Dead Head: Why Me?
I am delighted to see that it has only been a little over six months since I wrote a post about my first impressions of this series (which you can read here: https://culttvblog.blogspot.com/2023/05/dead-head-first-impressions.html?m=1 and since writing that post I have discovered an excellent commentary on the four episodes of this show which reaches slightly different conclusions from me and which you can read here: https://lawson.amandaelanorart.co.uk/2019/08/12/dead-head-episode-one-why-me/ ). Delighted because this is a tricky, layered, series which requires work and has a reputation for being difficult. This reputation is deserved, to be honest, and I thought it was going to defeat me. I don't agree with the summary you will find online that this series makes no sense. It does make sense but it is frequently side-tracked by a number of different themes, side plots, agendas, and often loses sight of its main theme that there is a Jack the Ripper high up in the British establishment. In fact, having got as far as writing a post about part one of this show I can't really promise when or if I will write about the other three!
I see that in my introductory post I recommended watching the first two parts with the author's commentary first, and in fact I did that again myself, making notes. This gave me a handy list of some of the themes of the show and it will give some idea of its sheer breadth when I tell you that some of them are: it aimed to repopularise the wearing of hats; it refers to a mythical South London; Eddie (the protagonist) is a dodgy Everyman character; we don't know who the Jack the Ripper is; it uses a narrative trick of revisiting places where things/people have changed; Eddie narrates from after the events of the show; Eddie finds the woman changed/inexplicable in every sex scene; it contains two circles of hell, upper and lower class; its style is high opera/melodrama; real information is mixed with fiction; it was intended to be innovative; influenced by British officers going renegade in the Troubles because they thought what the government was doing was wrong and who would often be in touch with the IRA; contrasts town with country and the urban is at sea in the country; portrays the old Tory party sliding into decadence under Thatcher; nothing is explained from higher to lower in society so it's a mystery; parodies a scene sinking a car in Psycho but it doesn't sink; and it is an extreme case of upstairs vs downstairs. Phew. There is the additional element that all four episodes are very different: Amanda Elanor whose site I link above comments that it may even be best understood as if it were four separate plays with the same protagonist, although this may detract from the themes of different circles of hell and situations and people changing, as well as the way the whole show is narrated after the events depicted, as described by Howard Brenton the author.
Why Me? is the first episode and is the most stylistically film noir. Eddie is a career criminal who is commissioned to collect and deliver a package. Unfortunately there is nobody there at the planned destination, and against instructions he opens to package to find that there is a decapitated head inside.
The events of the episode begin on a very specific date: the day of Prince William's birth, 21st June 1982, and Eddie pops into a pub to drink to the new prince's health. This immediately starts an important theme of the show, which is the establishment, Eddie's attitude to it, and its treatment of him. He makes fun of someone else for voting Tory before saying that he himself votes Tory out of loyalty to the queen. This contrasts keenly with the way he is clearly working class and comments repeatedly about the wealthy and privileged. You wouldn't know that these events take place in June in Britain because of the continual fog, it's night so everything is dark, and the 1950s Film Noir aesthetic also makes it darker.
He is naturally surprised to find a decapitated head in the package he has been asked to deliver and dumps it in the river. He is even more surprised to be picked up by Special Branch and given money and a bottle of Glenmorangie with a warning to shut up about the head. It is immediately clear that something is going on, and we are thus far in classic film noir or mystery territory.
But then the film noir set-up is twisted. Eddie finds himself at his ex-wife's flat, only to find that it has been completely done out in luxurious 1980s style and the bathroom is full of poofy toiletries, which he recognises as smelling like the Special Branch man. So we immediately move into a strange, changed, almost dream-like territory. I actually can't tell you how much I like this effect. You literally never expect what this show throws at you next, which is obviously exactly what Eddie experiences.
There is a recurring theme in this episode of hats as related to heads. As I mentioned above Brenton commented that he hoped to repopularise the wearing of hats, but here the hat/head trope is slightly more complex. Eddie's wife is clearly involved somehow, and he wants to know what she's got in her hatbox. She brings the themes full circle by commenting that only people like Princess Margaret have hat boxes, pointing to royalty and the establishment as being the likely culprits for owning hats in boxes, which may actually turn out to be heads. She does actually have a hat in a box which turns out to be a hat not a head, and then she turns in Eddie to whoever is after him. This is complex plotting with subtle pointers and (?mis)direction which requires work to get your head round.
At the end it is in the paper that the head has been found and Eddie comments that a right season in hell is starting.
It's not a criticism as such but I think the show's nature as I have spelled it out here (which has required several viewings and even making notes) may explain why this show isn't well known or very popular. It's really hard work and can leave people thinking that it makes absolutely no sense. I disagree with this verdict but you can't expect this sort of thing to be popular.
Nonetheless I am pretty well certain that the readers of this blog will be well able to get their heads round it and appreciate this excellent television.
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