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The Irregulars Chapter Four: Both the Needle and the Knife
episode 1.4
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, Royce Pierreson, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Aidan McArdle, Anthony Barclay, Adam Shaw, Craig Conway, Simon Ludders, Henry Miller, Denise Black, Imogen Waterhouse, Clarke Peters, Maureen Hibbert, Edward Hogg, Nell Hudson, Melanie McHugh, Anthony Taylor, Gareth Bennett-Ryan, Ian Whyte, Henry Lloyd-Hughes
written and created by Tom Bidwell, based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle, music by Paul Haslinger
TV series The Irregulars, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes (Henry Lloyd-Hughes)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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This episode basically falls into 3 stories: One has Leopold (Harrison
Osterfield), the rich boy mingling with the Irregulars, return to his
family castle for a big ball, where ravishing Eleanor (Imogen Waterhouse)
is more than a little interested in him and even gives him party drugs to
make him easy prey. But he notices she's not for him and he loves Bea
(Thaddea Graham), so he makes a daring escape from the party. Story two
has Bea trying to track down Sherlock Holmes (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), whom
she not only blames for all those people getting random superpowers, but
also for the death of her mother. But despite searching all of the opium
dens in the area, instead of finding Holmes, she only crosses paths with
Dr. Watson (Royce Pierreson), who is so irritated by Bea trying to find
Holmes that he ends his business association with the Irregulars.
Ultimately though, Bea does find Holmes, at the grave of her mother. The
main story has Jessie (Darci Shaw), Spike (McKell David) and Billy (Jojo
Macari) trying to trace down a killer who removes his victims' faces
together with Inspector Lestrade (Aidan McArdle). Now Jessie, the empath,
soon finds out that the killer isn't a man at all but a seemingly helpless
girl, Clara (Eleanor Worthington-Cox), who has the superpower to put
someone else's (severed) face onto hers and become that person. She also
finds out that Clara has recently been filled up by three men (Anthony
Barclay, Craig Conway, Adam Shaw) - her later victims - at a local pub and
then taken into the backroom and gangraped. The three men also gave her
syphilis, so with her newly acquired powers she has set out to kill them.
However, she also makes the pub's landlord (Simon Ludders) responsible for
her condition, so Lestrade, Jessie, Spike and Billy race to his rescue,
but arrive there too late, and to escape, Clara even kills Lestrade and
assumes his identity. Jessie finds out, but she's so compelled by Clara's
sad story that she lets her escape ... Despite falling into
three very separate stories, this episode feels surprisingly homogenous
and after a not so great start, the series seems to find its footing, also
thanks to moving the over-arcing mystery along rather than just dropping
hints. What's still irritating is that despite great sets and costumes,
the characters just don't feel Victorian London at all, the dialogue feels
out of place, and what's worse doesn't at all mirror the class struggle
central to the story. But at least the tension is building and makes
hungry for more.
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