I recently watched a number of movies and TV series with the common thread of the main characters struggling to deal with their personal issues, such as grappling with gender and sexual identities or mental issues in spite of inadequate, unhelpful and unsatisfactory parenting.
I know we can’t really blame our shortcomings and failures on poor parenting or a lack of parental approval and support. But I remember attending a public event at Sydney’s Domain some years ago graced by the Dalai Lama during which he attributed his short-temperedness to a lack of love from his mother. Our impatience and lack of social well-adjustedness, so he alluded, may sometimes be a result of our parents not showing us enough love.
We so look towards our parents for guidance during childhood, the rites of passage through the pain of adolescence and then with significant milestones in life into adulthood. It becomes even more challenging when our parents won’t even recognise or acknowledge problematic situations exist, much less want to help us deal with them.
Admittedly, I make these observations as a non-[arent who is unlikely to ever become one. I completely appreciate what a challenging endeavour it is being a parent. But while I may not be qualified to speak from a lack of personal exprience, it should not rule me out speaking and from understanding what it takes to be a good parent.
I also need to forewarn readers that in this discussion of the shows with a focus on parenting as a common thread, I have had to give away some spoilers and details I would otherwise have hesitated to reveal in a regular review.
1. Rūrangi
Protaganist: Caz, a transexual man who left home 10 years ago to find himself and start a new life in his new male identity in the big smoke, returns to his hometown to re-evaluate his life after personal tragedy strikes.
Parent: Caz’s widowed father Gerald, who still cannot quite accept that his daughter has returned as a son, although he eventually appears to accept that his refusal to acknowledge or embrace this reality may have played a part in turning his child away.
In this excellent New Zealand mini-series Caz Davis (Elz Carrad) is a trans activist living in Auckland. After a confronting introduction to his life, where we see him having to deal with the sudden death by suicide of his handsome lover, Caz decides to head home to his hometown of Rūrangi to re-evaluate his life. He hasn’t been home for more than 10 years, having left as a confused teenager exploring his sexuality and having decided then that leaving was the only way forward if he was to continue to exist as a person.
Once back in Rūrangi, we see Caz reacquaint himself with best friend Anahera (Awhina-Rose Ashby), ex-boyfriend Jem (Arlo Green) and his father Gerald (Kirk Torrance). No one recognises him after his gender transition and hormonal treatment which has given him facial hair and a lower sounding voice. He’s constantly expected to explain why he left suddenly without any explanation or reason. Unsurprisingly, Dad Gerald remains aggrieved that his child should not only have buggered off without a word but, more significantly, had not cared enough to return for his mother’s funeral following her struggle with cancer.
Gerald Davis has since become an environmental activist, with the sole purpose of his activism being the prevention of another person dying like his wife, given the link of her illness to chemical fertilizers used on the farm. Caz is surprised to see the change in his father, and to see him capable of such social change. But their reunion proves testy. After some curt and heated exchanges, in which he witnesses overt anger and judgement from his father, Caz is reminded why he had to leave in the first place. He’s convinced that his return was a mistake. So he gathers his things and starts to head back to Auckland.
However, a confluence of circumstances conspire to delay his departure and Caz somehow manages to find a new voice, a potential place in his hometown and a good enough reason for him to remain a bit longer.
It was delightful to watch Caz and Jem rediscover their attraction and bond from where they left off a decade ago. They end up kissing in a scene and Jem awkwardly insists “I’m not gay” and tells Caz “you weren’t like the other girls”, demonstrating quite effectively that there is a clear distinction between one’s sexuality and sexual identity, never mind what physical apparatus one may possess.
The show was initially released in 2020 as a series of five short episodes but has also been re-edited for alternate release as a continuous feature film. The casting of trans actors for trans roles was a conscious effort in trying to get trans representation right. And the appeal of the show, no doubt, benefits from Elz Carrad delivering a genuine vulnerability and demeanour of likeability in his portrayal of Caz.
