This dramatic series revolves around a man named Joseph, a young man obsessed with a past that he has tried to forget so much. He decided to travel to Ireland to face memories of his childhood in the care system. In Ireland, Joseph meets Anna, his sister, whom he has not seen since childhood, where her husband Anna is wary of allowing Joseph to stay and work in their company. Joseph is forced to confront the demons of his past directly when he meets Craig, a man who completely changes Joseph's life.
It's not an easy watch, as much for the feeling of rubbernecking a private hell as for its gut-puking moments. But it's that very intimacy that makes The Virtues special.
In Joseph, director Shane Meadows, co-writer Jack Thorne and actor Stephen Graham have created a character strobing with vulnerability whose struggles feel achingly real.
Unspoken pain infuses every scene, every gesture and expression from Graham and in doing so lays the foundations, surely, to do justice to the suffering of victims everywhere.
Graham is an actor of raw emotional power, nakedly honest and unpredictable, but I spent whole minutes of the first episode wanting to be anywhere else but in a room with him, as he suffered and tried to deal with his suffering.
