A new feature on Poisoned Rationality, "What I'm Watching" will cover the anime, tv shows and DVDs I'm watching each week.

Why yes that is John Simm and Max Beesley!

MAD DOGS is a show that I kind of just...fell into.  I was searching for John Simm shows I hadn't seen yet (which apparently there's plenty of them) and saw this one with a whole bunch of other guys my father and I know.  Max Beesly is from SURVIVORS, another UK show.  Philip Glenister is from LIFE ON MARS (UK version, with John Simm), Marc Warren was in STATE OF PLAY (with John Simm) and Ben Chaplin (who I really only remember from THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS).

Its a socio-thriller dark comedy about four forty-ish guys (Glenister, Simm, Beesly and Warren) who accept an invitation from their well off friend Alvo (Chaplin) to vacation at his home in Mallorca.  Things go from w00t fun vacation to OMG what the hell when during drinks one night a midget in a Tony Blair mask (the creepiest mask ever) shows up shouting in Spanish at Alvo and then blows his brains all over the table and his buds.

That's when not only do they start to learn unsettling things about their good friend Alvo, but about each other and their opinions of how they run their lives.  The 4-episode series takes place over 3 or 4 days with the seemingly tight knit crew slowly unraveling as old secrets are aired, new secrets are learned and they deal with what to do with everything they learn.

I was quite surprised by how much I took to this.  While I'll watch anything with John Simm in it, this is the kind of show that a few years ago I would have just suffered through and not really enjoyed.  I found myself involved with finding out how the police were involved, where the money and cocaine came from, why 'Tiny' Blair (the shooter) keeps attacking them and how Alvo was caught up in it all.  Plus their own lives--none of them seem particularly happy, just varying degrees of 'not miserable'.  The ending was kind of a surprise, but this will be getting a new series (hopefully airing soon) and it sounds as if things only get worse for the gang.

To my knowledge this isn't available domestically unfortunately, but give it a try if you see it on BBCAmerica or if you can find a copy online.