Julian gets smashed and slashes his hands, which gets him signed over to a corrupt and uncaring private clinic at the behest of his disjointed and uncomprehending society-obsessed mother. Lucidity is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest without the subversive element.
Expect the usual clichés: a motley crew of inmates, ingestion of contraband, unresolved aggression, jobs-worth orderlies, spontaneous ranting, insane doctors, etc. ad nauseum. The writing tries to be grand but it’s not deft or subtle and so at times is a little pretentious. As a self-conscious low-budget TV show has a cheap-and-cheerful façade, so Lucidity tries to compensate for its immaturity by being overtly juvenile.
This doesn’t stop the actors, who salvage the mediocre script by basically trying really hard. The show bristles with energy in every aspect and still entertains.
Julian is mostly impassive as his world is turned around so suddenly. He’s easy to empathise with, being mostly normal, just depressed, and clear-headed enough to know what kind of help he needs. Having just come out of a several-month binge it’s awkward to be immersed in a culture of medication and disconcerting to see unimproved long-term inmates at his dinner table. You might think his growing self-awareness and stability would lead to some sort of dramatic closure, but the writing, like the theme music for Countdown, drops away just as it’s built momentum. It’s not bad, though, for what it is.
3/5 
Bernie Greenwood
