A multimillionaire develops pathological generosity and begins to give away his wealth. 

This is the world of an extremely wealthy family: same-sex male parents, 3 adopted children from abroad, 2 surrogates, and one from a previous heterosexual marriage. Grandparents, surrogate mothers, maids, tutors, nannies, gardeners, drivers, and lots of dogs. Set within an extravagant suburban mansion in England.

This is a family dramedy: Shameless meets The Bird Cage, Six Feet Under meets The Madness of King George. It is a modern-day King Lear story – in that when power/money is up for grabs, family members turn on each other, and their father.

Theodore is 52 years old, twenty years ago he ran away from his wife and child – devout Jehovah's Witnesses – after coming to terms with being gay. Rebuilding his mental and physical self, he monetized it as the inventor and owner of ‘Rize 55’ a formula gym that gives you all the exercise you need in 55 minutes. Franchised across the world like ‘Barry’s Boot Camp,’ or ‘F45’ it made him a multi-millionaire.

He met the love of his life, an African American man called ‘Melvin,’ while visiting a franchise in Dallas, Texas. Seventeen years later, they live in an absurd mansion in an English suburb having adopted three children and had two more by surrogacy.

He is flamboyant. Kindhearted. Trusting. Easily taken advantage of. How could someone like this build a business empire? Well… he had a brilliant lawyer ‘Jaggers’ who took care of his entire life, but he dies in the opening scene… shit.

Now something’s up with Theodore, he’s behaving more and more erratically. He goes to a bank and withdraws £20,000 and gives it to a homeless man on the street. He tips his masseuse the keys to his Bentley. He buys a thousand mattresses from Ikea and tries to ship them to cardboard city. 

We don’t know it yet, but he has developed a very rare psychological condition called pathological generosity.

Jane is 30, she hates her father. She can’t forgive him for being absent from her life after he left her mother Margaret. She ended up being raised by her mother who forced the Jehovah's Witness faith on her, whilst instilling in her a tough-love attitude and a promise to never be under any man. Jane has struggled to keep this promise to her after Theodore reemerged in her life and made her Managing Director of Rize 55 to compensate for abandoning her. But as it becomes clear that Theodore is losing his mind and giving away the family fortune, Jane schemes with her mother to gain power of attorney over Theodore, and therefore control of the business and all the family's money.

Melvin (46) grew up in Mississippi and was religiously terrorized as a child for being gay. He ran away from his family, moving to Dallas when he was 17 years old. He became a successful dance fitness instructor and built a successful franchise of the RIZE 55 brand. Then quite literally his prince charming turned up, and Melvin lived out his dream, moving to England, living in a mansion, and having lots of children. And why shouldn’t he, he worked for it!

His conservative American military parents came back into his life after the birth of his biological daughter, their granddaughter. But more on them later, because there is a shit storm brewing for Melvin… Jaggers, the now-departed lawyer, had Melvin sign a prenup saying Melvin gets the power of attorney if Theodore I don’t know...goes insane! Which would be great if they hadn’t married in Mauritius, a country that doesn’t recognise gay marriage.

Melvin is soft, flamboyant, prone to hypochondria. Look, he had to be tough growing up in the South, but he’s softened, got comfortable over time. He’s like Helen Mirren in the Madness of King George, he’s struggling to cope with his husband’s insanity while raising the children. Combined with the stepdaughter trying to have his husband sectioned.

So Melvin will now have to rediscover that same strength he found all those years ago as a gay boy growing up in Mississippi, because if he doesn’t act, if he doesn’t fight, he’s going to lose his family and the love of his life.

Prince (17) was adopted from the Congo. He doesn’t know who his biological parents are, but his mother will turn up during season two. He’s straight, handsome, entitled, self-assured, kind at times, and deep down is processing a complex guilt around being a child who was plucked from poverty to be given this wealthy life.

He’s excellent at sport, especially tennis, Theodore made sure of it! He is incredibly close to Theodore, and all the other kids feel it. When his father starts to lose his mind, he will do anything to protect him.

Quintus (17) is the biological son of Theo. also excellent at sport especially tennis, like his brother he’s handsome, self-assured and entitled but grew up believing he lived in the shadow of his brother, Prince. Upon turning 18, he moves to step out of Prince’s shadow and this leads him right into Jane’s grip.  

The brother’s love and hate each other. They are brutally competitive with each other, on the tennis court, and off the court competing for girls, both end up sleeping with their Tennis coach (on separate occasions). This will lead to huge arguments, mistrust, terrible fights, and insecurities.

Cordelia (13), Melvin’s biological daughter, wonderfully creative, a great dancer, highly emotional, caught up on the highs and lows of social media. She’s terrible at school, but the teachers can’t see her talent. The school wants her medicated for attention deficit disorder, but Melvin is pushing back – he believes this is who she is, it’s where her creative power comes from.

 As she moves into womanhood, her Grandmother Helen will become incredibly important to her.

Aurelius (8), Caucasian, adopted, is a wit and calls out everyone’s hypocrisy from a child-like perspective. He’s just hilarious. He chooses to dress as a girl. He is totally accepted by Melvin who celebrates his choice, Theo worries about how hard his life might be, Melvin’s parents are appalled, while Quintus teases Aurelius over it and Prince ends up fighting Quintus for his cruelty.

