We all have things we're tired of seeing on TV. For my part, I'd like to issue a 10-year moratorium on serial killers, self-destructive detectives, cute small towns that are rife with murder, and shows that open with an attention-grabbing chase or murder then follow with the words, "36 Hours Earlier," or "5 Weeks Ago" to alert us that the actual story is finally about to begin. I want no more Big Little Lies knockoffs or series that take 10 episodes to do what movies used to do in two hours.
I could go on, but I'd rather tell you why I love Small Prophets, the smash BBC hit now streaming on Apple TV. Composed of six elegant half-hour episodes, this gentle show is so original and consistently surprising that it's kind of a marvel. It blends deadpan humor, fantasy, social comedy and an alluring sense of melancholy to create a mood you'll love being inside.
Pearce Quigley plays Michael Sleep, a good-hearted, 50-ish man whose flowing locks and white beard make him look like a cross between an old hippie and Father Time. He lives in a suburban house, complete with an overgrown lawn, that he's kept the same since his partner, Clea, mysteriously disappeared seven years ago. Still hoping she'll return, he divides his time between half-hearted work at the Tool Box, a Home Depot-like store, and visits to the retirement home that looks after his inventive but scattered father, Brian — warmly played by Michael Palin.
His dad tells him about a friend in Egypt who was able to call up homunculi, miniature humanoid beings who can answer any question and always tell the truth. Brian gives his son the recipe for bringing these small prophets to life — they grow in glass jars — and suggests he ask them what happened with Clea. Although dubious, Michael decides to try, beginning a procedure that involves everything from old coins to a truckload of manure.
Meanwhile, other people start entering his life. He's shadowed by Clea's aggrieved brother Roy (played by Paul Kaye), who turns up broke and wants to claim the house. He becomes the obsession of his next-door neighbors — the comically hectoring Clive, who's tormented by Michael's messy yard, and his curious wife, Bev, who finds Michael interestingly different.
Above all, Michael develops an unlikely friendship with a disaffected young coworker Kacey, played by Lauren Patel. She bonds with Michael because he, too, has no time for their boss, Gordon — an officious incompetent with a greasy ponytail who's played by the show's brilliant writer-director, Mackenzie Crook. And all the while in Michael's shed, the homunculi are coming to life.
Small Prophets is the latest good show from Crook who specializes in series that tend to be tenderly offbeat, like his cult comedy Detectorists about members of a metal detecting club seeking buried gold. Believing that people are better than we might sometimes think, Crook casts a sympathetic eye on loners, oddballs, misfits and dreamers — many of them caught in unsatisfying jobs and thwarted hopes.
You feel his delicate touch in virtually all of Small Prophets' characters, be it Michael, who yearns to recapture his vanished life with Clea, or Kacey, who does dead-end work but has huge, perhaps impossible dreams. Even characters who come off as foolish are drawn with loving care — they're vivid — and have moments where we glimpse something unexpectedly vulnerable hidden within them.
That said, Small Prophets is anything but doleful. Crook serves up some very good jokes — Michael's goofing on customers at the store is especially funny — and the show imbues daily life with poetic touches that feel magical, be it a falling star, an oil spill in the shape of a rabbit or a literally enchanting Christmas memory. When we finally meet the small prophets, they're haunting — fragile, truth-telling creatures whose faces bespeak pain and isolation. Trapped inside their bottles, they mirror the solitude of the human characters.
No one wears their inner wounds more appealingly than Michael, who carries us along with his strange charisma. Graced by Quigley's droll, confidently quiet performance, he embodies the positive approach that Small Prophets seems to believe in. Resolutely uncynical, Michael isn't merely caring and loyal and accepting of other people's differences. Without making a big deal of it, he leaves himself open to the wonder of life.
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