Together: What the Must Watch reviewers think

Thursday 24 June 2021, 9:53

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week Morgan Jeffrey from the Radio Times joins Hayley (while Scott’s on holiday) to share thoughts on Together on BBC iPlayer.

James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan star as a mismatched couple in lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic.

BBC / Arty Films Ltd / Peter Mountain

Hayley says: “I like that this is a record of that time. But I never want to sit through it again”

"I love Sharon Horgan and James McAvoy together. I think they’re great. Plus McAvoy gets to use his actual Scottish accent, and he’s got an amazing grey streak now. I’m a big fan of all of those things.

"As for the film, it reminded me why I don’t like theatre. It’s written by the guy who made The Third Day, which was that seemingly endless Jude Law thing, which also made me thankful that I was at home and had the ability to turn off the screen without crouching in front of the stage while trying to escape. My problem with Together was entirely down to the writing. The first 15 minutes feel like that sketch in The League of Gentleman with the couple who hate each other, and they keep calling the waiter Luigi while they whine at him about each other. After that, it turns into something else entirely and only parts of it are good.

"There is one monologue about a sick mother that felt human and real. That was good. But other than that, it’s basically a Guardian column with a romantic subplot. None of what’s said about the pandemic is a revelation or original. I felt like I was being preached to, but since I agree that the pandemic was badly handled, it felt like a waste of time. I was like: ‘Yes, and…?’ Then there’s the monologue that Sharon Horgan does about the exponential growth of Covid cases and I was waiting for a phone number to pop up at the bottom to donate money to. It was embarrassing.

"However! Not much of the drama we're seeing on TV these days is actually confronting the pandemic. They’re using it as a new situation to experiment with, or as a springboard for something that would never have existed without the fact that we couldn't leave our houses. We saw it with Eddie Marsan in Isolation Stories, where his family became the film crew. And we saw it in Staged with David Tennant and Michael Sheen, where the entire show was on Zoom. Both of those things used the pandemic tell stories differently, but they didn’t really talk about the pandemic itself, or at least not in the way they do in Together. So I like that this is a record of that time. But I never want to sit through it again. They were the longest 87 minutes of my life.”

BBC / Arty Films Ltd / Peter Mountain

Morgan says: “I actually found watching it strangely therapeutic”

"I disagree with Hayley. I enjoyed it. It is quite on the nose at points. It’s not subtle in the points it wants to make. It comes off a little like a polemic at times. That said, I think what kept me gripped through those 87 minutes is the two lead performances. James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan are just superb in it. They are absolutely brilliant. They’re not always the most likeable people but they’re not meant to be and that’s sort of the point of it, it confronts that through the drama. But their performances are incredible.

“I really like that it had a sense of tragedy and foreboding about it. We follow this couple across both lockdowns, across many months and we all know where the story is going. I went into this thinking ‘Ugh, I’m a bit sick of lockdown dramas actually, do I really want to see everything we have been through on screen?’ But actually, it lends that sense of foreboding because you know where it’s going and you know it’s probably not going somewhere good. I actually found watching it strangely therapeutic in a way.

What this couple are going through, their set up, is not my set up. There are lots of differences, but everyone had their own obstacles and difficulties in lockdown and they vary from small to large. It was a relief to see some of these things reflected on screen, whether they are big serious problems or small petty things. I really enjoyed it.”