The television landscape has seen the emergence of a subgenre that critic Sean T. Collins has termed 'the New Lurid.' This style, characterized by hyper-lush depictions of incestuous degeneracy often within ultra-rich families, finds a recent embodiment in the Apple TV+ series 'Cape Fear.' The show, a raw psychosexual thriller, delves into the deeply intertwined and dysfunctional relationships of a one-percenter family.
'Cape Fear's' seventh episode, titled 'Mongrel,' highlights this theme through the character of Max Cady and his fraught interactions with his family. The episode reveals Cady's father, played by Ron Perlman, as a figure who subjected his son to harsh discipline, including confinement in a cage for not speaking English and performing tricks like a dog. This paternal figure also physically abused his wife, Hester, who appears to suffer from dementia.
Max Cady's own parenting is also under scrutiny. His son, Zack, is found to have been drugged with a high dose of a motion-sickness medication capable of inducing suggestibility, memory loss, and potential psychosis. While Max denies involvement, his ex-partner Anna and her current partner Tom take drastic measures. They retrieve some of the drug and plant it, along with heroin, in Max's house, intending to report him to the authorities. To execute this plan, they enlist the help of Anna's father, a man with a criminal past and unmedicated bipolar disorder, who has a history of causing significant harm to Anna's life.
The series also explores themes of paternity and identity. Max Cady himself reveals to Natalie Bowden that he is her biological father. This revelation occurs amidst a road trip where Max is also seeking his estranged sister, Crystal. The complex web of relationships is further tangled by Anna's past relationship with Max during her trial, which led her to leave her fiancé, Paul, for Tom. The episode uses dreamlike sequences and charged confrontations to unpack these relationships, including a symbolic baptism in the Cape Fear River where Max forces Natalie to confront her past and present identity.
'Cape Fear' joins other recent series such as 'Dead Ringers,' 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' and 'The Idol' in exploring these dark and often taboo themes. These shows are described as 'sensual but death-haunted, lush to the point of rottenness, like a once-magnificent family finally, terminally, gone to seed.' The series' exploration of familial decay, psychological manipulation, and intense, often destructive, relationships positions it as a significant entry within this evolving television subgenre.