Southcliffe is a four episode mini-series set in a small town called Southcliffe where one of it's residents, Stephen Morton (played superbly by Sean Harris), goes on a shooting spree. The show focuses on how the people of the town are effected by the events of his actions, the loss of their loved ones and the attempts to rebuild their lives. Due to the shows non-linear manner it also gives the audience an insight into the reasoning behind Morton's actions and the deterioration of his mind set due to the isolation and ridicule he gets from other Southcliffe residents. Take a look at a short trailer below:
You would expect a show about a shooting spree to perhaps glorify it, use that as its central focus and plotline but the beauty of Southcliffe is that it doesn't do that at all. The show could have easily been a thriller and we could see the characters fight for survival but we don't, we see their struggles after the horrific event. The format it is in enable the writer to show the audience the characters lives both before and after the event and see how Morton manages to change their lives completely in a single day. Every episode of the show explores a characters life and in honesty it is quite difficult to watch but for the actors it must have been the role of a lifetime. The main actors within the series Sean Harris, Rory Kinear, Shirley Henderson, Joe Dempsie and Anatol Yusef excel and although it was hard to watch, it was quite beautiful to see what they did with it. I've watched some of their work before and I personally believe this is the best work that they've done, it truly was a brilliant ensemble.
As well as dealing with how the residents dealt with their grief and loss the show explored the themes of isolation and like I said earlier with What Remains how people are so wrapped up in their own lives and issues that they care very little about what's going on with the people around them. Morton had contact with all of the main characters prior to the rampage, and he did have evident issues but none of them really seemed to make any effort to help him, most of them actually ridiculed him and isolated him further. Even Claire who had the most contact with him and helped looked after his mother didn't intervene when she saw him struggling. It really does explore the 'don't get involved' mentality that we as a society have grown accustomed to. The only person that actually admits to the issue and berates the town is David Whitehead (Rory Kinear) who actually went through what Morton did while he was living there. Even after the terrible tragedy happens to the town they still have the same mentality and as a whole just try and go on with life as it was before which could possibly lead to more tragedies, which is explored with the character of Chris Cooper (Joe Dempsie). I was quite let down by What Remains did with this subject matter but I think Southcliffe has exceeded tremendously in that area.
To me it also felt like a comment on gun control issues, which aren't really evident in the UK but I looked it up and the director of all four episodes has spent some time living in the United States. It seemed out of place that someone in the United Kingdom would have access to as many guns as Stephen Morton did and although the rampage did drive the series it was a little distracting. I was constantly questioning how he got the guns every time someone was killed. Perhaps I'm being naive, there probably is a market for that in the UK. This didn't affect my viewing experience too much though as I was completely engrossed in it and I urge others to watch as well. Everytime I discover something new on Netflix I kick myself for not watching it sooner, so please don't waste anytime and set aside 3 hours of your time (four episodes at 45 minutes each) and sit back and watch it. Then when you see your neighbour in the street ask how he's doing and genuinely mean it.
No comments:
Post a Comment