Mad Dogs- A review

What is common denominator involving John Simm, Phillip Glenister and a dead goat floating on the pool?

Before you Life on Mars enthusiasts start nurturing your erections, this is a different series. For starters it's on Sky rather than on BBC and it is called Mad Dogs- a story about four friends, English blokes, going on a holiday trip that turns into a holiday from hell. Noel Coward fans would definitely relish the literary pun re the name of the show.

However, the above mentioned two are not the only stars of the show. We have Max Beesley (Hotel Babylon), Marc Warren (Hustle) and Ben Chaplin (The Truth About Cats and Dogs) taking equal parts in the limelight as well. The stellar cast is supplanted by the script of Cris Cole and the direction of Adrian Shergold.

Woody (Beesley), Quinn (Glenister), Baxter (Simm) and Rick (Warren) are friends from school who are all turning forty and they are all showing up in Majorca for the retirement party of their buddy Alvo (Chaplin). Alvo owns the villa they are staying in and has made his fortune in property deals. This is supposed to be a sun and drink soaked holiday for all of them. But as usual trouble awaits them in paradise.

Although he seems to have made it to the big leagues and makes no bones about showing off his wealth to his less successful friends, all is not well with the life and business of Alvo. He seems to be avoiding phone calls and even when he does answer them, the substance of the conversation seems to have a sinister edge to it. He is not above rubbing his friends' noses in his success while they themselves have led less glamorous lives.

The revelry and merriment of the friends is not a very good disguise for their troubled personal lives. Quinn is a lecturer who is estranged from his young adult children. Baxter is divorced and lives with his two teen-aged daughters. Woody has a drinking problem and Rick may have been having marital problems involving his wife. All of these pieces of information seem to be at the easy disposal of Alvo, who uses them to psychologically manipulate each and every one of his friends.

The sense that it is likely to not end well is apparent from the beginning when we see the four friends recording their last will and testaments while being bloody and disheveled. The the action moves to flashback where they start out their journey to Majorca. They arrive there with great fanfare and are taken to Alvo's villa where they meet their broody friend deep in his dark thoughts.

The picture of death are surrounding the show. We see dead beetles floating in the pool as the quartet arrives at the villa for the first time. The we have the most interesting scene of a dead goat floating in the pool. One gets the feeling that Alvo's business associates have seen the Godfather and is not above the concept of life imitating art.

The show seems to be a proportional mix of comedy about coming to terms with middle age and psychological drama involving deceit, betrayal crime. The cast seems to be of the finest variety and there seems to be quite chemistry between the guys for a drama entirely devoid of female roles. It is promising to be quite the psychological thriller and original storytelling. Sky has been trying to break into the original series market and investing quite heavily in competing with the BBC. As far as the cast is concerned, their investment may have paid off.

And it is good to see John Simm and Phillip Glenister together on screen again.

Mad Dogs is aired on Sky on Thursdays at 9 pm.