Marriage - BBC1

[johnworf]

Did anyone watch it last night? I thought it was really good. Sean Bean and Nicola Walker are a bit of a dream team.

Reading reviews went from sublime to absolutely boring. I went for the former but realise it's not everyones cup of tea seeing the daily routine of a marriage.

Hopefully Sean doesn't get killed in this one!

What was the thing with Ian smashing up the car? I'm enjoying it (actually maybe it's over is it?) but it's driving me mad not knowing what happens as a consequence of things - like the dad who came into the office and complained about Jamie - what happened next?! It's definitely something i can imagine as a rather unsatisfactory play at the National Theatre or something...

It was Jamie's (?) Car - the slimey boss

Oh that wasn’t really an ending worth waiting for.
Whatvwas the explanation for smashing Jamie’s car? Why did her boss openly dislike Ian? Why did Max the leisure centre girl stay in the loo away from her boyfriend long? Why were the family treating each other like strangers? Why did Emma swear so much ? Why was she so rude to work experience people?

I think Ian smashed up Jamie's car because he made him look round it and he was jealous his wife was away at the hotel with him. Even if it was work. She also didn't answer the phone when he called her multiple times.
It's odd that when you see the car being assessed the damage didn't look that bad !
Yet he did seem to go to town on it.
He had so much rage there.

Yes but then nothing happened, did it? Jamie didn't say anything? There was just missing bits like that which seem wrong...odd for sure!

Well I won't be watching Series 2 (if there is one) to find out the answers to these questions

I wonder how it got the prime 9pm Sunday slot or even how it got commissioned.

I very much enjoyed her expressions when she told Jamie off about taking drugs and then added the wonderful rider - "and eating in bed". I couldn't see whether he kept peeling the papers off Mr. Kipling's fondant fancies or another kind of cake. She's so powerful now, because she has the knowledge that he takes cocaine to hang over him whenever she wants.

I also enjoyed the way his therapist sat looking at him.

There were some comical moments.

10 minutes into Almas not Normal and loving it so far! Thanks for the recommendations.

…. Some brutal Northern humour….
!

You'll love Alma.

Here’s a line of Alma’s dialogue …

*Nah, I’m going to sort everything out now, you know, I’m going to get some acting work, and I’m gonna sort my family out, and I’m going to get a real job… and I’m gonna learn Spanish … and then I’m gonna start tap dancing“

😃

I liked it. It had a rather Mike Leigh feel to it- lots of desperation bubbling under and covered up. Ian was toe-curlingly cringe at times but very human and realistic. There were bits I didn't get - Maxine of the leisure centre for example - but overall I thought it was a sound portrayal of a long term stable relation ship. I found the half-finished sentences and NW's use of "fuck" somewhat annoying and incongruous and as to the theme music... jarring and unnecessary.

I felt for NW when her daughter was probing her over the lost son.

Alma is a force of nature !
She's a great girl. So positive , despite everything

@ageingdisgracefully It put me in mind of Mike Leigh's Another Year. I still think this "Arthouse" styling of WC life or the alternative gargoyle comic characterisations that seems the only ones to get commissioned, serve mainly to appeal to a MC audience and puts off a more general and wider audience from engaging.

@NeelyOHara1 I see your point. I don’t think Marriage - though there were moments - reached the heights of interior sensitivity I’d have hoped for, or else just couldn’t sustain them, so it was disappointing really. Watching the Alma series, though humorous at times, I noted some of the sexual debasement assumed to be funny was pretty grim.

I stuck with it and felt it had some powerful moments but overall it was too "try hard". I watch a lot of theatre so totally got the whole way it was made to feel more like watching a play rather than a conventional tv serial but it just seemed obvious to me at every turn where the writer was wanting to create an effect or lead the viewer in a certain direction.

I agree with every word. I especially loved the realness of the silences.

Well I’ve just binged it all , still waiting for something to happen ! What an absolute load of tosh - love NW as well -

Binged watched this today not expecting to enjoy it but I was riveted. Good script, pacing and acting. The only thing I didn't like was the theme music - getting louder and louder - to the side to the side ..

Glad the narcissistic boss got called out and the boyfriend. Smashing the car was extreme though with no logical motive - just Ian's instinct or paranoia. I could understand Maxine hiding away with him always making bee line for her - wanting to chat. Some sort of grief reaction going on with him.

Oh and glad she told her dad off in the end!

Made the mistake of trying to watch Marriage right after finishing The Split and couldn’t cope with Nicola Walker not being Hannah!

I kept waiting for something sinister to happen - was he going to stalk/assault the girl at the leisure centre, was he going to subject NW to domestic violence, or her him, was he going to murder the dad or vice versa, was daughter going to go down a bad path with controlling boyfriend, was NW going to have an affair with sleazy boss etc. Turns out nothing happened, very strange for a TV "drama".

To the side, to the side, take it back now yo, one hop this time, one hop this time, criss-cross, freeze, everybody clap your hands (or just me want to break out in this song after hearing the theme tune?)

dh found it unbearable, bleak and tense and depressing.

And that’s the nub of their relationship - so maybe the writer and actors manage to get you to try emotional climate with realising it

I wouldn’t watch another series. Some of the casting and situations were ridiculous - I hoped the series would get better but feel a bit annoyed with myself I watched until
the end. I doubt the writer has ever had a long term relationship.

He came across as a creepy buffoon.

I think that was the exact intention.

We all likely have endured a few of these.