock (June 19, 2018 3:30 pm)

besleybean · June 19, 2018 4:21 pm

Definitely his wife...that's who he spoke to on the phone.

Vhanja · June 20, 2018 6:41 am

Yeah, I also thought it was his wife. He did ask if it was too late to change his mind, which is wasn't. And then he left. That is made even more clear when at first he left the funeral reception to have a sexual/addict encounter, but then changed his mind and went back home. So, for now at least, he has chosen his family and sobriety over another drug-filled adventure. But who knows for how long?

Thanks for the article, Susi, very interesting. To be honest, I found the doctor's words difficult to read, but it was great to see that the show portrays addiction and childhood trauma in such an accurate way.

SusiGo · June 20, 2018 7:15 am

The scene was tricky because they show him reading Helene's number and saying her name. But then, on the phone, he quotes Robert that minds are there to be changed, so I knew he was talking to Mary. In real life they St Aubyn and his wife got divorced. But he seems to have found a way of living with his past which is quite a lot for someone who suffered and struggled so much.

Vhanja · June 21, 2018 8:54 pm

Yeah, I did get that understanding from the last episode as well, that they got divorced. "This is not your responsibility anymore".

Yitzock · June 25, 2018 11:14 pm

SusiGo wrote:
The scene was tricky because they show him reading Helene's number and saying her name. But then, on the phone, he quotes Robert that minds are there to be changed, so I knew he was talking to Mary. In real life they St Aubyn and his wife got divorced. But he seems to have found a way of living with his past which is quite a lot for someone who suffered and struggled so much.

I guess I didn't recognize her voice, so when he looked at her number and said her name I assumed Helene was who he was calling. But it does make sense that he's going to her family.

But I think you all are right that it's a little ambiguous. Is it only temporary, or is he really going to make a big change in his life? It could go either way.

Susi, you mention the life of the author. Is Patrick Melrose's story largely based on the author's own life? If that's the case, I must have forgotten (or missed) from interviews leading up to the airing of the series that this was the case. Or else it wasn't mentioned and I just didn't know.
It would make sense, since someone who has lived an addicts life would know how it really is to go through that.

Last edited by Yitzock (June 25, 2018 11:18 pm)

besleybean · June 26, 2018 6:07 am

I thought the series was totally based on the books, which is totllay the writer's life!

SusiGo · June 26, 2018 7:27 am

besleybean wrote:
I thought the series was totally based on the books, which is totllay the writer's life!

You are absolutely right. It is based on his life and even uses St Aubyn's own year of birth, that of his father, the whole biography of the parents is very similar. I would assume that he did not much more than changing names where real-life characters are concerned. Probably someone has taken the trouble of finding out who is who. IMO these novels are a thinly veiled biography, albeit in a beautifully written literary language. And as far as I know Edward St Aubyn has never denied that.

SusiGo · June 26, 2018 9:07 am

Here is a 2012 interview with St Aubyn in which he discusses his novels:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandcompany/edward-st-aubyn-encore-1.2790957

I had not time to listen yet but I suppose the autobiographical aspect will be discussed as well.

Yitzock · June 26, 2018 7:40 pm

I have listened to that radio show before, but not that episode. I will have to listen to that interview.