The key to this working is a credible male lead ( in what is a difficult nuanced role to pull off convincingly). David Wenham didn't, at all. At almost 60 he is for a start too old, too crepey-skinned. His character was creepy, he was given a lizardy persona, unfortunately Joe was NOT what he must be.
Hot.
Who is craving to get in this creaky, rather plodding, aging, man's bed?
Apparently a whole slew of beautiful intelligent women, all taken in and enraptured to the point of slavish devotion . 60 emails with heart rending tales of seducer Joe!!!
Please. No.
None of us watching Joe were craving to be in bed with him either, btw (imagine here a shudder indicating skin crawling at the thought lol).
The writing was off for Joe, the character needed way more finesse in language, charisma, good looks, and sex appeal, delivered by an actor with compelling, utterly irresistible BDE, and way more sympathetic outside of the scene in the church where we see his pain. That was good, well done.
That first encounter at Atons bar ..."do you want to get out of here?" The look that is then exchanged between them as Joe agrees means, as every single adult watching knows, let's ***k. His sliding off into the night outside was the beginning of a mountain of sleight of hand by Joe's character that was absurdly clunky, as to be an insult to the intelligence.
Asher Keddie is terrific, she holds this together. Her character is far better written and presented than her counterpart, we are provided with sufficient context to see why this one woman with her history anxiety and pressures wanted so much for this to work. She was believable in a narrative where nothing else important was believable.
It's an easy reasonably engaging binge, but could have been so much more immersive, tantalising, heartrending.
A missed opportunity, should have been a 10.
