Sky Living HD attempt an ambitious undead drama. However, will Bedlam stake a challenge to its competitors or is it all bark and no bite...?

With Bedlam, Sky Living HD has stepped out of its comfort zone of female-oriented American imports and reality TV, in order to take a shot at self-produced genre programming. Bedlam is an ambitious horror-drama set in a former asylum, now a trendy apartment building which is inhabited by the Bettany family, descendants of the disgraced doctor who ran the place over fifty years ago.

The creators of this show obviously have hopes of following in the footsteps of recent UK hits such as Being Human (BBC Worldwide co-produced and has the rights to distribute it outside the UK) and, through Bedlam, have originated a compelling concept that could potentially connect Living’s traditional viewership to a wider and more centralised audience.

Bedlam follows a group of four attractive twenty-somethings led by Jed (Theo James), a mysterious young man previously put in a psychiatric ward for insisting that he could see ghosts. His arrival at Bedlam is prompted by his receiving of a number of eerie text-messages telling him to save his adopted cousin Kate Bettany. Unfortunately, Kate has never fully trusted Jed, primarily because of his shady past - but these trust issues must take a back seat as Kate desperately attempts to rent the other apartments in the building.

Kate herself lives with a geeky I.T. Technician called Ryan (Will Young of Pop Idol fame), who is in the middle of a love-triangle between her and her shy best friend Molly. Matters are further complicated by the unclear motives of Kate’s dad, Warren Bettany (Hugo Speer) who, while staking a substantial investment in the apartment project, appears to have a number of other motivations...

Bedlam is a satisying blend of drama and intrigue, with the first two episodes managing to convince me to invest my time in both the core characters and the incidental ones that enter their lives. The character of Jed is particularly compelling and well-rounded. But what really solicited my interest was the potentially award-winning backstory that lies within the Bedlam property. I only hope that in the forthcoming weeks the Bedlam writers make full use of what could be the series' saving grace, especially as the hard work has already been done for them. On a weekly basis it would appear that Bedlam will deal with a different ghost or ghoul, each of which is sure to have its own traits and backstory, giving some episodic scope to the wider series story arc.

Unfortunately, as expected , there are a number of problems with the show. The cast as a whole felt slightly weak, failing as of yet to deliver on their early promise. The saving grace looks set to come from Will Young, who adds a moderate spark to what could have been a terribly clichéd role (especially in the second episode). Bedlam as a whole is let down by the fact that its horror element feels underwhelming and generic. Admittedly, one would presume that Sky Living HD has too limited a budget to accomodate many elaborate visual effects but, as Paranormal Activity proved, lower budget horror can be effective with enough innovation. That said, the show's rumoured £3m budget is hardly anemic, so there is some prospect of more effective visual scares in future episodes.

I don’t want to delve into spoilers in a show seems so story-focused, but I will say that the first episode’s initial hook is expanded upon by its end, leaving me quite interested in seeing where it the season takes the story arc. Living certainly has the foundation for a hit show; I’m just hoping that they find a way to escalate the threat while revealing more interesting details about the asylum and the family which has so much history with it.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR SITE, AT NO COST WITH ONE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK 'LIKE' BUTTON BELOW: