Scenes From A Marriage: What the Must Watch reviewers think
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week Scott Bryan and Hayley Campbell review Scenes From a Marriage on Sky Atlantic. Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac star in this adaptation of Ingar Bergmann's 1973 Swedish TV miniseries about a marriage falling apart.
HBO/ Sky
Hayley says: “A little pretentious”
"A depressing and sad show is totally up my street. The original series, the Swedish one in 1973, explored the disintegration of a marriage in the same way and became a subject of controversy: because it was so popular at the time, it was seen to maybe have had some influence in the rising divorce rates in Europe because it supposedly made people take a closer look at what was going on in their own lives.
"This new HBO show takes the idea of the series but it flips the genders for who did what to cause the marriage to implode. So as well as being a remake, I think it’s also doing something else: it’s looking at the gender roles and how women’s lives have changed since the 70’s, instead of the husband being the one who earns the money and cheats and leaves, it’s the wife doing it. It becomes a different thing.
"My caveat is that I think it’s a little pretentious in the way each episode starts with the scene which reminds us that what we’re watching is just some drama. I’ve read the director say that they did this to tell us that the couple we’re watching isn’t unique and it’s a performance of something which is more general in the world. Whether that starts to grate on you will depend entirely on you. I don’t love it. You’ve got two great actors who can hold our attention no matter what they do, they don’t need a gimmick that takes me out of it."
HBO/ Sky
Scott says: “It feels authentic”
"Am I able to say it’s a Maybe Watch? Is that allowed? [Editor: NO!] It is acted superbly, it’s paced superbly. It’s feels authentic. In fact, it ends up feeling intrusive and uncomfortable because you feel as if you are eavesdropping into the intimate moments of a relationship that is slowly decaying. You start to see the cracks appear.
"My caveat is that, as you can tell from the show’s premise, is that it is very depressing. I’m not entirely sure whether I want to commit watching a show like this because, in my head I think: ‘another drama about a relationship falling apart?!’"
HBO/ Sky
Scenes From a Marriage is available now on Sky on Demand and NOW.
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