Doctor Foster (Series 2, Episode 3 Review)

The best dramas will always engross and surprise in equal measure and writer Mike Bartlett does both with aplomb in an episode where everything feels more grounded and realism is to the fore. There are no character decisions that grate, no motivations that make little sense. After last week’s strange happenings this is the biggest compliment going.

Every minute is gripping as the toxicity of Gemma and Simon’s relationship finally meets head on. After suspension from school , Tom heads back to mum’s house with both guardians at his side. Gemma offers her estranged man to stay for dinner but he should have known an offer of any meal with broccoli in is hardly putting forward the hand of friendship. Things get hot in the kitchen like in R Kelly’s ignition and after placing her mobile phone against a bread bin (that rhymes too) the doc strips to her frillies. Even though the filming is spotted they soon take matters to the living room in a session that can be more easily described as hate-fucking rather than love making.

Thank God for Anna who translates what the viewers have been saying for a while now. In a passionate take down of Gemma’s behaviour she says in no uncertain terms that her actions are ruining Tom’s happiness and that there is life away from Simon and more specifically there is life away from Parminster.

At last, the consequences are coming to fruition (bounce bounce bounce). We learn just what effect his parent’s mind games are having. From the anxiety we already knew about, Tom has aggressively forced himself onto his friend Isobel and shown himself up in a public fit of rage. It’s a clarion wake up call and one that not just Gemma needed, but the show needed too. We get an admittance of sorts, where she talks of a love still present. “You miss him as a father, I miss him as a husband. You knew what he was like but you went back anyway. I did the same. It was wrong”.

The layers of Simon’s duplicity are shown in full technicolour. He agrees to work together over Tom but emails the school over a transfer behind Gemma’s back. He conceals the information regarding Isobel from his mother too. He turns his back on a heartbroken Tom once Kate decides she doesn’t want him at their house. Unsurprisingly given his past, he feigns ignorance about the previous nights steamy affair. If only Tom had revealed the truth on that driveway rather than exclaiming “WHAT?!” to his dad’s “We’re married mate, we don’t hide things from each other”.

The proverbial rug is pulled from under our feet. The closing five minutes not only feel like a series finale but finishing touches to the entire show. The truth is there are still one hundred and twenty minutes to go so quite where things go from here is anybody’s guess. The same rules don’t apply anymore. Doctor Foster has gone off the map. We can be fairly sure that though Gemma has left Parminster, Parminster probably hasn’t left Gemma. 10/10

Doctors notes:

• It’s still unclear what Simon told Tom to make him turn on his mum.
• Will Kate find out about the affair and will it be the downfall of Simon?
• It’s still a mystery where Simon and Kate got their wealth from
• James probably wasn’t a plant in the end but his bad taste in jumpers means forgiveness is long off.
• When Gemma was escaping the wedding it just looked like she was scuttling away to go for a pee behind the hedge. It’s exactly this kind of insight you read this blog for isn’t it?
• While leaving a wedding without saying goodbye is rude, it’s not the worst offence committed in the show.

Doctor Foster (Series 2, Episode 1 Review)

Suranne Jones won a BAFTA, Bertie Carvel won the hate of the British public and Doctor Foster proved to be a surprising hit for the BBC. Series two starts where things left off but the tension is raised from the off and writer Mike Bartlett looks set to be revelling more than ever in the his creation’s bonkers nature . The first run always had an air of heightened reality and surreal edge. The decisions Gemma Foster (Jones) made felt not only questionable but just plain bizarre. That mixed with a distant feel in the direction made it an uneasy but essential watch and the pay off in the final two episodes made it all worthwhile. The truth came out, Simon (Carvel) had been cheating all along, rendered his wife unconscious in an attack and fled with a tail between his scurrying legs.

There’s no such build up this time and to a beautiful collection of sweeping shots we see letters being dispatched to the people of Parminster we’ve become accustomed to. Turns out Tom and mistress Kate are now married and returning to the area.  The atmosphere is palpable as Gemma goes snooting around his empty new property (which was conveniently unlocked) and let’s just say he’s done rather well for himself. The house is a large cavern of minimal blandness and a swimming pool. That’s probably how the estate agent sold it. Cue the build up to their reunion as Tom footsteps it up the drive and they intently stare each other out through a window. At times the show looks like a horror movie without the relentless screams (yet). The camera gives the constant impression something unsettling is about to happen. Simon insists he’s paid for his mistakes, served time and is now clearly minted somehow despite all his previous money problems. In a subtle form of bullying that he’s is prone to, he points out that she still wears the same clothes, has the same car and hasn’t moved on.

There are many moments when you could scream at the telly “why are you doing that?!” but by definition drama is full of wrong and strange choices or there wouldn’t be any drama at all. In this enhanced world that Parminster spins in it’s easier to overlook them as now everything feels more safe in Bartlett’s hands. The means will be justified in the end. One such moment is when our favourite sinister Doc goes on a date with a patient (none of that try not to shag the people you’re treating business here) but decides to show up with said date to Simon and Kate’s welcome home party. She not welcome and the party looks set to kick off in a way nobody wants.

In a borderline creepy scene Gemma stalks around the bedroom sniffing lubricant and getting jealous of Kate’s expensive vibrator. We’ve all been there. Gemma and Simon square up and proving that men can multitask he declares his plan while having an erection. He wants her to flee from Parminster and wants his old life back with his old friends. It’s very oddly unsettling but tense as hell.  It could be argued the pair could easily leave each other alone and get on with their own lives but they remain a toxic relationship even after the split. There’s love and hate in equal measure but more dangerously there’s raging jealousy and bitterness. Nobody will back down as he later states “There’s only one way I’m leaving now and that’s in a coffin”. It’s a declaration full of foreboding.

Are any of these characters actually likeable? The truth is no one carries themselves with much dignity,  there’s no attempt to endear the Parminster residents to anyone within a mile radius of this mystical village of pent up emotions. They live in a self imposed (upper?) middle class selfish bubble and while most shows with characters so reactionary would suffer, Bartlett pulls of the miracle of making us care.

The sub horror feel returns as Gemma tries to track down her son Tom at the party and the quickened heartbeats turn out to be for nothing at she finds him safe. That’s until they get back home and in a drunken haze he shows anger and resentment towards his mother. Bartlett builds the expectations and delivers the hammer blow somewhere else. He goes for the head and kicks you in the balls. As such, at the close we get a reversal. Simon is now in his old house and leaves with Tom and a distressed mum flailing at the car. In a symbolic act of resurrection Gemma changes clothes, melts her wedding ring and the look of vengeance in her eyes is palpable. Hell hath no fury like a Doctor scorned.. 9/10

Doctor’s notes

• Ros wins award for worst friend of the year. After going behind Gemma’s back before she turns up at the party despite saying she wouldn’t. Boo to you. You are proper sketchy Ros.
• What power does Simon have over Tom? Is there blackmail going on?
• Will Kate come out the worse of the three for being in the middle of the mind games?
• Is there more to Simon’s plans that merely evicting his ex from town?
• With no husband and increasingly less friends (who all have connections to Simon) why does Gemma want to stay put? Principle? Pride?
• Do the swimming pool and drowning wedding ring hint at a potential death and cause of death?