The whole trans ‘thing’ is undoubtedly controversial. The vocal conservatives may continue to debate the benefits or even the ‘rightness’ of gender reassignment in favour of ignoring it in the face of high rates of suicides and self-harm by those being denied the right to a safe transition. They must see this as the next battle ground in the series of losses they must stem in the continuing and unnecessary culture wars of their own making.
This particular story presents an instance of female-to-male transition, which may be less familiar or arguably less contentious in the public discourse. It appears the anti-trans critics tend to focus on males transitioning to female who intrude on what they defend as a women’s safe sanctuary. It may be worth noting that in the on-going debate on transgender participation in sports, the differentiating factor is whether one’s transition takes place pre or post puberty. This being the juncture at which a person acquires their gender-defining attributes.
So there’s nothing like seeing it through the eyes of someone actually going through the experience in order to inform your opinion and a valid position on the matter. Too often we rely on what we’re told or want to believe, without knowing what someone having to live through such a predicament actually faces. The more stories that are told and we avail ourselves of, the better the outcomes in empathising with, understanding and supporting the reality that is people who are trans.
If Caz’s father can come round to acknowledging that his adamant stance and denial over what his child always was (but which he just refused to see for himself), then any parent should, right? Clearly not. Be it the shame or loss of face in having a ‘freak’ in the family, religious indoctrination and bigotry or just a cold inability to empathise with their own flesh and blood, too many parents struggle to accept their children for who they are.
The first season ends appropriately with the Bronski Beat anthem Smalltown Boy—a song about a young man leaving home to find love and acceptance in the city. Will Caz find lasting love and acceptance with his return to his small hometown? We can’t wait to watch Season Two—titled Rūrangi: Rising Lights—to find out.
2. I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Protaganist: Whitney Houston, the celebrated singer, who despite achieving such unprecedented success, remained a troubled person who became addicted to drugs and whose life ended prematurely in an accidental death while under the influence of drugs.
Parent: Whitney’s father John, who was hypocritical enough to dictate how she should live her life (in order to maximise her commercial appeal and income), while he himself was a philanderer who took control of her finances and squandered away her millions requiring her to slog it out to recover her lost wealth.
This recent movie biopic about the tumultuous life of Whitney Houston, arguably one of the greatest R&B and pop vocalists, was most disappointing and unsatisfying. It predictably covers her journey from youth, innocence and obscurity to musical superstardom but without presenting any particular insights into the personality. She was a bright star that reached such stratospheric heights of success before eventually being completely snuffed out in a tragic and untimely death.
British actress Naomi Ackie, known for her recent roles in the Star Wars movie franchise, plays the superstar. While she does a decent enough job portraying Whitney, her own singing voice is only used sparingly in some parts while she mostly mimes Whitney’s recordings in the singing scenes. In many re-creations of famous and well-known recordings and performances, Naomi sings her socks off attempting to match the original but that inimitable radiant, mega-watt beaming smile of the original superstar just isn’t there.
Unfortunately, the formulaic approach to telling Whitney’s life story fails to adequately capture Houston’s universal and massive appeal that saw her become such a household name right across the world. As someone who absolutely loved Whitney Houston and wore out their cassette tape of her first album on their Walkman, I couldn’t help feel that there was something lacking in this glossy but perfunctory portrayal of that exceptional persona!
The telling of the tragic story seemed to be short on dramatic tension. And this may be attributed to a poor screenplay which gave too much focus to her failed marriage and choices, which were mostly grounded on an unfulfilled yearning for love and an addiction to drugs. The drugs presumably were used as a crutch to fill a void in her life that came with fame and fortune which still denied her being her true self.
The telling of the tragic story seemed to be short on dramatic tension. And this may be attributed to a poor screenplay which gave too much focus to her failed marriage and choices, which were mostly grounded on an unfulfilled yearning for love and an addiction to drugs. The drugs presumably were used as a crutch to fill a void in her life that came with fame and fortune which still denied her being her true self.
