Creator: Hugo Blick
Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lubna Azabel, Eve Best, Andrew Buchan, Katherine Parkinson, Andrew Buchan, Tobias Menzies, Stephen Rea.
Synopsis: Powerful businesswoman Nessa Stein is thrown into a game of political cat-and-mouse.
*PLEASE NOTE: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FROM EPISODE ONE OF THE HONOURABLE WOMAN*
“Who do you trust?” says Nessa Stein (Maggie Gyllenhaal) in the opening monologue of Hugo Blick’s spy thriller The Honourable Woman. While we are hooked by the soothing tone’s Gyllenhaal (rather brilliant may we add) British accent, we witness a young Nessa and Ephra Stein watching their father being killed while they eat dinner. Within three minutes, we get the on edge thriller tone of the drama, but just because we are getting that so quickly does not mean we’re in for a easy ride.
Each scene plays out like a jigsaw puzzle. It is usually a play on good vs. evil, like when we hear Nessa’s inaugural in the House of Lords to see a businessman unintentionally committing suicide in his hotel room (many people are after him). We soon discover he is a key part of the Stein industry, and this kicks off Nessa’s somewhat controversial but good intentions in her political career. It’s quite clear that she has good reasoning for what she does, but the world she has grown up in does not allow it.
The most infuriating thing about the first episode is that nothing seems to be on the table at the moment. We have no inkling as to why Nessa seems to have a strong bond with babysitter Atika (Lubna Azabel) behind the scenes, but out in public it’s kept hush. “They will never find out, I promise” Atika tells Nessa, and later on we see a terrifying moment when the girls are taken by militants, but it leaves more unanswered questions – why were they together? At the end of the flashback, Nessa makes her way to bed, but makes a detour for a prison style room she has hiding. Our heads are completely over the place at this point. It’s not a fun watch if you like your puzzle pieces to be built quickly, having never seen a Hugo Blick piece before, we’ve got a feeling he likes to put all the bombshells in one viewing so the whole “tell us what happens nowwwww” thought takes over.
There is one thing for certain though – the cast of The Honourable Woman are absolutely phenomenal. Gyllenhaal is the perfect leading lady and grabs your attention through out. One of the biggest surprises in episode one is the appearance of The IT Crowd’s Katherine Parkson as Ephra’s wife Rachel (not surprisingly provides a little bit of relief in the mist of the drama). Tobias Menzies also plays well off Gyllenhaal as Nessa’s security guard Nathaniel. While he meets a dramatic ending in the series opener, something is telling us that he might just be more involved in the kidnapping of Kasim.
Overall episode one makes for a thrilling watch, but we’re only getting a sense of the world we are entering at the moment. If episode one is anything to go by, the series will be one hell of a ride.
[usr=4] The Honourable Woman continues on Wednesday 9pm on BBC Two.
