JuicyTalk
There’s a lot of talk about all the great movies that have been adapted from Stephen King’s books. The King cinematic oeuvre contains horror classics, like Carrie and The Shining; deeply moving dramas, like Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption; and even some masterpieces that have found a sweet spot between the two, like the Oscar-winning psychological thriller Misery.
But there have been some great TV adaptations of King’s work, too. He wrote a much more faithful adaptation of The Shining as a nifty little miniseries; Under the Dome and The Mist both got fleshed out into a long-running series exploring their curious respective worlds. One of the best King-based shows didn’t get enough attention, though.
Mr. Mercedes adapted all three books in King’s Detective Bill Hodges trilogy across three seasons. Brendan Gleeson was perfectly cast as Hodges, bringing that cynical sleuth to life with depth and humanity and razor-sharp wit, and although the plot occasionally got a little ridiculous (especially in the second season, based on the third book), it’s a delightfully bingeable crime drama.
Mr. Mercedes Is The Perfect Intersection Of Crime & Horror
King usually writes straightforward horror — tales of the macabre — but Mr. Mercedes was an earnest attempt at traditional crime fiction. It has all the grisly gruesomeness of a slasher like Psycho, but in the context of a murder mystery like True Detective. Jonathan Demme struck that balance of crime and horror perfectly in The Silence of the Lambs, and Mr. Mercedes does the same thing.
Mr. Mercedes begins with the titular mass murderer driving the titular car into a crowd of people at a job fair. Two years later, after Hodges has failed to solve the case, he retires in disgrace. And then, just as he’s settling down into his twilight years, he starts receiving menacing messages from the killer, taunting him. The first season follows that intense battle of wits as Mr. Mercedes targets people close to Bill, and Bill scrambles to uncover his identity.
The second season gets a little silly as Mr. Mercedes, now in a coma, develops the supernatural ability to possess people. He starts taking the form of his nurse to wreak havoc while he’s technically braindead. It’s absolutely bonkers, and almost ruined the series, but season 3 got the show back on track with another chilling murder investigation when Bill’s favorite author — played brilliantly by Bruce Dern — is killed under suspicious circumstances.
Brendan Gleeson Gives One Of His Best Performances As Bill Hodges
Gleeson gives one of the best performances of his career as Hodges. He’s always great — he never phones it in — but three 10-episode seasons gave him more of an opportunity to sink his hooks into the character than a two-hour movie normally would.
Bill’s curmudgeonly complaints about everything around him have a Larry David quality, and they tap into the pitch-black comic wit that Gleeson displayed in his Martin McDonagh-directed performances, but he’s also a warm, kind, caring person at heart. He chose a grim line of work, and he’s been desensitized to all kinds of horrors, but when he sees a lost soul like Holly Gibney, he can’t help but take her in and protect her. Gleeson captures that dichotomy beautifully. He’ll have you laughing hysterically 10 times an episode with his wry one-liners, but he’ll also catch you off-guard and have you in tears when he sings “Dónal Óg” to cheer up his neighbor.
In fact, the worst parts of Mr. Mercedes are when Gleeson isn’t on-screen. When you’re watching Mr. Mercedes have sex with his mother, you just want the show to cut back to Gleeson. When you’re watching Mr. Mercedes’ nurse do his evil bidding under psychic control, you just want the show to cut back to Gleeson. When you’re watching Mr. Mercedes’ neurosurgeon arguing with his wife about administering a miracle drug to save a mass murderer’s life, you just want the show to cut back to Gleeson.
Mr. Mercedes is streaming on Peacock. It originally aired on the Audience network, but that no longer exists.
