Money (2010)

The one drama I watched from the BBC's recent mini 80's season (aside from Ashes to Ashes) was the 2 part comedy-drama Money, starring Nick Frost, and adapted from Martin Amis' novel. It was a strange show really. Frost was good, although I'm not sure that he should be doing starring roles, his humour and style works better against a partner, i.e. Simon Pegg. He did have excellent support from the tasty Vincent Kartheiser, of Mad Men and Angel fame as a dodgy producer though. Frost played John Self, an ad director in the 80's who gets the chance to make a big budget movie in the US, with Kartheiser's producer helping him along the way.

There was a lot more going on than that, involving Self's girlfriend, his Dad's pub, problems with writers and actors, one of his crushes from his past, mysterious phone calls and a strange woman who looks like his Mum following him... There was almost too much going on for a 2 part production, and it was difficult to know what was significant. The focus was on the titular Money - Self spent it like tap water, drinking to excess, visiting prostitues, eating as much as possible, flying back and forth from UK to US... I got the point, that money can be evil and can make people go over the top, the trouble was there wasn't much emotion in the piece. Everything seemed as cold as cold hard cash, and I suspect that was the point. 

I liked Money, but I wanted to like it more. It didn't add up to the sum of its parts, and as much as I really like Nick Frost, I found his onscreen presence and voice over a bit wearing.