With her undoubtedly special vocal prowess, nurtured by her musically talented mother Cissy (Tamara Tunie), it was inevitable that young Whitney would be discovered and offered a recording contract. She forms a close working relationship with Clive Davis (Stanley Tucci), record producer extraordinaire who discovered her. He remained a collaborator and friend throughout her career. He notably tells her in an early scene that he’s only concerned with her musical development and will not pry where it comes to her personal life. It’s none of his business, he insists, when it occurs to him that she may have ‘alternative’ romantic tendencies.
Having heard the rumours about Whitney’s ‘ambiguous’ sexuality, one would be curious as to how this aspect of her life would be depicted. Quite surprisingly the film doesn’t shy away from her ‘unconventional’ closeness to her “best friend” Robyn Crawford (Nafessa Williams), a relationship which her family disapproved. As with many other artistes fearful of compromising their commercial appeal with a backlash to their unacceptable personal lives from a conservative and judgemental public, Whitney learns to tread a fine line of maintaining a wholesome public image and hiding her private one.
So Whitney keeps her “BFF” Robyn close while she goes along with the proposition that she must be seen in the company of eligible men to keep that image acceptable. She toes the line and defies her father’s demands to get rid of Robyn whom she insists become her executive assistant. How dare her father dictate whom and how she spends her time with another woman, while he himself indiscreetly flaunts his own illicit relationship with his secretary, hypocritically violating his own nuptial commitment to his wife?
Eventually, we see Whitney and Robyn accept the fact they must ‘see’ other people. Whitney develops a liking for younger singer Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders) and before you know it, he proposes marriage (coming clean with her that he’s actually expecting a child with ex-girlfriend) and somehow she still accepts the offer.
Eventually, we see Whitney and Robyn accept the fact they must ‘see’ other people. Whitney develops a liking for younger singer Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders) and before you know it, he proposes marriage (coming clean with her that he’s actually expecting a child with ex-girlfriend) and somehow she still accepts the offer.
In spite of her best friend Robyn’s advice that Bobby would not be good for her, Whitney proceeds to marry Brown. The Houston family is thrilled with the match. Several years, a miscarriage and one child later, Whitney discovers his infidelity and the marriage is on the rocks. The drug problem, which is widely acknowledged to have started well before her relationship with Bobby, eventually escalates to a point where Clive Davis has to intervene and insist that she go into rehab, violating his initial commitment never to intrude in her private life.
As if the interpersonal issues aren’t enough to deal with, Whitney discovers that her father, who has supposedly been looking after her finances, has squandered it all away, forcing her to go on a massive tour in spite of not being in the best physical or mental health state. The people who were meant to protect her have either been shut away or unable to do just that, prodding her on to keep the money-generating machine running when she clearly was not in quite as good anymore and past her prime.
The final blow comes when she insists on singing at Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy Awards party held at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills. She drowns under ‘accidental’ circumstances in her hotel room bathtub but the film doesn’t show this. They instead allude to the drowning showing close ups of dripping taps and opt to end on a different kind of ‘high’, with a recreation of one of her most lauded live performances, at the 21st American Music Awards in 1994.
One is left wondering how such a formidable talent and shining star could have been so misguided, deceived, deserted and ultimately diminished by her own parent and loved ones, especially when they were all driven so seemingly by religious and righteous foundations.
As if Whitney’s tragic death wasn’t enough, her own daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown subsequently (at the age of 22) died under similar circumstance three years later, suggesting that it was inevitable that the cycle of poor parenting should continue and sadly end up defining the legacy.
As if Whitney’s tragic death wasn’t enough, her own daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown subsequently (at the age of 22) died under similar circumstance three years later, suggesting that it was inevitable that the cycle of poor parenting should continue and sadly end up defining the legacy.
3. Girl
Protaganist: Lara, a teenager who aspires to be a ballerina but feels trapped in a male body.
Parent: Lara’s father Mathias, an incredibly understanding and loving man who does everything he can to support his child, including moving the family to a new apartment so Lara can attend the right school. He accompanies her to and participates in the decision-making with medical experts to ensure his child has the best possible outcome in dealing with the situation.
