Solemnly march over to Obsessed With Film, where I've reviewed the long-awaited series 2 premiere of BBC2's horror-com PSYCHOVILLE, starring Reece Shearsmith & Steve Pemberton.
After an unreasonable two-year absence, only alleviated by last year's Halloween special, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's Psychoville finally returns for a second series of black comedy japes and spooky mystery. As a spiritual follow-up to The League Of Gentlemen's small-town horror, Psychoville may lack that show's insidious edge and pervasive atmosphere, but a more ambitious format (fully serialized plotting, wider scope) has helped carve it a complimentary identity. However, it's still less menacing and moody than The League ever was -- being more of a warped carnival of oddballs -- perhaps signifying that Shearsmith and Pemberton are mellowing in middle-age, or that colleagues Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson were the more macabre half of their comedy troupe.
I found series 1's finale of Psychoville unsatisfying, primarily because the story deserved a conclusion, but instead creaked as it tardily introduced a supernatural curveball (a magical locket owned by despotic asylum owner Nurse Kenchington), took telekinetic dwarf Robert into a ridiculous Hansel & Gretel riff, and ended on a big cliffhanger (nearly every character potentially killed in a fiery blast triggered by vengeful clown Mr Jolly's suicide vest.) With everyone's fate uncertain for years now, it's frustrating to realize an opportunity to cull redundant characters wasn't seized upon, as everyone survived Jolly's climactic explosion with only minor injuries -- such as deranged maternity nurse Joy (Dawn French), now sporting a neck brace. Bizarrely, only crazed bomber Mr Jolly was a fatality; his funeral procession opening series 2 on an amusingly absurd note, as brightly-coloured clowns descended on a bleak graveyard to bury one of their kind. A rubber chicken thrown on Jolly's coffin in lieu of a handful of earth... Continue reading...
