At the beginning this threatens to be more than an R&B opera. R Kelly is immediately the closeted narrator and the bewildered protagonist in the bed outside. The episode - as its successors in this first series - battles the intent of doing something remarkable in lyric storytelling with the dramatic dead ends of posturing, homophobia and brandishing firearms.<br /><br />I came across this series after having read an article by Alex Petridis, a pop critic for The Guardian, a UK paper. What he had to say is worth repeating: "These days, record companies have entire departments dedicated to preventing artists like R Kelly from perpetrating acts of grand folly such as Trapped in the Closet. Whatever you think of the end product... you have to be glad he has circumvented them. The increasingly beige world of rock and pop could use the occasional grand folly, however crass, idiotic, baffling and unintentionally hilarious it may be." Jim Swaffield's rather perfunctory committal of R Kelly's plan to video must rank, in both senses, alongside. 3/10