In the US: Wednesdays, Hulu
For most people in the UK, Hugh Laurie is Hugh Laurie. He may have played Gregory House in House for umpteen seasons, but he’s also the guy from Blackadder, Bertie Wooster in Jeeves and Wooster, and Stephen Fry’s comedy writing partner for most of the 80s and early 90s.
For most Americans, though, he’s House. He is the grumpy, misanthropic, genius American doctor from House. End of. So you can kind of understand why Laurie would take on a two-season role as an eponymous doctor again, if only to cleanse American viewers’ memories by playing something similar, but crucially different in one big regard: he’s nice.
Based on the novel by Ken Humm (John from Cincinnati), Chance sees Laurie playing a consultant psychologist, who tries to sort out treatment for people who have neurological problems. When Gretchen Mol (Life on Mars) is referred to him with disassociative personality disorder, which she says started after her cop husband Paul Adelstein (Prison Break) began to abuse her, he tries to help her but soon the husband is coming after him.
Meanwhile, the non-confrontational Laurie is in the middle of a no-fault divorce from his wife Diane Farr (Numb3rs) and needs money. When he takes his antique desk to Clarke Peters (The Wire) to be sold, Peters tells him he could get nearly twice as much money if it still had the metalwork on it. Fortunately, Ethan Suplee (My Name is Earl) works for him and could add the missing metalwork if Laurie doesn’t mind a little deception. In turn, Suplee doesn’t mind a little bit of ultra-violence and is potentially willing to help Laurie out with his other problem…
I’ll play a little game now. I’ll list a few things and you have to say at which word you realised what the show’s biggest influence is.
San Francisco. Psychiatry. Blonde. Femme fatale. Different personalities. Hitchcockian strings.
Well, if you haven’t got it already, the answer’s Vertigo, one of Alfred Hitchock’s finest, in which Jimmy Stewart falls for Kim Novak who plays two women who turn out to be just the one. Certainly, Chance has huge ladels of both Vertigo and film noir spread all over it. There’s also lashings of Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanours, with Suplee and Peters leading the normally ethical Laurie towards a life of escalating moral infractions towards possibly even murder.
But Chance is certainly a lot more than that and knows that you know what its references are. Certainly, Laurie doesn’t do anything massively stupid, instead doing all manner of smart, prudent things rather than leaping in at the deep end. There’s also a certain House of Cards – David Mamet’s, that is – quality to it all which the show is also keen to highlight. Is maths tutor Mol really disassociative or is she faking it? Is Adelstein really doing all the things that he seems to be doing or is the surprisingly bright Suplee actually doing it all to lure Laurie into a huge con? Could they even all be in league with one another?
Chance wants you to be wondering all of these things, which is why, despite its depressing qualities, it’s also compelling, very tense and claustrophobic (rather than vertiginous). The double meaning in the title, which becomes hugely important in the second episode, makes you wonder exactly how much of what’s going on is genuine coincidence and what’s not – or even if Laurie’s character is facing a Sixth Sense discovery that he’s had a brain injury himself. Even if you’re not exactly sure what the trap is, you can feel the jaws slowly closing around Laurie, who’s a good guy who wants to do the right thing.
It’s a good, smart, well-paced thriller that’s definitely worth a try.
Barrometer rating: 2
Would it be better with a female lead? No
TMINE’s prediction: Commissioned for two seasons
