Selling the Dream, or Selling Himself?
“You’ve got to sell them the dream.”
“What’s the dream?”
“Me.”
That opening volley—Matt Smith spitting sleaze with a smirk—is how Sky TV wants us to step into The Death of Bunny Munro. It’s not glossy, not seductive. It’s sticky, like spilled beer on a pub counter. And maybe that’s the point. This isn’t prestige escapism. It’s Nick Cave territory: despair set to a pulse, grief baked into the walls.
The teaser confirms the UK streaming launch on November 20, 2025, while U.S. audiences will have to wait until next spring. For those who know Cave’s 2009 novel, the dread is already familiar. For everyone else—it might feel like a head-on collision between British social realism and a fever dream.
Adaptation With Teeth
Nick Cave’s book is less a novel than a jagged confession. Pete Jackson (Somewhere Boy) adapts it here with a script that leans into the grime. The premise is stripped and cruel: Bunny Munro, a traveling salesman addicted to sex and self-mythology, hits the road after his wife’s suicide. His son—played by newcomer Rafael Mathé—sits shotgun. Meanwhile, there’s a serial killer loose in Sussex.
Directed by Swedish filmmaker Isabella Eklöf (Holiday, Kalak, Servant), the series seems uninterested in softening edges. Eklöf doesn’t shoot for comfort; she shoots for confrontation. You can already see it in the framing of the teaser—wide shots that make Brighton look like a trap, close-ups that choke the air out of a room.
The Cast: Charm Meets Rot
Smith’s casting feels both inevitable and dangerous. Since Doctor Who, he’s danced between charming oddball and grotesque intensity (The Crown, House of the Dragon). Bunny Munro demands both at once—repulsive, magnetic, pathetic. Early glimpses suggest he’s unafraid to burn likability to the ground.
Backing him is Sarah Greene, Johann Myers, Robert Glenister, and Alice Feetham. But the heart may belong to Mathé’s Bunny Junior, the child forced to absorb the wreckage of a father unraveling. In the teaser, he doesn’t speak much. His silence cuts deeper than words.
A Cave Story, Still Bleeding
What makes Cave’s story resonate isn’t just its nihilism. It’s the tenderness hiding under bile. A man who cannot stop hurting himself, trying—badly, desperately—to not destroy his son in the process. The trailer teases that duality: grotesque motel encounters cut against fleeting father-son moments, as if one could redeem the other.
And yes, it looks “kooky and dark and seriously messed up,” as some first reactions put it. But that’s exactly why it could matter. The series doesn’t aim to comfort. It aims to scratch at something raw: grief, addiction, masculinity stripped of its costume jewelry.
Where and When to Watch
Sky TV will debut The Death of Bunny Munro on November 20, 2025 exclusively in the UK. U.S. release is expected in spring 2026 but unconfirmed. Until then, this teaser will have to hold the morbidly curious.
Watch the teaser trailer on YouTube.
5 Things the Teaser Tells Us About The Death of Bunny Munro
Matt Smith is unrecognizable – not physically, but in spirit; it’s a performance leaning into repulsion.
Father-son tension drives the story – Bunny Junior’s quiet presence reframes every sleazy act.
Isabella Eklöf’s fingerprints are all over it – confrontational visuals, no sugarcoating.
Nick Cave’s DNA remains intact – grotesque humor and raw sorrow locked in a staring contest.
November 20 is the date to circle – UK fans get it first; others will stew in anticipation.
Final Thoughts
I don’t know if I “want” to watch this. That feels like the wrong word. But I need to. Because when art smells a little dangerous—when it risks putting you off—it often has more to say than the safe stuff.
So, are you in? Or does the idea of watching Matt Smith as a sex-addicted salesman on a death spiral make you slam the laptop shut?