This is an earlier (2018) film by Belgian auteur Lukas Dhont which secured a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture in a Foreign Language. Dhont subsequently gave us the sensitive Close, about the intense friendship between two 13-year old boys, which secured an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film in 2023. (See my earlier review of this other film published in the blog.)
Girl, the film, tells the story of 15-year old Lara who is determined to become a professional ballerina. She lives with her younger brother Milo and super supportive father Mathias who is a taxi driver. Lara’s struggle with gender dysphoria and distressing transitionary period of adolescence plays out in agonising detail. We see her joy in securing a placement in a prestigious ballet school, meeting new (and curious people), the family moving to a new apartment and grappling with the physical and mental demands of excelling in an artform in a body that wasn’t necessarily made for it.
Unlike the some of the other shows in this composite set of reviews, parental support for the protagonist’s situation is almost at the other extreme end of the scale. Mathias is totally devoted to helping his trans daughter through her struggles and defers to the medical experts when it comes to the crux of the story. This is the confirmation of Lara’s preferred gender identity by allowing her to take hormones, with a view to undergoing gender reassignment surgery at the right time in future. Loving dad Mathias constantly asks Lara how she’s coping with all the changes, yet she is unable to communicate the complexities of her emotions and experience, electing to conceal from him and downplay the bullying she faces from her peers at ballet class.
The ballet art form is a demanding and cruel one, creating beauty out of discipline, rigour, pain, practice and patience in order to achieve results. Lara’s personal journey through her gender transition appropriately and symbolically runs parallel to her development as a ballerina. We constantly see the physical exhaustion, coupled with bleeding toes, which she has to endure to achieve her dream of becoming a ballerina. This provides a visceral contrast with the emotional challenges of routine acts such as showering or going to the toilet while living in a body that just doesn’t quite fit. Against advice from the medical experts she continues to tape down her genitals in an effort to jump the gun towards achieving her aspired bodily state.
The casting of Victor Polster as Lara in his acting debut was the result of an interesting process. The original casting call for the role of Lara was a genderless one, which was open to girls, boys and those who were neither. 500 people between the ages of 14 and 17 were auditioned but none of them were deemed to be good enough dancers or actors. The filmmakers decided to cast the rest of the dancers first, and there they found Victor Polster who is a dancer. This choice of casting has of course been controversial, with certain parts of the trans and LGBTI community objecting to someone who isn’t trans playing the role authentically, although he does a pretty good job in our eyes.
The movie is a thought-provoking and at times distressing one to watch. But it’s a most worthy one, if only to get a glimpse of what a trans person may go through. This in turn can only help in progressing the understanding around or counteracting the negativity surrounding what remains a reality for young adolescents with gender dysphoria.
Lara’s father Mathias is incredible as a loving and supporting parent. In this particular story, one can only imagine how much worse the situation would have been if Lara didn’t have such a positive environment.
Lara’s father Mathias is incredible as a loving and supporting parent. In this particular story, one can only imagine how much worse the situation would have been if Lara didn’t have such a positive environment.
4. The Patient
Protaganist: Sam, a serial killer who kidnaps his new therapist to get private and dedicated sessions on demand at his home, and who is himself a victim of brutal child abuse by his father.
Parent: Candace, Sam’s mother, who having not protected her son from her husband’s abuse, continues to fail him (and the wider community) by being unable to turn him in or do anything effective to stop him from his crime spree which she is fully aware of.
This highly engaging albeit disturbing psychological thriller comes in the form of ten short (mostly 21-minute long) episodes and focuses on the psychoanalysis of a serial killer. Sam (Domhnall Gleeson) presents himself as a new patient to the well-regarded and published psychotherapist Dr Alan Strauss (Steve Carell) who is mourning the recent loss of his wife.
By the end of the first episode we get a glimpse into Alan’s own difficult relationship issues with his family, but we’re shocked by Alan waking up and finding himself chained to the wall and effectively held captive by his new patient. Sam has decided he needs the dedicated attention of his new therapist whom he believes can help him curb his homicidal urges.
