Meet Paul Slippery, a fortysomething year old man with, what seams to be a very odd life!
Since Sherlock is one of my favorite TV series, and I quite enjoy Mr Cumberbatch’s performances, I decided to look up what he did in the past. Of course, once I saw a TV series with Hugh Laurie as well, I just had to take a look.
The story revolves around Dr. Paul Slippery (Hugh Laurie, also the director), facing a mid-life crisis. Amongst many things, his three sons (Rory – Benedict Cumberbatch; Daniel – Neil Henry; Edwin – Joe Van Moyland), keep exchanging girlfriends and creating impossible situations with all sorts of sex toys (it reads nastier than it is), and his wife (Estelle – Anna Chancellor) has just started a job as a headhunter. Oh yes… and he sometimes hears other people’s thoughts.
The show only has 6 episodes, because it was canceled for having low ratings, and you can see why. It’s not bad, but it’s not something you couldn’t imagine your life without, and sometimes feels like a bore. The situations this group keeps getting itself into are incredible and complex, sometimes to the point of a Simpsons episode, but it evolves very slowly, and some of it is just “meh”.
Also, the thing that caught my eye was that “he hears other peoples thoughts” line, and the fact is, that gets lost in the mist of complications with blow-up dolls, and believing his wife is having an affair, or even feeling threatened by his wife’s lesbian boss. It gets mentioned once in a while, but there really is no following through on it.
But there is “good stuff” as well.
One of the characters I really liked to dislike was Paul’s colleague Dr. Ronnie Pilfrey (Peter Capaldi), whom you just despise since the first moment you see, and usually ends up in hilarious situations, having hilarious outburst.
Edwin’s mischief is always weirdly funny. And Rory and Daniel’s battle to secure girlfriends between the sisters Laura and Lucy (Emma Ferguson and Siobhan Hewlett), is at times, amusing.
If I had to point the finger at something, I would say Paul and Estelle are just not up to scratch. They have their moments, but not much of them.
Apparently, the appearance of several actors who went on to greater fame has subsequently led the series to sell well on DVD, but all and all, it’s not that essential to you TV series library, or at least not to mine.
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