We finished this off in two nights. Will you enjoy it? I'm not sure.
This is completely out of my wheelhouse. I don't watch the English dramas on PBS, I haven't read the book it is based upon, but I was fascinated by the fact that it was set in the Cotswolds, the weekend getaway of wealthy Londoners, the northwestern Connecticut of England.
But I had a different vision in my mind. I thought it was less tony, less upper class. But in this show, the houses are huge and far apart. Giving the impression you have to be uber-wealthy to live there. I've got a friend with a house there, but I've never been.
Now the reason I was in is because the main star is David Tennant, who is always great, playing a role a bit out of character here. Tennant is usually intense, cerebral, one step removed. He was best in "Broadchurch," but he's got a slew of credits.
So, Tennant, as Lord Tony Baddingham, runs and owns an independent TV network in the Cotswolds named Corinium. It's part of ITV, but it's regional...I'm sure if you live in the U.K. it's clearer, but you don't have to know the ins and outs of the English TV landscape to understand what is going on.
And oh, I forgot to mention it's set in 1986. Which is very interesting. Because it's not only pre-internet, but pre ubiquitous cellphones. You're watching and thinking...why don't they just call him or her? And then you realize they can't. And that we used to live this way. And didn't know any better.
So Tony hires Declan O'Hara a BBC interviewer, for Corinium, promising him not only money, but freedom, throwing off the chains of the bureaucracy.
Aidan Turner as Declan is a true believer. His job is everything.
But this means his marriage to Maud, (Victoria Smurfit), suffers.
And this is where the show gets interesting. Maud is an elegant babe. And she needs the reflection, the interest, the body of men to reinforce her identity, her good feelings. But she's also wrestling with the fact that she's aged, and her looks won't take her as far. She's vain, nearly petty, but her challenges are realistic.
Claire Rushbrook as Lady Monica Baddingham, Tennant's wife, is perfect. She's put on the marriage pounds, but she's insightful, supportive, everything you'd want in a wife. But Tony is sticking it elsewhere...
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. You think your new squeeze will deliver everything, but when you get there...
MP Rufus Jones as Paul Stratton is revealed to be having an affair with Sarah, (Emily Atack), but the end result is he leaves his wife and marries her. And she's still trying to climb the ladder, she's not really that interested in him, not really interested in him at all. She's a sexpot trading on her feminine wiles, is that enough to get her where she wants to go?
And then there's Katherine Parkinson as Lizzie Vereker. She's got a self-centered nitwit of a husband, who anchors the afternoons on Corinium with a talk show, but he's a narcissist who's paying her no attention and she becomes focused on Freddie Jones, played by Danny Dyer, a tech tycoon who is married to Valerie (Lisa McGillis), whom he met in high school. Danny is rich via tech, yet he's one of the most human characters in the show, but will Lizzie break her marriage bonds?
And everything is anchored by Alex Hassell as Rupert Campbell-Black, a gold medal showjumper from a blue chip background who beds everything in sight. He looks just like Tony Robbins, I couldn't get the resemblance out of my head.
And Rupert is the desire of all the women And he's got an inappropriate crush on Declan's daughter Taggie. That's the only thing that really doesn't ring true, you can't see it, she's just so young.
Now if I were better educated in English literature, and TV shows, I could place "Rivals" in the canon. But I'm not. So...
It plays like farce. But not all the time.
There are very human questions.
The underlying rivalry is between Rupert and Tony. Both lords, but Tony only went to grammar school.
And then you throw Cameron Cook in the mix, the American TV programming whiz who is strong and independent but ends up in beds... Cook is played by Nafessa Williams, who played Robyn Crawford in the Whitney Houston biopic.
So what we've got here is a lot of characters. A lot of desires. Chance meetings. Plotting. Wins and losses.
It's a community.
There's one scene, a New Year's Eve party, where everybody's in their cups dancing and at first you judge these upper class twits...but then you ask yourself, is it really all just about fun?
You'll be intrigued by the plot. Will Declan be able to interview who he wants, will he get to ask the questions he wants.
Does Tony/Tennant hold the ultimate Trump card, promising freedom but always withholding it.
And does Rupert have a heart, or is he just a cad. Hell, he admits he's a rake.
So they're out in the English countryside. It's beautiful. And unlike in Southern California, it rains, so you get that interior vibe, inside in the semi-dark, reading, talking.
And people drop by unannounced, which never happens in the city.
And boys need to triumph. Have a leg up.
And at the end of the day, what's important? Your job? Your relationship? The money? What are you willing to sacrifice, what are you willing to forgive?
Maybe they make shows like this in America. But I haven't watched a network drama this century. But the ones I saw before that were constrained. Limits are tested in "Rivals," characters do things people on American TV did not, at least when I watched it.
And they exist outside the boundaries of society. They're caught up in their own little world. That's another question that comes up, morals.
Now maybe in the old days, viewers would be hanging on every word of "Rivals." As it is, the show has great RottenTomatoes numbers: 94/91. But almost nothing reaches all the water coolers these days, never mind that people bring their own water bottles to work, if they even bother to go into the office.
But you can watch it all at once now on Hulu.
If you miss it will you survive?
Absolutely, this is not "Squid Game," this is not a societal event.
But despite these characters being so different from us, in many ways they're just the same, facing the same interior battles.
And there are enough plot twists and surprises to keep you watching.
One episode will tell you whether this is up your alley or not. Two to get the complete feeling.
Don't shoot the messenger, I don't write about everything I watch, but there's something at the heart of this show, or maybe it's that there's so much in this show...it ultimately resembles real life.
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