Review: BBC drama Four Lives – serial killer Stephen Port

I finally got to watch BBC drama Four Lives which was the story surrounding the serial killer Stephen Port and the lives of four gay men that he ended. 

I really must recommend it. Not sure if I can say I "enjoyed" it — but I found Stephen Merchant's performance really very interesting and quite absorbing.

Stephen Port is shown to be a somewhat emotionally-inert human being, lacking social awareness and graces, and an exceptionally monotonous and banal person. He spends most of his day in house and hardly does anything. It's interesting that he has only one friend; and when they meet-up at their local cafe for a chat, Port talks about his collection of Transformers (which he trades?) whilst sipping a glass of Fanta. I noticed the Fanta on two separate occasions which made me ask myself how often I've seen a grown adult drink Fanta. There is something tragic about Port. (I wonder if Stephen Merchant subjected his eyes to something to give them that red sanguinary look). 

Moreover, he isn't intelligent or perceptive. It was not as if Port eluded or dodged the police. He used his smartphone to dial 999 to report the first dead body which (in my view) easily confirms his numb and/or dormant intelligence. In court, he appeared not to have considered his version of events sufficiently or deeply to withstand cross-examination. At times, he could not properly answer simple questions put to him. 

Much has been made in the press about the latent homophobia of the Met (for example, the late Deborah Orr of The Guardian). I suspect the Stephen Lawrence case has calcified a perception about the police as being prejudicial. In Four Lives, there was nothing to suggest why the officers were incompetent — or even discourteous (especially to Sarah Sak).

My hunch is that it may come down to a lack of resources to do old-school police work. In the BBC drama, the two officers appear to have spent most of their time hunched at the tables filling out forms.

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BBC News Update: The way Metropolitan Police initially handled the deaths of four men murdered by serial killer Stephen Port is to be reinvestigated by the police watchdog. A solicitor representing the families said they believed the police's actions were "driven by homophobia".