Synopsis
Patrick Melrose (2018), Season 1 is the five-part drama you can watch online on iFILM — a limited series drawn from Edward St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical novels, each episode set in a different decade of one ruined life.
Benedict Cumberbatch carries Patrick across five chapters. 1982: a 23-year-old heir flies to New York for his father's ashes while heroin runs every hour of his day. Then France, 1967, where an eight-year-old hides from a cruel father and a mother who looks away. London, 1990 finds him clean and practising law until a society party hauls him back toward the edge. Marriage, children, relapse and his mother's funeral follow. Hugo Weaving and Jennifer Jason Leigh play the parents he can never outrun.
Told out of sequence, the series makes childhood damage and adult self-destruction rhyme harder than a straight timeline would. Cumberbatch is funny and frightening at once, in arguably his finest work. Stream Patrick Melrose Season 1 online on iFILM.
5 episodes
S1·E1Bad News
London, 1982. Patrick Melrose, 23 years old and in the grip of an all-consuming heroin addiction, flies to New York to collect his father's ashes.
S1·E2Never Mind
France, 1967. During a hot summer's day at the Melrose chateau in Lacoste, 8-year old Patrick explores the grounds, a sanctuary of hiding places from the complex adult world.
S1·E3Some Hope
England, 1990. Patrick Melrose, now 31, is finally clean and practicing law. Despite avoiding social situations and their inevitable temptations, Patrick is persuaded to attend a high society event in the Cotswolds by best friend Johnny.
S1·E4Mother's Milk
France, 2003. Patrick, 44, is now married to Mary, with sons Robert and Thomas. Patrick may be off the heroin, but is back tackling his troubles with substance abuse.
S1·E5At Last
London, 2005. Having always dreamed of being an orphan, Patrick now has his wish at the age of 46. No longer with Mary, Patrick is clean and living alone in a grim bedsit.
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