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The Irregulars Chapter Three: Ipsissimus
episode 1.3
UK 2021
produced by Rebecca Hodgson, Michael Ray, Greg Brenman (executive), Jude Liknaitzky (executive), Tom Bidwell (executive) for Drama Republic/Netflix
directed by Joss Agnew
starring McKell David, Thaddea Graham, Jojo Macari, Harrison Osterfield, Darci Shaw, Charles Armstrong, Emma Canning, Pip Carter, Shelley Conn, Olivia Grant, Kieran Hodgson, Jonjo O'Neill, Erich Redman, Mia Soteriou
written and created by Tom Bidwell, based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle, music by Paul Haslinger
TV series The Irregulars, Sherlock Holmes
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Mycroft Holmes (Jonjo O'Neill) - as in brother of Sherlock - hires Bea
(Thaddea Graham) and the gang - Spike (McKell David), Billy (Jojo Macari),
Leopold (Harrison Osterfield) and Jessie (Darci Shaw) - to investigate the
murder of the magus of his circle of occultists, the Golden Dawn. So it's
off to Mycroft's vast mansion for our street-smart heroes, and it's sure a
change of scenery for them. The Golden Dawn though is a rather
uninteresting bunch of upper class snobs with a shared obsession in tarot
cards - the murder of their magus actually had a tarot card theme to it.
And as soon as their magus is dead, the other members of the circle,
Mycroft, Alan Crawley (Pip Carter), Dion Cross (Shelley Conn), Patricia
Colman Jones (Olivia Grant), R.P. Breakwater (Kieran Hodgson) and Gustav
Felkin (Erich Redman), start fighting over his succession, and ultimately
the honour falls upon Felkin - who is promptly murdered according to
another tarot card. And soon enough, Dion Cross and R.P. Breakwater are
killed as well, their arrangement representing the tarot card "The
Lovers". Bea and gang decide to leave as this seems to be a simple
murder case and has nothing to do with the supernatural, but they find
themselves unable to do so, as - quite supernaturally - wherever they go
they end up at the house again. So they do start to investigate, and soon
find a clue leading to Crawley - which proves to be inconclusive. In the
meantime, Jessie, the only one of the gang with superpowers (empathy),
splits from the others and is somehow lured to nearby towers, where she is
to be struck by lighting to give up her life and with it her powers to
whoever is the baddie of the piece. Mycroft meanwhile remembers that he
never had any real reason to hire Bea and gang, that it just came to him -
which might be through mental manipulation, and the whole thing, including
the murders, might have only been a ruse to get Jessie to the mansion, as
it now turns out that Patricia actually has hypnotic powers, and
sacrificing Jessie in a ritual is bound to give her superpowers. However,
ultimately everything ends happily and Patricia gets her just desserts. Now
this third episode of the series, while not perfect, works much better
than the first two, as it's less about a gang of kids fighting some random
supernatural forces because why not, and has more of a narrative urgency
to their actions as the story, despite many unanswered question, gives one
the feeling to be whole, everything from the kids' involvement in the
beginning to their failure to leave to their relationship to the villain
and her actions makes inherent sense. And of course, setting the story in
a circle of occultists resembling the one Arthur Conan Doyle was a member
of, and the allusion that Sherlock Holmes might somehow be
linked to it all finally give the series the much-needed context. On the
downside, much of the dialogue feels very unreal for the Victorian age,
and despite pretty wonderful sets and costumes it seems little effort has
been made to accurately portray the era from a narrative point of view.
But that said, the series sure is picking up with this one.
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