Clive (Jon Pointing) and Bev (Sophie Willan) are one of those married couples whose "honeymoon phase" has long been over. They have become too comfortable around each other and have grown to tolerate the other's peculiar quirks and behaviors. A sense of routine and disillusionment has settled into their marriage, and what's mostly left now is a feeling of boredom. No wonder, then, they try to "spice up" their lives by peeking into the backyard of their neighbor. Their neighbor is Michael Sleep (Pearce Quigley), the kind of bloke who doesn't really go out looking for friends or long conversations. A DIY store employee, Michael is simply sailing through existence with his long, classy beard and slight curtness, both of which make him seem weird to someone like Clive, who, frustrated with his own life, constantly seeks out opportunities to undermine him. He is always complaining about Michael to Bev. Unlike Clive, Bev likes Michael, though she, like her husband, is also curious about him. Willan wonderfully brings forth Bev's loneliness. You can clearly see that all she wants is to join her neighbor in his weird activities to entertain herself, to distract herself from her own monotonous existence. She, after all, goes to bed listening to podcasts about sex traffickers.
When Clive, at one point, goes through his usual routine of complaining about Michael, Bev points out that Clive is irked by his neighbor simply because Michael is different. She further adds that Michael is "quirky and interesting and not boring," which, to be fair, is precisely how one can describe Small Prophets as well. Created, written, and directed by Mackenzie Crook, this small, six-episode comedy-drama has a lovely heart and an intimate scale. It's subversive in its own small ways. For starters, it's a series about the creation of homunculi, a group of prophesying spirits who are stored in jars, but Crook never overblows the sci-fi aspect. What he does instead is unify the different plot elements within a single, curiously "quiet" tone, which keeps the show consistently level-headed. When a customer at the store asks Michael whether they sell buckets and the two characters are surrounded by blue buckets, Crook keeps his camera fixed in a static position to underline the joke and let it unfold in a natural, low-key way. It's an unusual filmmaking technique that invites the audience to engage with the series on their own terms and at their own pace. Crook doesn't grab you by the collar; he lets everything flow in a calm, gentle way.
This is why there seems to be almost no difference between a conversation about an expensive book or an invaluable meteor and a casual chat about fake grass and plants. This, however, doesn't mean Crook has no style or that he is utterly bland and impersonal. If Crook exhibits anything, it's his attentiveness towards the manners of his characters, their inflections, their dreams, their individual quirks, their past, and their future plans. One of my favorite scenes in the entire show is all about the camera patiently and keenly observing Michael and his young co-worker Kacey (Lauren Patel) as they sit near a bonfire and talk to each other about themselves. Crook also does something funny and real and almost magical with such scenes as the one where Kacey, after meeting a news reporter, starts weeping because she starts to compare herself with the glamorous life of that news reporter. Yes, I smiled even though I could sense some truth in Kacey's behavior. Who among us hasn't, say, seen a clip or a picture and suddenly found ourselves thinking about how our lives might have been different if we had been born into a family of movie stars and businessmen or if we had pursued a certain type of career?
But the main reason why I loved this unusual, unconventional tone of Small Prophets is that it lends an air of distinctiveness to Crook's funny, fantastical realism. What plagues much of fantasy these days is not merely unimpressive visual effects but also the plain, generic style and atmosphere surrounding these creations. Crook presents his designs and emotions with an idiosyncrasy that renders the world in which the story is set quite peculiar, amusing, and unreal. It's the kind of world where you can encounter children stealing from a truck or a mugger who thinks Santa Claus is real. Small Prophets, then, embraces fantasy in its truest sense: it makes the ordinary world feel strange, unpredictable, and faintly magical. It also offers you sweet, insightful moments like the one where Kacey tells Michael that she is not walking him home, that she is simply going in the direction of her house. But after reaching a junction, when Michael, heavily intoxicated, bids Kacey goodbye and turns right to walk towards his residence, Kacey, rather than turning left, makes a U-turn. You see, she just wanted to spend some more time with Michael. She doesn't have too many friends. Despite all the alchemical mumbo jumbo and secret talks about a precious book, Small Prophets is mainly about forming new connections and moving on from the ones that got lost in the past (Michael holds on to his house because he still believes his girlfriend would one day return). This is a fantasy of intimate proportions, and its heart beats strongest during the scene where Michael and Kacey, while sitting on the street outside his house, gently touch their heads. It's a beautiful shot in a series that shouldn't fly under anybody's radar. Small Prophets, with its small-scale warmth, steals your heart.
Final Score - [8.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times