BBC 2 May 26 2011
Jeremy the librarian hits on a foolproof scheme, Hattie gets her man, and Debbie makes herself a target…
A different style of episode this week, which unfortunately didn’t grip as much as the last three have, and when you add in some black humour that seems to belong to the Frankie Boyle school of charmlessness and offensiveness, it feels rather as if Psychoville has slightly lost its way.
There are still some good moments – the almost French farce of various assassins and saviours wandering the corridors of the old people’s home; Tealeaf’s reaction to the collection of Nazi memorabilia – and it seems as if the plotline with Jeremy and the Silent Singer may have come to an end with a “prisoner exchange” of the weirdest sort.
However Hattie’s comments to the rape victim and a second gag in successive weeks about female masturbation hint at a level of desperation in the writing that’s not been there before, as if the writers realised they didn’t quite have enough plot to fill the entire 28 minutes even with a number of close-ups of Debbie’s chest…
With the final two episodes broadcasting within five days of each other, hopefully the show will revert to form.
Verdict: A misfire. 4/10
Paul Simpson
Click here for our review of episode 3
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