SARA WALLIS
Inset, Lucy with Hugo
SKY ATLANTIC, 9pm
EROTIC thriller meets period drama in this glossy series about a New York heiress living in Morocco in the 1950s.
With gorgeous costumes and sets, the show springboards from the erotic short stories of Anais Nin into the Tangier International Zone.
In New York in 1955, Lucy Savage, played by Juno Temple, leaves a mental health institution.
Her doctor sends her away with good wishes and a bottle of pills. “To free you from troublesome behaviour and distracting wants,” he says, adding: “Have a great trip.”
And from the look in her eye, you just know she will.
Lucy bids goodbye to her troubled mother, played by Transparent’s Amy Landecker, and arms dealer father, played by Billions actor David Costabile, with whom she has a very odd relationship. He gives her a gun as a parting gift. Lucy is excited to board a ship that will take her to Tangier, where her husband-tobe Lord Hugo Cavendish Smythe (W1A’s Hugo Skinner) is waiting for her.
But cameras cut to Lord Smythe, who is rather busy with a handsome Egyptian prince.
Needless to say, Lucy doesn’t quite get the passionate welcome she was hoping for.
Fortunately, there are distraction when Lucy meets various characters, including a famous singer and well-known prostitute Cherifa (Yumna Marwan), and gets drawn into a world of sexual possibility and political unrest.
But it’s dangerous, and she might just be grateful for that gun.
Starting with a double bill, this is a melodramatic tale of a woman’s journey of discovery.