Hero (5) was adopted from an orphanage in Mumbai. Melvin felt a strong calling to adopt from there, and dotes on her every whim and need, maybe too much. She is adorable and is the little princess at the heart of the family.

The ex-wife of Theodore, Jane’s mother and self-proclaimed Matriarch of the York family. A devout Jehovah’s Witness who doesn’t agree with Theodore’s life and uses her religion to occasionally shame his choices whilst harboring a deep-rooted jealousy for his wealth and successful business – though she hasn’t done badly for herself.  A typical momma bear to her darling Jane, she grooms her to resent Theodore for his absence throughout her childhood. Even with Theodore’s attempts to make up for lost time with Jane, like giving her a corporate position in his business, Margaret poisons her mind to work extra hard to prove one thing; that she is better than him. Margaret will say: more like mother than father.

When it emerges that Theodore is ill and there are legal loopholes in his marriage, Margaret sees an opportunity for Jane to take over the family’s finances and ring in the ultimate payback for a lifestyle she missed.

Lucilla (35) came as an Italian au pair 15 years ago, and is still here. She’s become a mother to the children, and is a fully fledged member of the family. She’s from Milan, and as flamboyant as the dads. They dote on her, she’s probably the only nanny in England with a 6 figure salary - you can tell by her shoe collection, which must number over a thousand and has its own room dedicated to it.

She’s explosive, argumentative, just very Italian. Fiercely loyal to Theodore and Melvin, she’s a ride or die girl, and provides plenty of melodrama as Jane seeks to take control of the family.

 Helen and Derick are a military couple. They’re disciplined and see things in a very black + white way. They didn’t handle their son coming out very well – they told him he was going to burn in hell. But as the years passed, and with Cordelia's birth, they wanted to see their grandchild. Derick is now completely on board with Melvin’s sexuality, but Helen still is coming to terms with it and drops passive-aggressive comments constantly - she has no time or compassion for highly emotional people like her son and son-in-law. 

However, when Helen sees her son and his family's lives threatened, she will be the one to shake him into realising he needs to fight to save his family from Jane, and as a fierce former advocate, she will lead the legal fight back.

The season is charted by Theodore’s demise into pathological generosity and the fight that takes place for control of his money. It’s a King Lear story about the children’s fight for control, betraying him and turning on each other. But we will have so many ideas to explore throughout the season: it’s a Cain and Abel story between the two eldest brothers. A Procrustean story of a system trying to drug Cordelia into conforming to academic norms. It’s an Aphrodite story in Aurelius’ finding his identity between femininity and masculinity.

Season one starts out as we meet the Yorks in their day-to-day but extravagant, chaotic lives. Theodore’s best friend and lawyer ‘Jaggers’ is over for a lavish Tuesday family dinner where the adults gab about pop culture while the children act as uninterested spectators in the routine. Jane, the daughter, is pushing Theodore and Jaggers to give her more ownership in the company. Theo approves of this, but Jaggers doesn’t trust her, and kicks the can down the road.

Jaggers has arranged all of Theodore’s life and estate and is the only one who knows the intricate complex way the business and his life has been set up. But Jaggers has a heart attack and dies at dinner.

In the coming days this pushes Theodore into a deep depression to the point where Melvin is concerned for Theodore’s well-being. Melvin treats Theodore to a relaxing massage to get his mind off things, but things get odd when Theodore tips the masseuse with keys to their Bentley. Theodore has developed a rare case of pathological generosity.

Hearing about his insane behaviour, Jane sets a trap for her father. She throws a huge surprise party at the house. No matter how hard Melvin tries to hide it, Theodore begins to act out in public, holding court by writing cheques for hundreds of thousands of pounds to anyone who comes and asks him for money.

Jane begins to investigate taking power of attorney over her father, but Melvin, confident in his marriage to Theodore, thinks he will get power of attorney. But it turns out they got married in Mauritius and it doesn’t recognize gay marriage, so technically, he is no one. That means Jane can take control of all the money if she can get Theodore certified insane. So, Melvin tries to marry Theodore, Jane goes to get a court injunction, but the marriage goes ahead. However, later a court rules that the marriage is void. All is not lost for Melvin though, as his sons Quintus and Prince are about to turn 18. Will they turn 18 before Jane gets Theodore certified insane, and gains power of attorney. Yes, just. Thank God the boys will have power of attorney and protect their father and his wealth. Oh, maybe not, Jane has poured poison into Quintus’ ear and he’s siding with her, he wants his father locked up. Betrayal! Fight breaks out between the brothers. Melvin turns to his lawyer mother from USA, who turns up, and pushes for a court injunction, common-law husband rights (even though she has to swallow her opposition to gay marriage). Meanwhile, Theodore keeps giving away millions to random strangers who come begging for money. The judge looks like he’s about to rule in favour of Melvin, when at the last minute it turns out that Theodore isn’t even divorced from his first wife, Margaret. Power of attorney is given to Jane. Will she throw the family out onto the streets and lock Theo away for the rest of his life?

by Henry Mason