I don't know the books, never heard of them or the author but I dipped in. I absolutely hated the first episode, so self-destructive and crazy. But I stuck with it through episode 2. Only in episode 3, you see what the previous two were about. After that you need to binge it. It gets overwhelming and suffocates you when you finally understand. The cast is stellar, beautifully acted but never sentimental. The characters are superbly portrayed. It must have been an actor's dream to be cast in this mini-series. You just want to slap Patrick's father (Hugo Weaving) and give his mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) a good dunking from a bucket of cold water for being in the centre of a circle of utterly dysfunctional people feeding off each other like vampires. Benedict Cumberbatch does more than an excellent job of portraying the broken but eventually stable Patrick. The actor young Patrick (Sebastian Maltz) is excellent too. All I can say is stick with it, it's worth it.
Review of Patrick Melrose
