We might be used to seeing Steve Carell in funnier scenes in The Office, but he’s now playing a character worlds apart.
Viewers have been praising Steve’s performance in new serial killer series The Patient, in which the 60-year-old plays a therapist who is captured and taken hostage by one of his serial killer patients.
Steve’s character Dr Alan Strauss wakes to find out he’s been kept locked away in a serial killer’s house, where he’s forced to be a live-in therapist and tries to stop Gene (the serial killer who we later find out is called Sam) murdering people.
As if that wasn’t enough, the ten-part series uncovers the doctor’s dark past too, having lost his wife to cancer and his relationship with his estranged son.
Viewers across the pond have been raving about The Patient for a while, but now it’s finally hit UK screens, even more people are hooked on the series, which contains plenty of flashbacks and memories as the drama unfolds, with many praising Steve as well as Domhnall Gleeson, who plays Gene/Sam.
‘Domhnall Gleeson & Steve Carell deserve every god damn Emmy award they can get for The Patient. A masterpiece,’ one person wrote.
Another penned: ‘“The Patient” Steve Carell…if this doesn’t win an Emmy or two, I will be very surprised. Binged it again, once the weekly series finished (I haven’t done that ever!)’
‘The Patient is the best modern day psychological thriller I have ever seen. Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson both gave amazing performance. The directing and writing is just brilliant,’ someone else wrote.
While we won’t be giving away any spoilers, the ending of the series took a dark turn that even Steve wasn’t expecting.
He told USA Today: ‘I was shocked to read it.
‘Early on, nobody knew how it was going to end, so we all had guesses in our mind about what would happen.
‘Would he escape? Would he end up killing Sam? Would the mother be involved somehow? There were all sorts of different ideas that people had.’
Producer Joe Weisberg added: ‘It never occurred to us that it was too cruel. When we came up with it, we understood how effective it would be.
‘It’s a very tough experience for the viewer, for sure, but it’s tough because they’re emotionally invested.’
The Patient is available to watch on Disney Plus.
