I was
not much of a connoisseur of movies at the age of 23, but when I first saw Sexy
Beast the incredible British gangster classic I realized it was one of the
critically acclaimed films of 2001 that (in my opinion at the time) more than
lived up to the hype. Led by those two master craftsmen of British character
acting Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley (who deservedly received a nomination for
Best Supporting Actor), the movie was one of the most cinematic example of a
kind of film I was just getting used to. I vividly remember the final paragraph
of Roger Ebert’s rave review of the characters in the film: “These are hard
men. They could eat the Sopranos, vomit them back up, and them again.” I had
been a fan of the show for three seasons but after seeing Sexy Beast, I
fully concurred with Ebert’s assessment.
So when it
was announced that we were getting what was essentially a Gal and Don origin
story on Paramount Plus last year, I was curious. When, after the merger of
Showtime with Paramount Plus, certain series
on the streaming service which I had missed began airing on Showtime (including
Mayor of Kingston and Halo) I realized I may get an opportunity
to at least look at a series on a service that I have never subscribed to and
subsequently ignored. (Yes. I’ve never seen an episode of Yellowstone. Don’t
hold that against me.) So last night when Showtime debuted the first three
episodes of the series I decided it was going to be worth at least looking at.
It very quickly became clear it was.
It was
clear in the movie just how tough Gal was even though he’d gone straight at the
start of the film and just how crazy Don Logan was and why you did not say no to him. Sexy Beast begins
ten years before the film is set which shows them significant younger but even
then its clear their roles are defined. It’s clear from the opening which
mirrors the famous start: Gal is sunbathing and listening to a music (this time
it’s a boombox), only now when we pan back he’s on the roof of a rundown
tenement and he only has a kiddie pool. Don then breaks the door open with a shotgun,
points in Gal’s face and then laughs. Don then picks up a bucket, throws it in
the air, shoots it and laughs at the man it hits.
What is
different between the two men when the series starts is that Gal (James
McArdle) is the ostensible leader of the team running smash and grab jobs in
London. Don (Emun Eliott, who really does look like a young Kingsley) is exactly
like the gangster who we meet ten years later, but at this point it’s not clear
how he’ll rise to a leadership role. He flies off the handle at any opportunity
and is even more impatient when anything is delayed. There’s a hysterical sequence
early in the first episode where Don and Gal are in a diner and Don is starting
to boil that his milkshake has taken longer to get to him then Don’s tea. (“It’s
just vanilla!” he screams.) When the milkshake finally gets to him Gal asked how
it is and Don shrugs.
At this
point Gal is still pretending that his life of crime is a front. He’s regularly
visits his parents, is engaged to a local woman named Marjorie, and looks after
his sister who may be on drugs and is pining after someone in his gang. Don, by
contrast, is a kinetic ball of anger and impatience, never willing to stand
still, never willing to take no for an answer. (For the record, in the first episode
we actually hear the iconic catchphrase: “Yes, yes, yes! This time, it’s calm.)
It was
always a question throughout the original film why Gal was ever friends with
Don in the first place, and the question keeps getting asked throughout the
first two episodes. Here we get something closer to an answer: Don has spent his
childhood growing up under the thumb of a father who molested him and an older
sister who killed their father once. Cecilia Logan (played by Tamsin Greig in a
rage I never suspected on Episodes) is the one person Don can not
say no. She has been basically pushing him towards a life of crime. She owns a
gambling parlor, bullies him and degrades the idea of him having a girlfriend. It’s
all but spelled out in the first two episodes that their relationship is incestuous:
it’s certainly toxic. In the middle of a night out with Gal, Don can’t stop
thinking about how his sister told him she was ‘paying for the date with his
dirty cow’, which is not the kind of healthy attitude to have. Don’s reaction
is, like everything else he does, ridiculously out of control and inexcusable,
but it’s at least an explanation as to why Gal has stuck with him to this
point.
Gal
wants to be independent and keep doing his own job which is why when the local
crime lord Teddy Bass (Stephen Moyer, more monstrous than he ever was on True
Blood ) makes them an offer to work for him. Gal refuses the first time and
has troubled accepting even at a glorious party held by Teddy. It is only when
he encounters Deedee (Sarah Greene) a woman he previously flirted with a
nightclub at that same party, that he begins to think he can dream bigger.
Deedee
is an adult film star whose company has just been taken over by ‘new ownership’.
Deedee is ambitious in the same way Gal is, but she is an industry and a world
that loves to stamp down on the helpless. She spends the first two episodes trying
to strike out for her independence and ignoring the warnings of her agent about
her new bosses – and then at the end of the second episode, she gets the
message loud and clear.
If you
remember the original movie, you know that things are going to work out for Gal
and Deedee. You also know that Teddy Bass (played by Ian McShane before he
entered the world of American pop culture) was still around ten years later. In
a sense the prequel is as much an origin story for everything else, including
Teddy Bass’ war with another British gangster that he’s decided to target in a
very deliberate way. Unlike Gal and Don, who are still rough around the edges,
Moyer’s Bass is just as refined but even more ruthless. He has a way of knowing
things that they can’t. When their first job leaves a witness behind, Bass
orders them to take care of it. Don and Gal both go to do so and they end up
pointing guns at each other over what will happen to him. That night in the
midst of celebration, Bass congratulates them – and shoots one of the gang in
the forehead. Then he smiles and starts planning the next job. Moyer is
terrifying throughout the first two episodes, particularly in one where he goes
to the nightclub owned by one of the lieutenants of his rival. The two men square
off neither flinching for a moment. We know something horrible is going to
happen – the episode comes with a trigger warning – but I have to say it was
still the most shocking thing I’ve seen on a series that’s already been filled
with so much violence, even though no one dies.
Because
this is an origin story and because fans hate to have their precious things destroyed,
the ranking of it on imdb.com was 5.6 before an episode aired. Usually this
kind of review bombing is reserved for remakes like Wonder Years or Quantum
Leap where the fans think the show has been rendered ‘woke’. In this case,
it must have been done by those internet guardians of culture who somehow think,
even though this show is clearly a prequel, that is another one of those
properties that is an ‘heirloom’. The early reviews of episodes on line show
that viewers have changed their minds upon seeing it (the last two episodes are
in the 8 to 8.5 range) I’m actually impressed that they think that highly of
it; this isn’t Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, the usual kind of
franchise this lot get their knickers in a twist about.
Whether Sexy Beast the series will have
a future is a subject of debate: the show is debuting at a time when both Paramount
and Showtime are in something resembling flux and I don’t know if there’s enough
of a fan base to make this show a hit. In the last two years, promising versions
of American Gigolo and Let The Right One In got killed after just
one season. But for now, I’m more than prepared to enjoy the ride, and maybe it’s
time. It’s been 25 years since The Sopranos debuted and the organized
crime drama hasn’t had a hit in a while. Why not revive it with some of the
original gangsters before they became the kind of men who could eat them raw?
My
Score: 4 stars.
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