TV review: Stag, BBC2, episode 2

I'm not sure how much it qualifies as a comedy now that it has got proper scary, but I'm really enjoying Stag.

Stag: episode 2 review

As with the last episode, the best thing about this episode is the characters, who are at first are mostly unlikable, but as their crisis grows you understand that each has their own problems.

The killings continue in tonight's episode which certainly has more horror and gore than last week's. The bedraggled group, the groom still in his fluffy pink stag costume, are held at gunpoint by the gamekeeper - the "tartan psycho". With his shotgun aimed at their frightened faces he demands to know what they've done with his dog. They protest their innocence. Is this what prompted his rampage? A missing mutt? (Although it is a spaniel we're talking about and I can easily imagine becoming a "tartan psycho" myself if anyone harmed one of those madly adorable little dudes.)

Under pressure, the group start to splinter with Cosmo betraying his friends to the gamekeeper. They're bankers, they earn more in an hour than you do in a year, he says, "I'm just a TV exec! Kill them!" The gamekeeper leaves to search for his dog, ordering the party to stay put but they immediately barricade themselves in and then crack open his old bottle of single malt. We mustn't annoy him, pleads little Ian. "That ship might have sailed," he's told. When he returns they panic and fling forks at him. "What the actual f*ck?" he says in what is certainly not a Scottish accent. Someone new has wandered into the chaos.

Created and written by Jim Field-Smith, the creator of the wonderful The Wrong Mans, alongside George Kay, Stag follows the exploits of a boisterous gang of men on a stag party. Stumbling along as a late arrival to the hunting weekend is Ian (Jim Howick), a mild-mannered geography teacher who is totally different to the other stags celebrating the last weekend of freedom of Johnners (Stephen Campbell Moore). Ian's weekend gets off to a bad start from the get-go as he's left at the side of the road by the rest of the party before being landed with a bar bill from the local pub's stern waitress (Sharon Rooney). Events soon take a dark twist when the men are abandoned by the local gamekeeper (James Cosmo) and forced to fend for themselves in the wild. Quickly some of the party are picked off and are thought to be killed whilst the rest start to turn on each other with suspicion quickly falling on outsider Ian. I have to admit it took me a while to adjust to Stag which has none of the charm or quirky British humour which made The Wrong Mans such a joy to watch. The majority of the characters in Stag, with the exception of Ian, are initially unlikeable toffs who are described by the mild-mannered Aitken (Tim Key) as the worst kind of people. But as Kay and Field-Smith's story continues they start to reveal complexities in the characters all of whom seem to be hiding secrets of some kind. The writing duo also seem to have done their research into the sort of genre they want Stag to fit into with the general tone being that of horror thriller. There are definitely elements of both The Wicker Man and Deliverance both in the presentation of the local community and the way in which the party start to be picked off. The humour is also subtly presented with a lot of smutty, laddy banter mixed in with some genuinely funny one-liners. The ensemble cast bounced off each other perfectly with Howick brilliantly portraying the awkward outsider and the rest of the gang having excellent chemistry. I especially liked Reece Shearsmith's brief appearance as the party member who wants to escape his family as well as Borgen's Pilou Asbaek as the Danish oddball. Although I've already got an idea of how Stag is going to end I'm intrigued enough to carry on watching what must be one of the most unique TV shows of the year so far.