Bedlam is back for another series. Prepare for much
spookiness and amazing atmospherics which so characterised the first show in
this story of the haunted London asylum
And we start setting the tone well with the spookiness
ratcheted up to maximum levels, running through the dark, abandoned and deeply
frightening building – to a man with something carved into his head.
Now there’s an introduction for you.
Back jarring to reality and in a block of flats a
paramedic (Ellie) is trying to resuscitate and old lady, which doesn’t seem to
work. Especially when the old lady’s black-pupil-less-eyed ghost gets up to
make the tea (of course British ghosts make tea. Just because you’re stuck in
the purgatory of limbo is no reason to be denied a brew). The paramedic isn’t
having these ghostly tea makers and runs out of their pretty sharpish. At the
hospital her fellow paramedic, Andy, advises her to go see the doctor again,
presumably for seeing things; she’s not thrilled because the pills et all are
doing nothing after 6 months – maybe she’s really seeing the dead
Of course, paramedics playing the “I see dead people”
aren’t well looked upon (especially since they’re trying to stop the dead
people being, y’know, dead) so back at the hospital it seems Ellie’s been put
on indefinite leave. But her friend, Laura, knows they had a patient on the
psych-ward who had similar symptoms but was discharged – if she gets the
address then maybe Ellie will be able to talk to him and find a way to make the
ghosts go away.
Using the door code from Laura (which could get Laura in a lot of trouble) Ellie sneaks into the records. Outside she tells Andy how amazing it is that the person in the psych-ward apparently saw exactly the same things she does. Andy, who she is marrying in 2 months, is not reassured that she is pointing out she has identical symptoms to someone who was detained on the psych-ward. Andy leaves, angry that Ellie won’t help herself, won’t get help and won’t admit that she needs help.
In tears, Ellie puts away her engagement ring and
examines the file some more – it’s the file of Jed Harper, the man who could
see ghosts in the first season. Lacey tries to call him but his numbers are
disconnected.
We get another quick introduction to Max (the bar man in
the building) and his apparent flat-mate Dan who is saying goodbye to his
latest female companion and rushing out the door to Bedlam Heights (now being
renamed Brightmoor) – it seems he’s the new building manager, taking over Kate’s
old role in season 1. He goes to work trying to convince Lisa that there’s
no-one else – shame he calls her Leanne. He runs into Kate (though it’s
apparent he doesn’t know her), laden by a huge backpack who expresses cynicism
at him being able to save the place with a simple re-branding.
Kate returns to her old flat warily, exploring it
fearfully like there are monsters behind every door. Which is pretty
understandable. She looks regretfully of old photos of her and Jed together.
She then goes wandering looking for her father and instead runs into Keira,
another new character. Someone she’s apparently known forever, who is in her
dad’s flat painting and recounting her chaotic past with Kate.
Kate goes to the office and finds her dad telling Dan to
try and shut down a website which purports to prove their building is
super-duper haunted which isn’t the best PR in the world. She says the building
an’t work, not with its history (and ghosts) and think they should sell the
land for cheap social housing and cut their losses (and probably make a fair
whack of money). But Dan protests – why aren’t Kate and her father fighting for
their family history, this is their family business after all. Kate is less
than impressed by this since it’s clear he doesn’t know the family history
(that would be granddaddy Bettany performing sickening experiments on the
inmates and then murdering them). But her dad sides with Dan, he’s going to
make it work. And she leaves.
Lacey has arrived at bedlam heights and is instantly
presented by both the awesome décor and the immense amounts of spookiness
including random glass marbles and a child ghost (said child ghost was around a
lot in the first season) who calls her by name. She follows her into a roped
off section of the building that is still under construction (where a lot of
spookiness happened last season). She enters one of the abandoned rooms and
decides to open a cupboard (not quite sure why) and a desiccated body falls out
on top of her, giving her visions of a man being restrained. She flees,
straight into Dan’s arms. Dan and Mr. Betanny (Warren) question her on her
presence there . she tells them she’s apartment hunting.
