JEKYLL (Sun March 2, ABC – 8:30pm)
Robert Louis-Stephenson’s classic tale of unnatural science and discovering the horrors of the Dark Side decades before audiences were similarly horrified by the unnatural plot of STAR WARS – THE PHANTOM MENACE, gets a C21st treatment in this 3-part miniseries by the writers of COUPLING and the new DOCTOR WHO. James Nesbitt, a remarkably simian man with looks suggesting an insomniac Rowan Atkinson, who is nevertheless constantly voted one of the U.K’s Sexiest Men (suggesting some kind of mass hysteria or vision problem in the British Isles), plays Doctor Henry Jekyll, great-grandson of the original Doctor who invented a secret formula that gives all the evil and monstrous nature of a person a separate, physical life (Secret? I thought that was called Red Bull?!) You’d think given his family history that Dr Jekyll would be the last person to chug down suspicious liquids in his great-granddaddy’s lab, but pretty soon he’s put on a brand new Hyde, got conspicuously uglier (though since this is Nesbitt, people don’t notice) and started playing with pointy things in the cutlery drawer. Excellent FX, a witty, post-modern script and great performances all around make this one evil twin you should adopt!