Marriage, BBC
You can make a case for minimalist paintings and minimalist architecture, but what would minimalist television look like? It seems to be a preoccupation of Marriage’s creator, Stefan Golaszewski who defies every screenwriting tutor in the world to create interesting television that does not lead with story, true jeopardy, melodrama or dialogue.
Everything in Marriage is said with looks and actions in what is thoroughly visual television. When Ian (Sean Bean) wants an answer from his wife Emma (Nicola Walker) and instead of replying, she closes the curtains, it feels infinitely more clever, real and incisive than any line she could have returned with. All of the scenes in Marriage interact intricately with the spaces and sets in which they take place, with physical distance between characters a far more important device than speech.
The highpoint of this mode of storytelling occurs in the final episode when Ian’s daughter, Jess is asked to read a letter that her father wrote for her when she was young. We don’t hear the contents of the letter, but we don’t need to. Jess (Chantelle Alle)’s eyes and face help us intuitively understand the depth of feeling being conveyed and the embrace between father and daughter that follows is deeply emotional to watch.
For a series that sets itself up as an authority on the human condition, there are a handful of moments in which it is hard to understand the characters’ feelings and motivations, and it is during these moments that the series strays from uniquely authentic to pretentious. The moment in which Ian starts crying the moment that Emma stops, as they sit by their son’s grave, felt unnatural and overly proud of itself. You could hear the director blocking the scene rather than being immersed in the drama. Along these lines, the shows’ theme music has a pompous, postmodern theatre feel to it, and was a bad choice.
Luckily, there are far more moments in Marriage that are intricately worked out, relatable and authentic impressions of people and marriage. It doesn’t feel exaggerated to say that Golaszewski’s storytelling can feel groundbreaking at times and there are sequences you will find yourself thinking about for weeks after watching.