As the short episodes progress, it emerges that the improvised prison is the lower floor of Sam’s childhood home, which he’s moved back into after his marriage to his wife Mary has failed. The strange setting for the continued sessions between Sam and Alan (while the latter is held in captivity) takes on a new twist when Alan discovers that Sam’s mother Candace (Linda Emond) lives upstairs and is fully aware of her son’s psychotic and serial killing tendencies. Most bizarrely, Candace sometimes participates in the therapy sessions and Alan readily co-opts her and her well-being as a device to deter Sam from killing the next victim he has his sights on. There have apparently been many victims so far but we only see Sam killing three of them.
British actor Domhnall Gleeson, whom we previously saw playing the post-war psychologically de-stabilised A.A. Milne in Goodbye Christopher Robin, is a suitably convincing serial killer. Here he portrays a different kind of damaged soul who manages to get away living a double life; one as a reliable and well-liked council health inspector while he goes round killing individuals whom he has decided deserve to die, just because they are assholes. The actor was rewarded for this portrayal with a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Limited Series/Anthology or Motion Picture, losing out to Paul Walter Hauser who coincidentally played another serial killer in Black Bird.
While most of the dialogue and action over the 10 episodes takes place been the doctor and his patient, other characters come in to inform and bear on the outcomes. These include Alan’s wife Beth (Laura Niemi), a cantor in a jewish congregation, his son Ezra (Anrew Leeds), a rebellious Orthodox Jew who went into conflict with his mother and his daughter Shoshana (Renata Friedman) who’s a moderate who followed in her father’s steps and more aligned with her parents’ worldview.
Then there’s Charlie Addison (David Alan Grier) Alan’s close colleague who makes a notional appearance in his mind as a way of allowing him a sparring partner to argue through the way forward in desperately trying to get out of the predicament. Charlie constantly reminds Alan that his experimentation through suggestions to Sam to break his obsessions may in fact put others at unnecessary risk. So while Alan desperately attempts, for example, to divert Sam’s killing streak by having him rekindle his failed marriage to ex-wife Mary, he’s also figuring out how to escape his imprisonment. But he’s inadvertantly dragging other players into the equation, putting them at risk too.
Overall, Steve Carell does a stellar job as a complex psychotherapist with his own demons and back-story, which informs his advice to his patient. In what is more of a cerebral exposition of how a forced relationship develops under duress, the script probes the concept of empathy, complicity, culpability and guilt. Alan constantly urges Sam to consider the impact of his actions on the people his killings leave behind. He also tries to convince Sam, as the episodes unfold, that he is making progress in controlling his extreme emotions and to try and feel some empathy for the people he previously had little concern for.
On the subject of parenting, the motivation for Sam’s urge to kill people (who seemingly irritate him to an extreme, to the extent he must kill them) points singly towards his abusive father. At one point Alan posits to Sam that the underlying reason he must kill strangers is a substitute for his inability to direct his anger at his father whom he fundamentally has the problem with. Sam is prompted to confront his father, but does he have the nerve to eliminate the specific source of his trauma?
Sam’s mother Candace is implicated in his criminal behaviour. Despite her awareness of his heinous deeds, she cannot bring herself to turn him in. She wants Alan to help her son but is, when the crunch comes, unable to restrain him, as much as she was unable to protect him from the emotionally damaging treatment from his father when it mattered. In a big scene between Alan and Candace, he confronts her on her inaction and accuses her of culpability in her son’s behaviour and crimes. He says to her that while he doesn’t blame her for not being able to run away from the situation or do anything to protect her son (from her husband’s violent actions), she must still share a responsibility in the outcomes of her continuing inaction. Would she finally do the right thing and report him to the police, if only to rescue Alan from his predicament?
In the end it was left to Sam himself to seek out his own therapy aimed at limiting his urge to act on his impulses, and sadly there was nothing forthcoming from both his parents to stop him from becoming an unrestrained beast of a human being.
