Review: In 'Tip Toe', Alan Cumming and David Morrissey Turn Online Hate Into a Chilling Neighbor Thriller

Russell T Davies, of 'It's a Sin', returns to the subject he handles like few others, LGBTQ+ life in England, but this time in a tone of alarm. 'Tip Toe', a five-episode limited series that aired in the U.K. on Channel 4 in June and launched in the U.S. on Starz on Friday, October 2, opens with a murder and then rewinds ten days. Across the street from each other are Leo Struthers (Alan Cumming), who owns a gay bar, and Clive Goss (David Morrissey), a neighbor gradually swallowed by anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and conspiracy theories on social media. Caught in between, young George Goss (Jackson Connor) is hiding a secret about his sexuality.

What holds the series together is its two leads. Cumming finds delicate layers in a man tired of defending himself, and Morrissey is frightening precisely because he seems ordinary, the kind of neighbor who lends you a ladder and slowly starts repeating what he reads on his phone. The countdown structure works: we know where the story is heading, and the suspense lies in watching everyday hostility escalate without anyone noticing. British critics were generous (The Guardian, The Independent and the Financial Times gave it four stars or more), and RogerEbert.com praises 'two of the best performances of the year'.

Not everything lands. At several points, Davies lets the message get ahead of the story, and some characters become mouthpieces for political arguments with lines that sound rehearsed. The show's handling of gender-critical feminism also divided opinion in the U.K. Still, when it gives its characters room to breathe, 'Tip Toe' is urgent and just uncomfortable enough. Score: 8/10