Product: State Of Play (2008)
Rating: 5.0
The West Wing Meets the Bourne Supremacy
A couple of years ago, while reviewing "The Queen," I wistfully semi-wished for a West Wing-type TV series set in the world of British politics. Turns out such a series already existed, the BBC's 2003 series, "State of Play," released at last on region one DVD.Stephen Collins (David Morrissey) is a rising young hotshot Member of Parliament and chairman of the ostensibly independent Energy Select Committee. On the same morning that his beautiful young research assistant Sonia dies under mysterious circumstances in a subway station, a teenage bag-snatcher is shot to death on the other side of London. While investigating the teenage boy's death, newspaper reporters Cal McCaffrey (John Simm) and Della Smith (Kelly McDonald) realize that the youngster made a phone call to Sonia the morning they both died. Further controversy arises when it's revealed Collins was romantically involved with his assistant. There's another wrinkle: McCaffrey once managed the Collins election campaign; in the wake of scandal, the embattled MP and his estranged wife Anne (Polly Walker) both turn to the conflicted McCaffrey for shelter and sympathy.From there, the drama gets increasingly complicated and messy; I won't give too much away (and have probably given away too much already). The further Della, Cal, and their fellow journalists dig into the two deaths, the more scandal and conspiracy they uncover. Part of the drama is political, part of it is personal, and all of it is riveting. The script (six hour-long episodes) by Paul Abbott is taut and intelligent, allowing plenty of space for both plot and character, with a perfect balance of drama, humor, intrigue, and romance. There's some nicely crunchy stuff in there about the dangerous mix of politics and big business and the importance of a free press, but those elements never overwhelm the narrative. The suspense is spooled out perfectly over the six hours, and some of the action sequences are strongly reminiscent of the three Bourne movies. Once you start watching this series, it's *very* hard to stop.The cast is large, and there's any number of sub-plots, but the writing and directing (David Yates) are so skillful and the characters so distinctive that it's no problem to keep track of everything. Paying close attention to detail is a must; some clues are dropped in with diabolical subtlety. The denouement and resolution hit all the right notes: the protagonists' ultimate victory comes at a huge personal cost. The closing shot in particular is just aces.With such strong material, the cast has to be at the top of their game, and it's a testament to the quality of this series that there's not one weak performance in the lot. Morrissey achieves just the right mix of unlikeable and sympathetic, playing a man who seems to have willfully screwed up his life; Walker is particularly sharp as his wounded, angry wife. The team of journalists has terrific rapport and camaraderie, an intelligent, warm, likeable bunch, led by their acerbic editor, Cameron Foster (Bill Nighy, simply brilliant). Foster's scenes facing off against the local DCI (Philip Glenister) are especially fun. Marc Warren has a great turn as an unsavory witness/ suspect in the two deaths; James McAvoy does strong work as a freelance reporter with something to prove. There are dozens of excellent performances among the third and fourth tier players, and even the one-shot walk-on characters are cast with admirable care.Special praise is due to John Simm for his outstanding work as Cal McCaffrey. Cal is the heart of the story, its most sympathetic character, the guy viewers will instinctively root for--even when he does something incredibly stupid, it's impossible not to like him, to want things to work out for him. Simm gives the character all sorts of tics and quirks and layers; he plays beautifully off the other actors (Cal's final confrontation with Stephen is just devastating); he's a presence even when he's not doing anything in particular. It's just a wonderful, wonderful performance, a standout even in this uniformly stellar cast.For icing on the cake, there's some eye-catching visuals, and the soundtrack has an edgy, urban vibe. If the multitude of accents and Brit-slang proves too much, one can flip on the handy subtitles. Disappointingly, the DVD set is very thin on extra features; I would have loved to see some interviews with the cast and crew. Viewers with kids in the house should be aware that "State of Play" is definitely R-rated, with moderate amounts of sex, violence, and swearing, as well as characters who drink and smoke almost nonstop.The DVD set was released in advance of a big-budget Hollywood adaptation that's due to hit cinemas next year. With Helen Mirren and Russell Crowe in the cast, it might not be bad, but I'd nevertheless recommend giving the original a spin before checking out the re-make.