5. The Inspection
Protaganist: Ellis French, who was kicked out of his home as a teenager by his mother when she discovered his unacceptable “lifestyle”, signs up to be a Marine and struggles through his military training, in the face of discrimination and bullying.
Parent: Ellis’ single mother Inez, who expects her son to fail at military training, only to remain unfeeling and reluctantly show some conditional pride when he achieves his goal, no thanks to her.
Inspired by true events, this 2022 film was written and directed by Elegance Bratton. It tells the story of Ellis French, a young gay man desperately trying to find a dignified existence by signing on to become a US Marine. We are introduced to Ellis (Jeremy Pope) as he makes his decision to pick himself out of the doldrums and homelessness to make something of his life. But first he needs to turn to his mother who threw him out on the streets at the age of 16 to fend for himself. It seems he can’t enlist without retrieving his birth certificate from his single parent who had cruelly rejected him at a critical juncture of his young life.
Ellis’ unexpected reunion with his mother Inez (Gabrielle Union), a prison officer, doesn’t go well. To our horror (and Ellis’ disappointment), she reiterates her disapproval of his objectionable “lifestyle choices” and casts her doubts on her disgraced son being able to get through the training. She nevertheless relents and hands over the requisite birth certificate and so Ellis sets off to become a marine.
Basic military training, aka Boot Camp, is never a pleasant place, with its entire purpose of re-socialising and re-conditioning an individual’s behaviour to one of a team player and toughening them up by pushing them to a physical and mental limit. Before a recruit becomes a private, they must fully understand and embrace their place in a new social hierarchy which prioritises taking orders and acting towards the collective good of their team.
In the post-‘Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell’ era in the US Military, Ellis’ challenge isn’t hiding the fact that he is gay. Quite early in his training, his fellow trainees discover his sexuality when he is unable to suppress or hide an involuntary erection in the communal showers. They all now know he’s gay and it’s more whether he can endure the overt taunting of his trainers and platoon mates with that knowledge. So no, he’s not going to be automatically chucked out of the course, but he’s instead subjected to the test of proving his mettle in the face of deliberate discrimination.
We see Ellis’ Muslim fellow trainee Ismail (Eman Esfandi) victimised and branded a terrorist by their bigoted trainers on account of his religion and ethnicity. Thankfully, his other trainee mates stand up for him and call them out for their unprofessional behaviour. His comrades and a mentor also stand up for Ellis when the head trainer conspires with some of his other trainees to sabotage his marksmanship scores in order to diminish his performance in a way that could jeopardise his passing the course.
There are moments Ellis is ready to throw in the towel and run. But there is generosity and kindness when one of his trainers, Rosales (Raúl Castillo) becomes a personal mentor, and convinces him to stay on, if only to stand up to the discrimination, so he can prove his bullies wrong and ensure they don’t win. In the end, Ellis prevails and drags himself proudly to the finishing line, passing the final inspection that allows him to graduate from the course.
His mother reluctantly shows up for him and attends the passing out parade. While she displays a reluctant sense of pride in seeing his achievement against all her expectations, she can’t help imposing her will by insisting at the post event festivities that he would now become a good catch for some pretty girl. In his despair Ellis confronts her denialism and refusal to accept the reality that this military stint could not change his sexual orientation. In response, she threatens to expose his situation which he fends off by explaining that his colleagues and superiors already know what there is to know about him. She storms off only to have her approval-seeking son declare to her that he isn’t going to so easily give up on her.
[Spoiler Alert]
In this the film’s pivotal and most heartbreaking scene Inez French blurts out, to our utter shock and disbelief, that she will always love him because he’s her son. But she will never love what he is!
And there you have it, a mother so repulsed by the son whom she had conceived, given birth to and raised on her own—because what he is (and not necessarily chose to be) failed to conform to her idea of what he should have been! We can’t help but feel the immense and unfair burden Ellis has had to bear in having such an unfeeling and misguided mother. We’re also left to speculate whether her lack of humanity towards her only son was in turn a result of her own parents rejecting her for her own choice and predicament in becoming a single mother. So devastated was she that she didn’t have the ”perfect” son, who could perhaps have helped her right her own wrong, she instead chooses to perpetuate the cycle of unsatisfactory parenting.
