Cracker (UK TV Series) The Mad Woman in the Attic Part 1
Main Character is Fritz he is a antihero, you can like him and hate him. He has his falls e.g. He drinks, smoke, gamble and sometimes his marries goes bad, when she leaves him, as she wants him stop gambling and Fritz starts to have affair. He is a psychologist and he works with the police to catch the criminal by analyzing who could done it, the motive and to try to get into their mind to crack them, to confess the crime.
Dark Crime Drama show realistleam of the crime and the criminal, which you do dislike them at the start, but as the audience we try to order under why they did it. The series has humor as Fritz tries to make a joke and to make the criminal to feel relax also to understand them.
The story/case come by a two or a three parter. The audience is Adult because of the violence, the blood, the crime scene, the language and sexual themes.
Watched the 1st episode, part 1 of The Mad Women in the Attic:
At the start of opening credits we hear music of Piano Jazz music and a gambling dog race then we hear Fritz's voice saying 'Come on'. A close up of Fritz with the phone hearing the race, camera zooms out to see Fritz's face. This tells us that he gambles and he has lost his money. Then Camera follows Fritz to his lecture, giving a lecture to students. Fritz throws books in the air towards the students, the camera hand-held follows the thrown books, Fritz shouts out the names of the books. Camera still and still focus on Fritz saying 'End of lecture' then he moves out of the frame, camera still at potiontion, Fritz comes back into the frame. Sound of the students talking and coughing, not understanding what it all means.
Then it cutaways to the next part of the story, which is a fast moving train, the sound of the train is loud. Editing then it cuts inside of the train, as we see the ticket inspector working throw the train carriage then camera moves slowly down to a low angle seeing his feet and empty cups, which shows it's a dirty/dump train shows it's grittiness of a crime drama and shows the city being bleak. Camera seeing his feet pointing at a compartment, then a quick shot a face of a young woman who is dead with blood all over. There is tense music at the background. A cutaway shot of the train moving fast, which then cuts back to Fritz lecture. He tells the students to look inside of themselves, to know who really they are, to know their dark side, once they done that, then they know what other people are like. Fritz character is off the wall by throwing those books, his intriguing to us as audience. Then it goes cuts back to the train and the landscape. The police arrives to the train and the crime scene as the camera focus on a new character who is D.C.I Billborough and camera follows him going in the train, and you know he is in charge, saying to the train passages to calm down and still back into their sits. The he is at the crime scene seeing the dead body being a mess.
After that it goes back Fritz seeing more of his character and knowing him in the pub on a gambling machine, the person behind him wants to have a go, he goes off and says his breath a swear word at that person, annoyed by losing his money from gambling. Then he is in a Taxi and smokes, there is a sign of no smoking and Taxi driver gets annoyed with him. To people around him, he is not a likeable person.
Camera follows him to his house and asks money off his son and daughter, to pay for the taxi fare. This shows he is not good with money and keeps losing it from gambling. Camera panes Fritz still following him. His wife comes in and sees him drinking and says 'We are going out, sobal' this also tells us he drinks too much. It cuts to the next scene in a Jazz club of a woman singing a sad, blues song, Fritz loves this kind of music and it also gives the feel of a gritty crime drama by the music e.g. from the 30s and 50s kind of dective music. The song still playing in the next shot of the police going to the victim's parents, the song gives the mood of a sad and dark scene, and then it cuts back to the club of the singer and fritz. It keeps cutting back to the police and the parents in the car in night time. The lighting is gritty, grey, dark and sometimes shadows giving the feel of a bleak and dark story.
The script of the dialogue is punchy, dark, cashier and taking quotes from classic films of noir and gangsters. The characters are sarcastic to one another. This is high drama, emotional to Fritz, his family, the police and even the crimails. During the series it shows the dark side of all the characters, saying they are not all nice people. In the ending of the stories Fritz always confront the criminal.
In this episode it keeps cutting to Fritz and the police giving two different points of views and stories, which will have them both, clash together later on. The blues song stops when the victim's parents close the door seeing their dead daughter by identity her. Cuts back to the jazz club seeing Fritz drunk and arguing with his friends, he doesn't pay the bill as he has no money. This shows that he is lye and a hypocrite from his friends at the jazz club. Goes back to the house, the wife is angry and leaves him with his daughter. Shows his faults and failures. Fritz is not a good sample in front of his son and daughter, not a good sample of a father. In the morning we get to know more about the crime by the TV and Fritz's point of view looking at the newspaper. Fritz in the toilet crying, but we don't know if he is crying of his wife leaving him or the victim on the newspaper. The newspapers and TV gives us information saying second victim on trains, which means it's a serial killer. The story and the mystery build up by the crime and Fritz might have some connection.
Fritz gets drawn in the case as he knows the dead girl who uses to be a client to him and wants to catch who did it.
Story builds up finding a man on the train track and the police think he killed the girl. The man also loses his memory of what happened and doesn't know who he is. The police thinking he is pretending to get it easy from the trial, the senates or trying to get in hospital care.
Next scene to Fritz office playing a tape of a piano playing jazz music. Fritz is thinking and distracted from his patience. The Victim's parents want him to work with the police and the case. Finally Fritz and D.C.I Billborough have met, Fritz offers his help to them, but the police think they don't need his help and can do it by themselves.
The D.C.I and the other policeman interviews the circuit man and trying to break him to confess but he doesn't. The next scene it shows the police searching on the train for the weapon trying to get evidence on the circuit man. At last result they turn to Fritz to crack him and to confess.
Fritz confronts the circuit man and introduces him and trying to be his friend. Then he goes through a memorial questionnaire and the man answers them all wrong. Fritz saying it’s impossible to get all the questions wrong as there are some things you can remember. Fritz walks around him to be treating and powerful and to be tall; he goes through the crime and sums what he thinks happened. Fritz is describing everything about the victim and trying to get into his mind. He analyses him and the motive. But he denies it that it was him and saying that Fritz is sick.
Next scene Fritz is watching a playback video of the victim and him together, then a shot to a close up of his face to see his emotion and cared about her as a friend. Then a cutaway to the return of him interviewing the circuit man and putting photos of the dead body on the table, to get guilt from him and to confess. During putting photos down he gives a word to him and he has to answer it from his head, like playing a game and drive him mad to confess. Fritz is says it's better to confess for the parents to relive their minds from this terrible crime of their daughter’s death, again trying to make him guilty. The last line Fritz says to him is 'Please, Please', begging him to confess for the parents and it ends there with the credits and the Blues song again from the start, leaving it an open for part 2.
The editing is fast pase, moves swiftly of camera shots.
Each episode is about 50 minutes long.
