ISLAND LIFE (THE THIRD DAY: AUTUMN)

Now here's a novel thing - a TV drama that's an endurance test.

The second instalment of HBO and Sky Atlantic's 'The Third Day' was a 12 hour live immersive theatre show which tested its audience's patience to the limits.

(SPOILERS ALERT!!!)

Broadcast on Sky Arts in Britain on October 3 with no ad breaks, directors Felix Barrett and Marc Munden's 'The Third Day: Autumn' picked the baton up from where the Summer episodes left off, with Jude Law facing the possibility that he might be a deity.

Or was the grief stricken dad simply imagining it all?

'The Third Day' is that sort of show.

Those watching the 12 hour episode who had followed 'The Third Day: Summer' were desperate for it to shed further light on whether Sam was a God or just mad.

If you hadn't seen the previous instalment of the psychological horror drama, then good luck.

It probably made about as much sense as Darren Aronofsky's horror film 'mother!'

Those who tuned in with no previous experience of Felix Barrett and Dennis Kelly's drama were no doubt trying to figure out what the bleeding hell was going on.

'The Third Day: Autumn'' confronted its audience from the off with a huge test of their devotion to the story and of their patience.

Shot in what appeared to be one continuous take, the 12 hour extravaganza from the Punchdrunk Theatre Company began with a ponderous 25 minute trek on foot in the rain across a causeway at low tide.

As cinematographer Ole Birkland's camera crept slowly along the causeway, some viewers no doubt would have been struggling.

If they made it through the largely silent 25 minute trek to Osea Island without their minds wandering or switching channel, then there was yet another test - a muted 14 minute trip on a trailer attached to a Land Rover.

This offered very little to the viewer, other than a few travelling companions sitting in the rain during the bumpy ride while a fisherman ate a sausage sandwich.

When the vehicle arrived in the village on Osea, things started to get a but more intriguing.

Ole Birkland's prowling camera captured a hive of activity as families appeared to be preparing for some kind of ritual.

Among them was Katherine Waterston's anthropologist Jess, who appeared to be daydreaming in a red coat while the village prepared for a ceremony which you suspected involved some form of human sacrifice. 

Men in white shirts, braces and dark suit trousers gathered around a tank and cheered as one of them dipped his arm into its muddy water.

They ran to a picket fenced house, rapped a door several times and then manhandled one of its occupants, bundling him away to a neighbouring field while the camera worked hard to catch up with them.

This led to what initially looked like bodies strewn along a stretch of coast in an act of genocide but whuch actually turned out to be suits stuffed with straw.

Later these were hung from lamposts and surrounding trees.

The straw men were laid outside the big house where Jude Law's Sam was sent to meet his missing son in the previous episode before the screen was swarmed by a plague of locusts.

The men in white shirts rapped the door of the house and eventually gained entrance, grabbing a rather unkempt looking Sam who was sporting a bushy beard.

Sam was dragged down to the water's edge and along with the 12 men waded in, recreating Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' while a fisherman cooked fish on the shoreline.

They ate loaves and fishes.

As with 'The Third Day: Summer' what followed was a drama about a Celtic/Pagan ritual that plundered Christian references.

Effectively a Passion play, there was a Garden of Gethsemane set piece where Sam sat while some of his suited disciples slept, only to be betrayed with a Judas kiss and seized by men in linen shirts. 

There was a ceremony involving Sam and the other captive which was essentially a recreation of the Stations of the Cross, complete with readings from a Scripture of sorts and priests.

Sam was jostled Jesus-like through the village as he pulled a boat with a role, with Jess among the participants.

At one stage, the singer Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine took part, tenderly embracing him like Veronica wiping the face of Christ on his way to the crucifixion. 

Instead of a crown of thorns, Sam wore a strange, wooden neck brace with twigs stuffed into it.

And then he and the other captive were taken out by boat to stand on pillars while wearing only their boxers, until they tumbled into the water below.

Like 'The Third Day: Summer,' Barrett, Kate Duggan and Emily Mytton's semi-improvised script was packed with movie references.

On one level, think of every movie about Christ you have ever seen but especially the body horror and sadistic tone of Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ.' 

Fuse that with the sense of dread you get in Ari Aster's Festival tale 'Midsommar' and Robin Hardy's classic 'The Wicker Man' and you are in the right ballpark.

But toss into the mix the horror of watching Jude Law literally digging his own character's grave for an hour and you should get the picture of how macabre Barrett and Munden's drama was.

'The Third Day: Autumn' frequently demanded a lot of its audience.

But if you were already invested, it turned out to a fascinating, occasionally grotesque experience.

It was also a relay of sorts involving characters from the previous instalment.

Birkland's camera glided from scenes involving Waterston and Law's characters to Mark Lewis Jones' other grieving father Jason and John Dalgleish's thuggish Larry.

Throughout the drama, Larry appeared to still be nursing grievances with Sam but he was often at odds with the rest of the villagers and was even dipped into the muddy water at one point.

With only snatches of audible dialogue, 'The Third Day Autumn' demanded its audience's full attention and relied a lot on Birkland's excellent cinematography - conjuring up several striking images from long shots of Sam and his fellow captive standing on the pillars to purple torches lighting up graves at night.

But it also benefitted from Hebe George and Kat Heath's smart production design and Mydd Pharo's intriguing costumes.

As darkness fell and the villagers celebrated with a rave, the use of flares, torchlight, fairy lights and fireworks created particularly potent imagery - especially during one moment when the camera spied on Jess ranting at her estranged husband down a phone about custody of their children.

Law, Waterston, Lewis Jones', Dalgleish, Welch and the ensemble cast from Punchdrunk attacked their roles with gusto - even if the heavy handed religious references occasionally jarred.

With a chilling score by Stephen Dobbie, Barrett and Munden pulled off a dazzlingly choreographed piece of ambitious theatrical television.

But they were mostly preaching to the converted.

Those who got the most out of this experience were the ones eagerly awaiting the bexy two episodes of the trilogy, which will be under the banner of 'The Third Day: Winter'.

As for the rest, 10 minutes of watchjng Jude Law snoozing probably didn't help them see the light.

('The Third Day: Autumn' was broadcast on Sky Arts in the UK and Ireland on October 3, 2020)