NEW YORK (OSV News) – Catholic viewers will naturally be interested in a TV show that features a nun as one of its principal characters. In the case of “Grotesquerie,” however, they’ll tune in, to use an obsolete term, only to be turned off — both by a welter of gore and by a treatment of the church that degenerates from mere ignorance to outright hostility.
On the first score, showrunner and co-writer Ryan Murphy’s 10-part series — an FX production, seven roughly hour-long episodes of which are currently streaming on Hulu — is aptly named. As the program’s protagonist, Det. Lois Tryon (Niecy Nash-Betts), tracks a serial killer, the grisly tableaux the murderer leaves behind as a trademark are shown in their full horror.
Since her target seems to have either a religious mania or a satanic obsession, Lois is more open to the assistance offered her by journalist Sister Megan Duval (Micaela Diamond) than she might otherwise be. Personally fascinated by the history of crime, Sister Megan is also trying to boost the readership of her paper, the Catholic Guardian, by covering sensational stories.
Perky, though more than a little eccentric, Sister Megan comes across — initially at least — as a reasonably appealing figure. But the program’s presentation of the faithful goes south quickly with the introduction of one of her collaborators, Father Charlie Mayhew (Nicholas Alexander Chavez).
Youthful and vigorous in public, Father Charlie turns out to be a sexual pervert in private. We see him pleasuring himself, then immediately using a whip on his back by way of supposed penance. Later, he goes all Harvey Weinstein on Sister Megan, though he sports a post-shower towel rather than a bathrobe.
In the final scene of the three segments screened for review, Sister Megan, who has responded to Father Charlie’s advances only to be stopped short and scripturally shamed, reacts by going more or less nuts. She reels wildly down a hallway and collapses on the floor in a ridiculously over-the-top display of what is presumably sexual frustration.
This descent into absurdity is all the more regrettable in that “Grotesquerie” does have its aesthetically powerful moments. These principally concern Lois’ tangled personal life.
Haunted by the slayings she’s investigating, Lois has an increasingly serious drinking problem. Her academically gifted grown daughter, Merritt (Raven Goodwin), is a compulsive overeater. And her husband, philosophy professor Marshall (Courtney B. Vance), is lying in a coma from which he may never emerge.
Lois’ frequent confrontations with Nurse Redd (Lesley Manville), the nasty administrator of the hospital where Marshall is being treated, are sometimes unrealistically overheated. But scenes of the detective’s interaction with both Merritt and (in flashbacks) Marshall, although hard-edged, are psychologically incisive and convincing.
Yet neither passages of good writing nor Nash-Betts’ impressive performance can help the audience forget the image of Father Charlie wandering down the main aisle of his empty church dressed in red cowboy boots, seatless chaps and a lacy, see-through surplice. Like all the mangled body parts on display, that unseemly ensemble is a sight that’s best left unseen.
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