Lori and I stumbled across BBC America’s fantastic drama series Jekyll a few weekends ago when we were surfing our On Demand channels, and by the end of the first episode, we were hooked.
The six-episode first season, which went out with a bang this past weekend, is a suspense thriller with an excellent cast and an old story that somehow comes across fresh. James Nesbitt is brilliant and believable as both Tom Jackman and his alter ego Mr. Hyde, the lesbian private detectives drive the plot forward and provide some necessary comic relief, and Michelle Ryan, who I didn’t like in Bionic Woman, nails her role as Tom’s mysterious assistant/nurse perfectly here. But the one who really impressed me the most was Gina Bellman as Tom’s wife Claire. I’d only ever seen Bellman previously on the very funny British comedy Coupling, playing the fairly limited, over-the-top and occasionally annoying role of narcissistic bisexual Jane. Beyond thinking “Hey, that’s that actress who played the bi chick on Coupling,” I didn’t pay much attention to Bellman in the first few episodes of Jekyll, because Claire’s role was initially fairly small and mostly limited to wondering why her husband kept disappearing for days at a time.
But once she discovered his secret in episode three, Claire suddenly started to get interesting, and in episode four, it was like “forget Tom’s alter ego, who is this other Gina Bellman?”
In the second half of the series, Bellman showed a range I had no idea she possessed.
From her teasing seductiveness in flashbacks of her first meeting with Tom, to her mix of confusion and curiosity when she learned about Hyde, to her bewildered outrage when she was taken captive by the evil corporation out to get Hyde, to her steely determination to protect her husband against himself and the evil corporation, both the character and the actress began to steal the show.
The best moment of the fourth episode was when she flung the hot coffee on her captor/former friend while remarking evenly, “Apologies for the coffee” and stalking slowly off.
Add this to the lesbians’ hilarious banter, Nesbitt’s brilliant transformation from Tom to Hyde, and plot twists that keep you guessing, and an already good series got even better. If you’re a fan of Gina Bellman or well-written psychological dramas – especially ones with smart, funny lesbians and a sleeper wife – you must give this series a try.
If you don’t get BBC America (which is re-running the episodes and has them available On Demand), you’re in luck – Jekyll is available on DVD in the U.S.
