Product: State Of Play (2008)
Rating: 5.0
First Rate Newspaper Drama
As I write, the Press Lord of Great Britain and the United States, putting aside other nations in which his media disseminate their product, has just been testifying before a Parliamentary Committee on the illegal and unethical practices in which his media have admittedly engaged. It is not now a question of whether it was done but who knew about knew that it was being done and who ordered it to be done.This extended BBC television drama is a tense exciting view of the interactions among powerful economic, political, communications and law enforcement elites. It is best viewed with an open mind, as a drama in which some guys (male and female) can be seen as Good, some as Evil, and, most, as some combination of the two. The acting is top-notch, ditto the script, ditto the direction, ditto the filming (cinematography). Depending on one's personal outlook one will sympathize with one or another individual character. It is to the credit of the creative staff that none comes out without being tarnished in some way, everyone fails to live up to the ideals of their roles. To what extent this fiction can be generalized beyond the specific case, as probably the writers desired, certainly, I could not say. My reading of the film is that it shows clearly that nobody comes to the table with clean hands regardless of their motives; I assume that is what the film was intended to show.The film begins with a murder and adds another early on. I found the revelations with regard to the perpetrator (one who saw that these were done) to be almost entirely subordinated to other concerns. In fact, the murder seemed only to be a dramatic device to add punch, seasoning, to the central story. You may see otherwise. Regardless, the average viewer of law and order/press drama, should find this mini-series quite satisfying.