State of Play – one of those awesome, clever, entertaining and gripping-as-hell mini series that sounds kind of dull when you try to sum up the plot but is a lot of fun to watch.
Here’s the dull version: State of Play, directed by David Yates and written by Paul Abbot, is a 6 part BBC mini-series from 2003. It’s a political thriller which follows the investigation by The Herald into the death of a politician’s researcher. Reporter Cal McCaffrey (John Simm) is reluctant to follow a story which takes a domestic turn when the politician – an old friend – turns out to have been having an affair with the researcher. However the story seems to have more substance as another murder appears to be linked to the researcher’s death and Cal begins to smell a conspiracy.
Sounds ‘good’, but not ‘fun’, right?
How about this: John Simm played the most recent incarnation of The Master, and he is freakin’ awesome. He was in Life on Mars too. He’s an EMBITTERED REPORTER in this, and he’s way cool. But he’s not as cool as some of the other cast. Bill Nighy is the COOLEST EDITOR EVER, swaggering around his office scoffing at everyone and everything. You can just about see his squid-faced-pirate outfit and his aging-rocker outfit under the tailored suit. He is a golden god in this show.
James McAvoy puts in a turn as a SLEAZY YOUNG JOURNO who eventually joins our EMBITTERED HERO for the PULSE POUNDING INVESTIGATION. Marc Warren wriggles and squirms as SNITCH WHO’S BEING PLAYED LIKE A HARP and is a joy to watch.
There’s a boring politician and some kind of relationship angst but more importantly there’s RUNNING AROUND INVESTIGATIONING and UNEXPECTED TWISTS and FINE BRITISH CHARACTER ACTING and THAT GUY YOU RECOGNISE FROM ANOTHER SHOW WHO’S REALLY GOOD IN THAT AND EVEN BETTER IN THIS! There’s PEOPLE COCKING UP REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF and other people NOT QUITE COCKING UP but nearly fumbling the ball (to mix metaphors but stay in the crotch region).
You will need your brain switched on for this show but you can expect to have your emotional buttons well and truly pushed as a BAND OF INTREPID JOURNOS take on the POWER OF THE GOVERNMENT to expose SHOCKING SECRETS, all the while DODGING METAPHORICAL BULLETS of relationship carnage and reputational ruin.
Most importantly BILL NIGHY IS A GOLDEN GOD and JOHN SIMM SIMMERS WITH INNER TURMOIL in this INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING and EMOTIONALLY GRATIFYING THRILLER.
The girl in it is quite good too.
2 comments:
There are two girls that you might be referring to. The junior reporter Della Smith played by Kelly Macdonald, and Anne Collins played by Polly Walker (from the Rome series). Both of them are very good.
Yes, they are both very good. My review was very man-love-esque so I thought I'd end it by cheekily ignoring the fact that there's more than one actress in the show :-)
Post a Comment