Critical Condition: Dark Mon£y 

Dark Mon£y | SoHo2, 8.30 Tuesday

☆☆☆☆ “This four-part psychological drama grabs you in the opening minutes as 13-year-old actor Isaac Mensah returns home to London after filming a sci-fi blockbuster in Hollywood [and] reveals he was sexually abused by the film’s producer. This is edge-of-your seat drama as you live through the life-changing decisions facing the ordinary British family.” — TV Times.

☆☆☆☆ “Dark Mon£y merges two hot-button anxieties into  a single plot: the vulnerability of children to sexual predators in the entertainment industry, and the  ability of Hollywood potentates to protect themselves behind NDAs … A chilling journey to the dark heart of Hollywood.” — The Telegraph.

☆☆☆☆ “It feels, so far, like too slight a piece. It is the simple horror of the idea – of the existence – of child abuse that does the heavy lifting, with the characters not yet fine-grained enough for us to feel their personal agony and loss. Also, the question of what we would do in their situation is too far removed from likelihood to be a compelling draw.” — The Guardian.

☆☆☆☆ “Without the same heavily traumatic treatment as, say, Channel 4’s recent The Virtues, it still speaks eloquently about the abuse of children by the powerful, how persistent the phenomenon is and how uneven the balance of power between abuser and abused is – and will probably always be, given that so much of it is about money.” — Independent.

☆☆☆☆ “The parts add up to less than a whole, with neither characters nor action feeling especially plausible, or that they belong together. While the exploitation of young or vulnerable people in Hollywood is a story we’ve grown painfully familiar with, Levi David Addai’s script is conceived as a small-scale domestic drama rather than an attempt to suggest the high-rolling glitz and big-budget unreality of a Star Wars-style production in California.” — The Arts Desk.