THE CONFESSIONS OF DORIAN GRAY REVIEW
THE COMPLETE THIRD SERIES
By Jack Ryan
BEWARE: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK
Akin to the titular hedonist, this series just continues. It continues to run, continues to inspire, continues to shock, continues to break our hearts. But we have one slight problem with that. Scott killed him. Scott went and killed our beloved baby faced Dorian, in his own house, in the last regular episode of the previous series, and I think some of us still haven't even gotten over that one. So with the series' rising popularity not faltering, there had to be a reasonable way to bring dear Mr Gray back from the dead. Then you realise..... this is a supernatural horror drama. Who needs logic and reason?!
Dorian Gray is dead. He’s been dead for the past two years. All There’s been since that day is silence from his house in Mayfair. But that’s about to change. Three unruly teenagers have set foot in somewhere no-one sane would go. And when they vanish, who appears in their place but Dorian Gray, returned from the dead. But soon, he discovers that his eternal battle with the supernatural has followed him, not to mention attracting the attention of psycho stalkers, tarot readers, ghosts from the past, and a mysterious client known as Miss Lowle. And when a few old friends walk right back into Dorian’s life, a terrible monster is awakened, and wants only one thing...
This is a very interesting series as it takes a small but nice change in its narrative style. Previously, we had Dorian narrate events from past years in his life, but now. we’ve entered the present day and completely full cast drama stories. But even with this shift in story style, Don’t think that they’ve skimped on the quality. We still have a cracking set of episodes, all of which now connect straight into each other to give us a nice big four-hour epic, whilst each half hour tale doesn’t forget to remain its own thing. We start off with James Goss’ Blank Canvas, which shows us, rather horrifically, how our beloved hedonist returned to us. David Llewellyn’s The Needle reintroduces us to Dorian’s former co-worker Simon Darlow, and a terrible secret surrounding London’s newest skyscraper. Dorian then faces off against a stalker who just won’t leave him be in Roy Gill’s We Are Everywhere. Then, Gary Russell’s Echoes puts our immortal hero on a train though his past, where all isn’t as it seems. Pandora, by Xanna Eve Chown, sees Dorian attend a very special tarot reading, that grants people their heart’s desires. Following is Cavan Scott’s Heart and Soul, where Dorian’s vampiric lover, Tobias Matthews has returned, and so has a friend of his… Finally, we have Scott Handcock’s two parter finale, Displacement Activity and The Darkest Hour when Victoria Lowell asks the two lovers to help her prevent a robbery, only it doesn’t go as planned and now an old and grudged monster is on the loose. All of these tales and the large winding narrative they present left me gladly feeling so many mixed emotions; joy, sadness, shock, horror, and of course, something necessary for this series, utterly joyous heartbreak, all directed to perfection by the glorious Mr Handcock.
But, of course, we need a stellar cast, and whilst good, the message. we seem to get with this lot is “Oh, it’s them!!” But bear in mind, that is no bad thing, especially If you get graced with the likes of Gallifrey’s Miles Richardson, Margaret Slitheen herself Annete Badland, Nicola Bryant, Tracey Childs, Terry Molloy, The Claws Of Axos’ Bernard Holley, Harry Potter’s Sean Biggerstaff, Graceless’ Laura Doddington, returning cast members David Blackwell and Hugh Skinner, and that’s only the half of it. Alongside we have the talents of Christopher Allen, Edward Harrison, Alex Jordan, Toby Longworth, Barnaby Edwards, Andrew Pepper, Blake Ritson and Sophie Wu. Every last single one of the guest cast are amazing in this and an absolute pleasure to listen to. But of course, we cannot forget the main reason, hopefully, you're listening to this series and reading my silly little review…
ALEXANDER BLOODY VLAHOS!!!!
As always, Alex is on top form when he seamlessly slips back into the mantle of Dorian Gray. With this set however, Alex manages to give him a lot more development from an anti-hero to someone who begins to care about the world, and in turn us caring for him. The interesting circumstances, both in the narrative and it's structure, gives us this chance to see a Dorian Gray that tries to deal with modern life, and Alex just nails it. Actually, can Alex be bad in anything? I sincerely doubt it, though. If anyone can find something he was bad in then I'll... actually I don't think I'll go that far...
For this set, we're graced with the immaculate sound design talents of Neil Gardner, who, judging from what goes on in this set with everyone, seem to have a lot of work cut out for him. Thankfully, his efforts have not been in vain, and neither have the efforts of our composers. With former maestro James Dunlop not returning, we've manages to get back the formidable duo of Ioan Morris and Rhys Downing, who manage to create wonders so breathtaking, they could actually give Dunlop a run for his money.
In hindsight, this always seemed like the route to go for the character after that tearjerker of a finale back in Series 2. And despite the shift in style, this set has proved once and for all, why this has become one of Big Finish's most successful original series, if not the most successful. The only problem is that we know it cannot last. I know it, you. know it, everyone knows it. And I don't think we'll ever be ready...
VERDICT: 5/5 Honestly, the best series yet, but we've another couple to go....
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