Must Watch reviews Marriage

Thursday 18 August 2022, 10:15

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review Marriage.

BBC One portrays the the bittersweet reality of a long-term relationship through fun, laughter and tears with Sean Bean and Nicola Walker.

Hayley says "It is about a marriage, but it’s also about all the ways that humans bump up against each other, how we interact and the hidden meanings and stories"

I love that this series is not exactly what you think it’s going to be from that first scene. That extended argument about a jacket potato sort of lulls you into thinking that this is going to be a funny show about the ridiculous, mundane nonsense that we all end up arguing about when we’re in a long-term relationship and some of the show is exactly that, but as the episodes go on, it reveals itself to be something that I think is much deeper and much, much sadder.

It’s all about how it’s easier to fight about the small things, rather than even name the big things that are actually bothering you. It’s all about the minor daily adjustments you have to make to your life to just keep a relationship going, whether it’s a marriage or within a family, with your ageing father, whatever it is, and how all of those can wear on you. And it’s also about how everyone is going through their own thing, so how they appear to you might not be who they actually are. The uptight lady in the office might be grieving a dead baby, or the person who interviews you for a job might have just smashed their car into someone else on the way in so it’s not you failing at your interview, it’s them being consumed by something else. It is about a marriage, but it’s also about all the ways that humans bump up against each other, how we interact and the hidden meanings and stories. Like Scott says, it can be tedious. It’s more of a quiet, excruciating Harold Pinter play than a thrilling drama. But I think there’s a lot going on here and it’s very realistic in its tedium. There’s a two minute scene where it’s just Sean Bean loading a dishwasher, but this is what long-term relationships are like. When there are big things weighing on you, I find that I cling to those tedious, normal moments like a life-raft, because they’re a moment of things being normal even if something horrible is going on.

I really, really love this show. I love it for what it’s trying to do, and I love it for the performances, which are stunning. You already know how much I love Nicola Walker, and she is truly great in this. Sean Bean will break your heart.

Scott says "Everything in it is so natural to the extent where it hardly feels like a television show at all"

I have never seen a show that has had such a marmite reaction, but this show is magnificent.

I absolutely adore it, because everything in it is so natural to the extent where it hardly feels like a television show at all.

There’s a scene in which Ian (Sean Bean) and his character Ian are just washing up mugs. There’s another when we see him waiting around a lift! You might be thinking to yourself ‘what are they showing? Surely having this couple who have been married for nearly three decades going about their lives is just tedious. Why would people go and see this?’ – but that is actually, in my view, the show's strength, because it captures all of the nuances of a long-term relationship that I think many of us have seen or have been a part of.

There’s an argument about a jacket potato in which Nicola Walker’s character: Emma, orders chips instead of a jacket potato and Ian wants a jacket potato. This argument goes on for so long that you slowly realise that actually, the argument isn't about a jacket potato at all.

The drama also reflects many issues that I think viewers might have: the resentment of a parent that might feel abandoned, because their child is getting along with their own lives and aren’t at home anymore, to having a son or daughter that have got a new partner you don't particularly like, but there’s nothing you can do.

And the absolute heart of this story which I think is really rather interesting is how both Ian (Sean Bean) and Emma (Nicola Walker) just don’t communicate the things that matter the most. They sort of visit their son’s grave and you see them in a heart rendering scene on a bench crying next to each other, but then not talking to each other at any point about how they are actually feeling, how they are actually grieving.

They talk about all the other stuff in their lives, from going to the gym to little frustrations at work, but they don’t actually open up in the way that they should, partially, because they’re worried about the consequences, but also because they’ve been together for so long, they can predict how each other is going to react from that. Nicola Walker and Sean Bean’s chemistry is amazing - it actually feels like they’re in a long-term relationship with each other. There’s those really uncomfortable gaps in silences where you can sense what they’re thinking.

It’s completely believable. It’s an absolute triumph. If you don’t like it straight away, please, please stick with it.