Patrick Melrose type TV Show

“Patrick: Narcissistic, schizoid, suicidal alcoholic.” That’s certainly one colorful way to introduce yourself. Sherlock vet Benedict Cumberbatch is on the trail of serious dysfunction as the title character in Showtime’s Patrick Melrose. Debuting later this year, the five-part series based on Edward St. Aubyn’s semi-autobiographical novels sends up the upper crust while chronicling Patrick’s “harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery.”

Spanning several decades, from France to America to Britain, Patrick Melrose also stars Hugo Weaving as Patrick’s abusive father and Jennifer Jason Leigh as his condoning mother, as well as Anna Madeley, Blythe Danner, Allison Williams, Pip Torrens, Jessica Raine, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Holliday Grainger, Indira Varma, and Celia Imrie.

At the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, Showtime unveiled the show’s flashy first trailer, in which Patrick is asked, “Don’t you find it hard not to take drugs?” and responds, “Of course! It’s a f—ing nightmare being lucid.”