Dan goes into the big tour and sell (dodging any
questions as to what the building was before) and Ellie gets more visions of
the man whose body she found running through the halls and hiding in a cupboard.
With the visions getting worse, Ellie calls Andy, but he hangs up on her as it becomes
clear again that she’s not willing to treat her visions as a delusion – while a
very unpleasant silhouette seems to be following her.
She ends up in the bar (first sensible thing she’s done) ordering
G&T from Max. She learns from Max that Jed Harper is dead. Since Max lives in
the same flat Jed used to, he has some of their things lying around and offers
to take Ellie up to see them, believing she was a friend. It also seems that a
photograph she has of her and Andy now has a blurred figure in the background. Ellie
decides to look around Max’s flat in a thoroughly cheeky fashion and finds Jed’s
drawings of ghosts with black eyes. Max tells Ellie that Jed died in an
accident in the basement – but Kate arrives and chases them out of the room.
Kate goes to her father, asks if he thinks a remodel
would really cover up how awful the place was and what happened there. She
doesn’t want to stay and thinks they should walk away. Knocking the place down isn’t
just business to her, but the right thing to do.
Ellie has another vision – the man who hid in the
cupboard hanging himself with his belt. And then sees a belt fashioned into a
noose hanging from the bathroom window. This freaks her out and she ends up
staying in Max’s flat until well into the night. Until something bangs on the
door – something she doesn’t see through the peephole. When she looks again she
gets a sudden frightening close up of a ghostly, rotten face. Then the door
opens and Kate comes in.
The whole gang gathers, Kate, Ellie, Max and Dan. Dan and Kate snipe, Kate pokes holes in Ellie’s stories. Kate and Dan argue until Kate goes to speak to Warren to get him fired (which totally doesn’t make Kate look like a spoiled brat, not at all) and finds her father, Warren, in a compromising position with Keira on top of him. This adds to the various issues she already has with her father from the last season and the camel’s back is well and truly broken. She leaves, declaring that Warren will never see her again.
Ellie is sleeping on the sofa of these complete strangers
in the ultra-haunted house (because this? Makes sense) and explores some spooky
noises – but it’s only Kate packing and leaving and telling Ellie that this is
the last place Jed would ever want her to be. Kate leaves the building in the
middle of the night but senses she is being followed. She turns around and a
man appears, we only see him from the back and see the symbol carved into his
bare head. Kate runs (burdened by her huge backpack) but the man has disappeared
– until someone in front of her grabs her.
Ellie decides to show more good sense by finding a torch
and going to explore the part of the building still under construction and
check in on the body she found (shouldn’t someone be talking to the authorities
about that? One can’t just have bodies lying around. It’s untidy) which is
still there and hasn’t got up and walked (and, frankly, if you suspected that
then going to it’s immediate vicinity in an abandoned and spooky part of a
large old building you know nothing about isn’t that great an idea). She then turns and sees a hanged man. Who moves
and then staggers after her, trailing the rope that hanged him behind him… and
yes my spooky, creepy meter just exploded. Ashe runs through wires that
entangle her and start to strangle her as the man staggers closer…
And then Warren arrives, having seen her on CCTV and gives her her marching orders. She returns to Max’s flat and sees that the blur behind her in the picture of her and Andy has now got closer and can now be seen to be the hanged man. Max, meanwhile, is snooping through her things and has found her picture of black eyed ghosts. She chews him out for it they have a mini argument before his ultra-niceness encourages her to confide in him.
Later Max reports this incident at the ghostly website Warren
and Dan were talking about. And warren falls asleep in front of the TV where he
has an odd dream with bodies and wakes up in a different part of the building
(just as Kate did in season 1).
The next day Max and Dan discuss Ellie – Dan as a target
for his flirting and Max oozing niceness everywhere. Ellie calls Andy to tell
him that Jed died the very same day that Ellie started seeing ghosts. And then
she sees the ghostly man with the lolling neck – runs to the lift and closes it
just in time. She has another vision of him hanging himself. In the lobby she steps out of the lift – but the
lift doors slam close on her scarf and drag upwards, strangling her while the
ghost looks on, twisting a ligature. She manages to get her scarf free but then
is backed into a corner as the hanged ghost stands over her twisting the belt.
