Doctor Foster (Series 2, Episode 5 Review)

One near attempt at murder, two attempts at suicide (one of those assisted), a kidnap and a child running away. That’s an impressive CV of a finale which will likely disappoint many for the sole reason that everybody gets out alive. As far as we know. Those gearing up for a fatal battle royale between Gemma and Simon were ignoring the heart of what made series two tick. Tom was the epicentre of the storm and by running off, the adverse weather has moved direction.

Simon wasn’t run over which is just as well because Gemma’s, let’s say, pyrrhic victory would have been for nothing. If there is a next series it’d be based in the courtroom and no one wants that. With incredibly fast feet Simon dons Gemma’s stalking capabilities from three episodes back by showing up at the hotel, the house and then a restaurant where his estranged wife and son are eating.  The language is violent and contradictory. There is talk of stabbings and choking one moment and reconciliation the next. Simon’s grovelling is desperate and Bertie Carvel uses it to perfection. You never quite know how much of it is genuine regret or how much is still the mind games of a man who can’t stop lying.

As for the mind, it can do funny things. We get lots of flashbacks to supposed happier times between the Fosters though it’s not stated if this was while he was seeing Kate. The purpose of this is not quite clear. Is it to set up a potential reunion in a severe case of better the devil you know? Is it better to live with the lies than be without them?

In a masterfully shot scene, Simon plays with the traffic but as mother, father and son stand by the road it’s a lottery as to who will get out alive. Gemma wrestles with him by the road and for one moment it looks like Tom wants to run in front of a car to stop all the nonsense. You wouldn’t blame the kid. An agreement is reached, which is potentially the first time that can be said about these two. Gemma agrees to leave drugs in the hotel room for her nemesis to end his life. More impending dread of courtroom scenes flash before us as Gemma’s fingerprints would have been all over the offending stuff AND she left a note of instructions. Talk about leaving a trace.

While trying to kill off her ex-husband there’s a fantastically awkward breakfast where Tom, never one to mince his words says “we’re all just sitting here feeling like shit”. The poor waitress perseveres and at the very least deserved a tip for her troubles. Tears over bacon aside, Simon’s split personality is still in action as truths come out. We get the big reveal of what exactly he told Tom to turn him against his mother. In fact, it’s not a big reveal at all. After all the hype it’s simply mentioned in passing and is an example of how the show balances the epic and the mundane well.

It subverts how you expect everything to play out. The different levels are part of what makes Doctor Foster tick. One moment Gemma is saving Simon from the traffic, next she’s assisting in his suicide and then ultimately talking him out of the suicide she agreed to lend a hand in. It’s bluff after bluff and this shit just got real. The running agenda in this series has been the consequences of actions and the fallout is finally upon us. As a lesson learnt it’s the ultimate act of cruelty writer Mike Bartlett has dished out.

There is a truce of sorts but the great tragedy is that it comes literally minutes too late. As Mr and Mrs Foster leave things on fairly amicable terms (both alive and not swearing at each other) Tom is roaming free having done a runner from the car park. Again, there’s the dread he’s thrown himself onto the road as if taking inspiration from his dad but it’s another false alarm. He leaves a phone message about living his own life: “You’ll never see me again” he promises, “I hate myself”. Words uttered not long before by Simon. Like father like son. Narrating the closing seconds, Gemma states “whatever fight you thought was important now looks so naive” as weeks and months go by without any trace of her son. She even breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the camera which is disconcerting at the least and takes the viewer out of what is a deeply emotional moment. You don’t need to worry about Suranne Jones seeing you eat Pot Noodle while sat in your pants.

It is both a satisfactory end to Doctor Foster and a hint to what’s next. Should there be another series there would need to be a good twist on the standard missing child programmes we’ve had so much of lately. If any show is capable of breathing fresh and somewhat bizarre life into old topics then it’s this one. 9/10

Doctor’s notes:

• At no stage must the two of them get back together romantically. If there is a future for Doctor Foster then there can’t be a future with them as a couple. An uneasy alliance would work though.
• Sian wasn’t a bad sort in the end though it’s always difficult to trust overly smiley people.
• James. Poor James. The glutton for punishment got dumped and should probably count his blessings
• Is Tom at Anna’s new home? Or at least in touch with Anna?
• Will Tom come back to Parminster in two years time with a wife and kid and set about on a vengeful mission to oust his mother from town? If so, does that mean Parminster is stuck in a never ending time loop of insanity? It would explain a lot.

 

 

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?