Reckoning

The Reckoning is the latest true crime drama from the BBC, focusing on the life and death of Jimmy Savile. The countries most notorious sex offender and pedophile and of course, national treasure.


Before i get into a more in-depth review of the four part mini-series as a whole, I first have to commend Steve Coogan for his performance, it is nothing short of incredible. Every single nuance and gesture is dead on. It's the closest thing to watching Jimmy Savile and its super impressive. That said, what do i think of the show?.

I think its entertaining, disturbing, clever and fucking cowardly all in equal measure.

The thing i think it did best was that I found myself laughing at Savile's wit and seedy charm before catching myself and feeling a little horrified. The choice of the writers to show the side of Savile that seduced the public is a very wise one was a great writing decision, there are moments which are intentionally funny.
But people forget, this man was an entertainer, he was quick witted and funny as much he was also a complete and utter monster.

Before i get onto the negatives I think its also fair to give the show credit for not being gratuitous in his depictions of sexual assault. The camera usually pans away and we're shown the after effects but not the act itself and i appreciate that. It's important to remember the victims are real and for the reality of the situation to be respected and i think the show did that.

Here's where my issues with the show start and there are lots of them.

There is no mention of Savile's ties to the royal family,
bare in mind Savile all but admitted in interviews that he sex trafficked children to Buckingham palace, don't believe me?, what do you think he meant by "I brought Prince Philip this six year old girl" when he was interviewed. Now, the true story of how integrated Savile was with very powerful people is never revealed because frankly the BBC doesn't have the balls to do it.
They are still protecting Jimmy Savile and those he was affiliated with.

To add to that point, it tries to humanize Savile. There is a scene where he is in a confessional talking to a priest, the implication of the scene is that he feels some degree of remorse and guilt for the life he has led which frankly is a slap in the face to anyone who was abused by him, this man did not reflect on what a piece of shit he was. He felt no guilt, he felt no remorse, he felt no empathy, he was a psychopath.

The fact that they added that in to me showed that they were to some degree still defending him by trying to get the audience to empathize with him. It's a little thing on the surface but every single decision to add a scene that never occurred in real life to a dramatization of a real event is a purposeful one. There's a reason that's in there and not a good one.

Lastly, the title flat out pisses me the fuck off.
Jimmy Savile never experienced a reckoning and I understand that its really about the BBC's reckoning for allowing this monster to get away with what he did, but here's the thing, the BBC made this series in part to clear their name!, make no mistake about that.

It is explicitly stated in the series that "no one at the BBC" had
contacted Savile for years by the point he had reached old age.
This is bullshit. Savile was featured in various documentaries and had many friends at the BBC. So much so that when he died they chose to celebrate his life saying what a wonderful person he was  rather than the story of how many victims he's abused. The BBC was complicit in silencing his victims and they think its enough that they then include on a title card how they messed up.

Admitting that does not make them look any better and it does not redeem them in my eyes, FUCK THEM.
you don't get to do that and pretend that you're repentant, you don't get to let abused children's voices be silenced and then reveal decades later that "wooops, well we knew but we liked him, so , ...sorry?"
No, that's spineless and cowardly but what do you expected from a company that willingly kept a prolific pedophile on their pay-role.

In closing, even though I've just ranted at you about all the things i hate about the series, i think its worth watching, look if you can divorce yourself from the reality of the whole thing and watch it as a piece of media, yes, its good but by the end all the lies and half truths that plagued the whole thing just pissed me the hell off. I will say this though, watch it for Steve Coogan's performance alone.