everything's not lost.

these lovely eyes belong to no other than the great actor James Nesbitt starring as Tom Jackman. and starring as Mr. Hyde. tom jackman is a descendant of the original Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson.

jekyll is a 6 episode series by the BBC exploring the world of a modern life Dr. Jekyll. it starts with tom jackman strapping himself to a chair, explaining some basic things to his new assistant (the lovely michelle “bionic woman” ryan) who he hired to better get hold of his two lifes. jekyll jackman and hyde can communicate with each other by talking into a voice recorder.

“Just once, seriously - just bloody once, could you tell me where you parked?”

hyde, being the animal he is, likes to mess around. not only with prostitutes (jackman made him wear condoms) but he’s also very good in ordering the combination of drinks providing the worst hangover possible.

time after time, hyde gets more present, more dangerous, more blood thirsty. and tom has more and more problems controlling his dark passenger. and then there’s a mysterious organisation (there always is!) hunting jekyll and hyde. this leads to tom jackman having to protect his family from hyde and the organisation…. and also stepping up against the organisation - by teaming up with hyde.

now here’s the thing: you really don’t want to piss hyde off. you just don’t.

as it’s a mini-series, jekyll comes to an almost clean end, the story evolves, questions are answered, you’re satisfied. and the acting is just great. awesome i might say.

that’s almost only because of james nesbitt, though the rest of the cast deliveres as well. but nothing beats the performance of nesbitt and the two roles he has to play: jackman, protecting his family, being a bit of a coward at the start, but then evolving and taking the lead. hyde, the animal that is only held back when he wants to be held back, knowing no reason or consequence, just fun, pain and killing and in the end realising who the good guy is, admitting to help tom. not only does nesbitt play the roles by different expressions, but with an overall physical change as well (hair, voice, expressions, everything) as if it were two different actors. creepy, but very enjoying to watch!

there is also a lot of (dark?) humor in the series, mostly provided by hyde himself. hyde should be a stand up comedian and make a whole show about killing people. he’s reminding me of richard from lfgcomics (great comic, thanks to silberkind for the tip).

i highly recommend “jekyll” to any fan of multiple personality disorder flicks, british dialect and people ripping lions appart and singing the “in the jungle” theme from lion king. or either of that, but you can’t beat the combination!

small facts:

• episodes: 6
• runtime: 55 mins. (approx.)
• jekyll on tvrage (episode guide)
• jekyll on wikipedia

Claire: I changed my mind.
Hyde: Know the feeling.