User reviews

Looking After JoJo traces the career of a petty thief turned drug dealer in 1980's Edinburgh. We first meet the title character as a pleasant if misguided young man surviving in a bleak housing estate and aspiring to the trappings of a successful criminal. Unfortunately for him, and for most of the other characters in the mini-series, it is a time of heroin addiction and AIDS. We watch JoJo become ensnared in the drugs scene and his deterioration is both painful to watch and very moving. Robert Carlyle's performance is extraordinarily complex and textured. He is ably supported by Jenny McCrindle, Ewan Stewart and Trainspotting's Kevin McKidd. This isn't the fast-moving MTV drug scene of Trainspotting but a more character-oriented, leisurely look at the human cost of drug addiction.

"Looking After Jo Jo" is one of the better TV mini series to come out of Scotland in recent years. The series features convincing portrayals by the leading actors which accurately portray how the greedy drug pushers in the wider community operate. "Jo Jo" (Robert Carlyle) is occasionally likeable, and is often eclipsed in this series by the totally despicable "Charlie" (Ewan Stewart). The series pulls no punches in showing heroin injection, and the damaging physical effects of drug abuse. The other notable character in this series is Kevin McKidd who teams up again with Carlyle. (If you can remember the pair of them from "Trainspotting").

One curious note is why on earth the story writer chose to set the series in the early 1980's? When indeed the storyline is so NOW! I suspect that the Director was more occupied in creating a retro ambience, with lot's of late 70's - early 80's UK punk musical score. Never the less, the series is definately well worth watching, the acting is spot on the money, even if the story itself is one that most people would rather turn their backs on. The reality is that drug abuse is costing Western Governments billions of dollars, pounds, Euro, and peso's. Somebody is getting the money, and those "Somebodys" are getting wealthy because the wider community remains ignorant, and sadly chooses to stay that way. As long as we keep turning our backs, then those "Somebodys" will keep getting richer.

As long as this prevails, old people will choose to lock themselves away in their homes for protection. The youth of America will be more aggressive and feel compelled to carry guns for self protection. The middle classes across the West will continue to pay higher insurance premiums as they are targeted for burgulary, and the incidences of AIDS and other viral diseases will spread. I strongly recommend that all people should sit and watch this series, not so much for the acting, but for the warning signs, and to open their eyes at what is happening around them in their own communities in America, Europe, Britain, and Australia.