At that point Max runs in and asks her what’s wrong, what
does she see – and guesses ghosts (this could be his research or her saying “you’re
dread I saw you die”). They return to Max’s apartment (why are you still in the
building, woman?! RUN! RUN!) She describes how ghosts look – outside of Bedlam
they look lost and confused. But in the building it’s all hatred and anger. Max
says he believes her and knows what she’s seeing is real and that this killed
Jed as well (why are you still in the building again?) and is sure he can make
it stop. They wonder how to stop this ghost, where was she when it first
happened – why under a skeleton in the old part of the building of course.
Could that be connected to the haunting? (No, really. They act like they have a
Eureka moment over this. I kid you not). They decide to stop the haunting they
need to put the bones back – as hiding and hanging himself in the cupboard was
the only place this man found that was safe from his abusers in the asylum. (I
think you should contact the proper authorities, personally, because dead
people in the walls is just unhygienic. Especially if someone opening the wrong
cupboard can end up with a murderous hanging ghost chasing them around).
To the old part of the building (Warren’s going to be
pissed) and Ellie checks her picture of her and Andy. She isn’t in it any more –
and in a flash she is yanked up to the ceiling by her neck, hanging from a belt,
the ghost is above her, strangling her. She gasps at Max to get the bones. Max
puts the bones back and the ghost disappears.
Back in Max’s flat Ellie examines her neck in the mirror
with the thick red mark around it and tells Max that she hears Kate has moved
on so there’s a room free. Which means she could move in, because after the
ghost in the building repeatedly tried to murder her that proves this is the
place she should be! (Please join me in screaming at the sheer ridiculousness
of this) this is reinforced by the glowing, shining girl ghost that also tells
her not to confide in Max.
We get a lot of spooky concluding images, including the
little girl when she was alive being kept in a
cage and dropping black marbles (like the one Ellie found) when being
collected – and Ellie noticing a new mark on her shoulder, identical to the one
the bald headed man had carved into his head.
This isn’t so much a second season as a complete reboot.
We have the same plot, the same setting but most of the characters are missing –
Ryan is who knows where (no-one seems to care or make an attempt to make a
reason for his absence). Jed is dead, Molly is in Thailand. The only characters
from the old series remaining are Warren and Kate - and Kate has just been
icked, and since her actress doesn’t appear in the credits I assume she’s not
going to make a return appearance. Still, what I’ve seen means I do like the
new season so far, but I’m not happy with this level of reset and I hope we get
some resolve of what happened at the end of the last series.
I did, however, forget how spooky this show could be and
I think that has been increased as well. It has great atmospherics, wonderful
theme, amazing tension and I jumped out of my skin at least 3 times. Maybe 4.
Or 5. Yes, it’s spooky, very very spooky.
Characterwise I’m interested to see a greater level of
inclusion of POC with Keira and Dan (I’m assuming Laura was just a bit role)
who both seem to have their own stories and goals as well. I think that may be
our only axis of inclusion though.
My main concern is that Ellie annoys me. Ellie doesn’t
make any sense and she is dripping in Spunkiness. Her coming to this place to
see someone but staying even when he’s not there – her visions got worse when
she went into the building, if she’s trying to stop them, why stay? And why go
exploring the spookiest part? She then stays the night with complete strangers
(I’m frankly bemused they even offered) and then decides to explore the spooky
spooky place during the night? And then, after all that, she decides that this
is the place she’s meant to be? A building that killed someone else with her
abilities, a place she knows is full of anger and rage, and a place that has
tried to kill her at least twice? Go back to being a paramedic with the
confused, tea-making ghosts! Anyway, she has said on multiple occasions that
she can’t afford it – she’s on indefinite leave as a paramedic. How much does
that pay? Yet suddenly she can afford a room? Or is this all going on credit or
relying on these complete strangers she’s now rooming with to let her stay?
