Flickering Opinions: Neverwhere

Dear heavens Mr. Vandemar, they are conversing about our little television program. Imagine that.

Yes Mr. Croup. Imagine that.

I suppose they’ll hold it in contempt, for it’s rather shot on video quality. Granted the special effects were a touch on the inexpensive side, but I personally believe, Mr. Vandemar, that the narrative is quite strapping enough to carry the film with great ease.

Yes, Mr. Croup. Strapping story.

Being the lot of imbeciles that they are, Mr. Vandemar, I should think that they will make a great jest at it’s expense, not knowing a complicated tale of post-modernistic fantasy when they lay their obtuse little ocularies upon them. I dare say, Mr. Vandemar, that they will be, in a word, bored.

I could nail them to a board, Mr. Croup. I could nail boards into their eyes.

I’m afraid, Mr. Vandemar, that that, it in all likelihood, would not be helpful. I mean look what happened when we killed that awful Marquis de Carabas. No, Mr. Vandemar, I do believe we are losing our touch.

Speak for yourself, Mr. Croup.

...

Neverwhere is a miniseries created for the BBC by the one and only Neil Gaiman. (Well, he got the idea from a comedian friend.) It is a postmodern fantasy tale set amongst the homeless of the London underground. The names of the people and places are filled with puns on names of actual places in London on the tube maps.

This is the story is of a man named Richard Mayhew, who has a very boring life. He stumbles one night upon a young woman, beaten and bloody, and tries to help her. A very stressful day later, after a visit from the inimitable Misters Croup and Vandemar, Richard begins to find that he is no longer recognized by those that he has known for years. His fiancee cannot remember his name nor his face. His landlord has already gotten a new tenant to take up occupancy in Richard’s flat. Richard then decides to seek out the girl, to find out why his life has suddenly become disrupted in such a way.

Of course, then things get weird. There are the Ratspeakers, the Velvets. There is the Floating Market and the Night Bridge. The Earl of Earl’s Court has gone slightly mad and his jester isn’t terribly funny. There is a great Beast in the tunnels and an Angel in Islington.

Gaiman adapted his script into a book, which has been available in the States for a few years, but the mini-series has not been available until recently. If you’ve read the book, see the mini-series. If you haven’t, then see the min-series anyway and then read the book when you’re done. Both are excellent, with the series having a relatively low budget shot on video look and feel to it. The story carries it easily though. Very easily.