We review ‘On tiptoes’, one of the best series of the year
At 63 years old, the resume of Russell T Davies on British television (‘Years & Years’, ‘It’s A Sin’, ‘Doctor Who’) is one of those that does not fit into a long papyrus. An experience that has been vital when writing and filming this devastating story presented and concluded over five chapters that go from less to more, until reaching one of the most tense and brutal endings in recent years.
“Tip-Toe”,that is to say, “On tiptoe” It is shot and written with a very specific purpose. It is a wake-up call to the violence that is gradually growing in Western society, against those who think and feel differently. Communities that, after a few years of euphoric emergence, see how they must be careful again, walk on tiptoe, so as not to bother the wrong son of a bitch. The same one who brags more brazenly and enthusiastically about their ignorant stupidity every day because – it must be said – they are very emboldened.
That is undoubtedly the most important theme, the one that structures the entire plot, but it is not the only one. “On tiptoe” It also raises how we have been losing anonymity because of social networks. The same anonymity that gave us a freedom of action and movement very typical of big cities. The same ones that welcomed all the people into their immense arms. – the, them – different from the world, to keep them away from the gossip or harassment of smaller environments. However, the global village with its hyper-connectivity, together with that need for unconscious exhibition, entails its risks. And it does so because we live in a society so polarized that a series of misunderstandings is enough for everything to get out of hand and end, of course, in a tragedy that is impossible to reverse and from which no one will emerge unscathed.
All this is collected in this story of two neighbors whose relationship you already know is going to end like the rosary of dawn from the first shots. And it is that “Tip-Toe” It begins by revealing its ending to the viewer, to prepare them for the escalating plot that is going to be woven, at first somewhat slowly, until reaching a final chapter with one of the most brutal accelerations in the history of television. And it achieves it, too, thanks to this interpretive duel between two veterans of the stature of Alan Cuming and David Morrissey who are immense in their respective roles. The first as an impulsive and bitter homosexual veteran in front of the lonely, bitter and misplaced father of the family, who was promised a great future and has only accumulated disappointments and hardships. The antagonism is not only served, it is going to be huge.
And then there’s the dough. The palm trees Cowards who stand by without intervening or even cheer. The same ones who, far from helping to put out the fire when it is still possible to reverse it, fan it in search of a good show. Those who annul their individualities, adding them to a wild collective drive, eager for blood to flow. Those are as guilty by action or omission as the executioner. And that is where society and the individual must look in the mirror before it is too late.
Finally, what ends up being the most disheartening of “Tip-Toe”what leaves you more sunk than a cogorza of wine and diazepam, is that its incredible ending ends up being plausible. Deep down, no one should be surprised that such savagery could really happen. That also says a lot about the society we live in.
