What's it about: 'Collinsport Hospital is where you come if you want to die.' But no one is dying at Collinsport Hospital, even those who wish to. When student parapsychologist Amy Jennings is rushed into intensive care, she reluctantly begins to investigate, and soon finds the hospital morgue is anything but empty. But who is behind it? And what could they possibly want? Amy might be guaranteed to make it out alive, but she is about to discover there are fates far worse than death.
Amy
Jennings: Amy Jennings has always been unlucky in love. She loved her parents
and they died. She loved her brothers and they died too. Amy is extremely
sensitive when it comes to talking about werewolves. She's a hilariously inept
investigator at times, asking professionals about supernatural happenings. She
splits the world into two types of people, those who see cold spots and those
who see ghosts. Which one are you?
Standout Performance: The best aspect of the first series of
Torchwood by a country mile, Murray Melvin is one of those performers that
excites because he never quite plays a scene in the way you might expect and is
eye catching because of it. It's a similar technique that Tom Baker has, a
compelling eccentricity and a feeling that anything can happen whilst he is
acting. Edwin Beadle was the best character to feature, a witty and dry old
codger who knows his time is up and wants to skip to the end of the book he is
reading just in case he doesn't make it to the end.
Sparkling Dialogue: 'Collinsport hospital is where you come
when you want to die!'
Great Ideas: Collinsport is cursed. You breathe its air, you
choke. You drink its water, you drown. You even look at it on a map and you go
blind. If anyone had any sense they would level it to the ground. Amy
understands exactly what to expect from a mystery at Collinsport hospital -
bodies being admitted clawed and mutilated. She's been in this town long enough
for none of this to surprise her. But nobody could guess the plague that seems
to have struck now - life. Nobody is dying at Collinsport hospital despite
having some horrific injuries. It's Torchwood Miracle Day all over again. Just
like Miracle Day it is a premise that has so many possibilities.
Audio Landscape: The sequence with the hysterical screaming
failed to unnerve me because I was too busy turning the volume down. It was
like somebody was grating my brain. Heart monitors are used in an imaginative way.
Isn't it Odd: Whoever played the coffee shop server has to
be heard to be believed. The Happier Dead opens on a scene that really feels as
though you are coming in at the middle of the story with no real clues as to
what the beginning was. The dialogue occasionally made me wince ('And the Oscar
goes to...', 'Cold hands, bad circulation') and it was overly descriptive in
parts too ('He's charging the door!' could have been handled with a
sound effect).
Standout Scene: Amy's Miss Marple moment when she realises
that this wasn't meant to be such a sweeping reform where death is
prevented...it was only supposed to work on one person. A clever twist that I
never suspected. Suddenly the one responsible is blatantly obvious.
Result: 'Leave the dead to die!' Don't get
appendicitis in Collinsport! A busy script with a busy cast, a little
unfocussed but full of a nice ideas. The dialogue felt a little strained at
times and the atmosphere a little forced...and even the direction erred a
little too close to the melodramatic for my tastes in a range that is usually
quite restrained in its horror. Saying that the plot unfolded in unexpected
ways and there was always something interesting going on, I'm just not sure
that the execution always worked. I prefer an economic cast (Bloodlust proved
to be the exception) and this is a full cast drama with too many characters to
give adequate attention to. I wanted to spend more time with Murray Melvin's
gloriously oddball Edwin but he was spread amongst thirteen other characters.
Halfway through the story and I wasn't entirely sure what the threat was in The
Happier Dead, it felt like the script needed to go through a editor one more
time to iron out its kinks. At one point the script is so ill defined one of
the characters makes a supposition about the motives of who they think is the
villain and says 'maybe we'll never know.' I really love the quirky idea of the heroes trying to kill people
off as a mercy, the protagonists becoming the murderers in this insanely turvy
topsy situation where immortality is a curse. The weakest Dark Shadows I have
heard yet but it's still more involving than the worst of the other Big Finish
ranges: 5/10
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