Benedict Cumberbatch revels in the actor's showcase that is "Patrick Melrose," a five-part Showtime miniseries that features a title character wallowing in misery and whatever he can ingest, legal or otherwise, in an effort to numb it.
Adapted from Edward St. Aubyn's semi-autobiographical novels, the series opens with Cumberbatch's Patrick, a heroin addict, being informed that his father has died, forcing him to travel from London to New York to collect the ashes.
"If I'm to take control of my life, it has to be now," says Patrick, who is prone to an ongoing internal monologue with, among other things, the voice inside his head. What ensues, though, is a dizzying exercise in out-of-control addiction, allowing Cumberbatch to play drunk/stoned/high in a manner that's no longer the laugh line it was back in Foster Brooks' heyday. As for the source of his pain, that begins coming into focus in the second hour, which flashes back to his life as a young boy with his abusive father (Hugo Weaving) and his self-medicating mom (Jennifer Jason Leigh), during a wildly uncomfortable weekend in a chateau with several of his father's friends.
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