This film resonated with me on several levels, the first of which was having personally undergone basic military training as a gay 18-year old in the early 80s; when homosexuality was invariably still viewed as a mental disability. At the time, an admission to being homosexual would have brought shame to your family and, in the mandatory national service context, you would have been dismissed as a ‘defective’ human being and relegated to a non-combat/clerical role along with a derogatory medical classification.
Ellis is played most convincingly by Jeremy Pope, an exceedingly talented young actor whom we last saw in One Night in Miami. He not only garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor (Motion Picture Drama) for this particular role, but has also been recognised for his accomplished stage work. Pope is only the sixth person in Tony Award history to have been nominated for two categories for separate performances during the same year. This is for his 2019 effort playing the lead role of Pharus Jonathan Young in the play Choir Boy, and also Best Featured Actor for his role as Eddie Kendricks in the musical Ain’t Too Proud. Having recently seen an Australian production of the play Choir Boy, I can only imagine how impressive Pope was to have secured a Best Actor Tony Award nomination in an acting role in a play which also required competent solo and ensemble singing.
6. Somewhere Boy
Protaganist: Danny, a teenager forced to emerge from years of social isolation in a remote property, which had been imposed by his widowed father following the accidental death of his mother.
Parent: Danny’s father Steve, who takes the unconventional and extreme route of protecting his only son by shielding him from the outside world, and misrepresenting it as being full of “monsters”, in order to justify why the boy has to be kept in isolation, until another tragic incident suddenly frees the boy.
This 8-part UK Channel 4 TV series tells the unusual and most unexpected story of a boy held in isolation in a remote house by an over-protective father. It starts off with 18-year old Danny (Lewis Gibbon) yanked out of this isolation when his father Steve (Rory Keenan) dies in what appears to be a suicide and Danny struggles to readjust to the unfamiliar, big, real world he has been denied for many years.
The details of how and why Danny was kept in ‘captivity’ are slowly revealed across the episodes, interspersed with Danny’s current predicament having to adjust to living with his father’s sister Sue (Lisa McGrillis, whom we loved seeing in the TV series Mum) who is now suddenly his new guardian. After years of interacting with only his father Steve and hearing about the ‘monsters’ out there whom he has been sheltered from, Danny suddenly finds himself in a new home in the world out there. He shares a room with his Aunt Sue’s teenage cousin Aaron (Samuel Bottomley) and they live in a home with Aunt Sue, her current partner Paul (Johann Myers) and their two younger children.
As Danny discovers his new world he comes to realise that there are no monsters. Or are there? And through his interaction with Aaron and his ‘friends’ he discovers what it really feels like to have had a father entirely devoted to looking after him and dedicated to keeping him safe. Did his father really love him, if it meant lying to him about and shielding him from the outside world which turned out to be nothing it was made out to be?
While we voyeur into Danny’s world-turned-upside-down, we share in his exploration of what it means to feel safe, loved, social and sexual. It’s at once heartwarming and disconcerting to be confronted with the pertinent contrasts we see between the lives of Danny and Aaron. One with a loving but deceptive albeit now-dead father and the other with an absent father who is just as socially awkward and lacking friends. It doesn’t take long before Aaron realises that his weirdo cousin isn’t such a bad companion, who can actually open doors to his own social integration in the big open world he himself struggles to operate in.
In the end, we find out the truth of what really transpired to result firstly in Danny’s imposed isolation and then his unexpected liberation. But the show also raises all sorts of questions regarding parenting and what constitutes acceptable boundaries to keep a child safe and to prepare them for dealing with ‘monsters’, whatever form they may come in.
In the recently announced nominations for the BAFTA TV Awards 2023, the show picked up several nods, including nominations for Best Drama Series, Best Supporting Actor for Samuel Bottomley and Writing (Drama) and Emerging Talent (Fiction) for Pete Jackson.