“It was with a huge sense of trepidation” that I tuned into BBC One’s new four-part drama “Best Interests”, said Nick Hilton in The Independent. Written by Jack Thorne, it tells the harrowing story of a couple who must decide whether doctors should keep treating their desperately unwell daughter.
Nicci (Sharon Horgan) and Andrew (Michael Sheen) have dedicated the past decade to caring for 13-year-old Marnie, who has muscular dystrophy. When a chest infection sends her to the ICU, the hospital suggests withdrawing care, and the once tight-knit family begins to splinter. This is the stuff of nightmares, but the acting is superb, and the writing manages to remain “witty and lively” even as the gut-wrenching power of the story encroaches.
“Best Interests” is a bit overlong, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer; given the amount of repetition, “at least one episode could have been chopped”. Still, “Thorne gets his essential messaging through (disabled lives have worth; disabled people are people), and, by God, he knows how to make the breaking human heart speak”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
There are clichés here and there, said Carol Midgley in The Times: within the first ten minutes, for instance, Andrew and Nicci have sex on a cluttered kitchen worktop, despite there being “non-crumby surfaces nearby” (this, of course, “never happens”). But overall, this is a “wonderful, heart-shattering piece of work” that succeeds in making Marnie not a legal case, but a joyous, rounded person. “I defy anyone not to cry.”
Where to watch: BBC iPlayer
-
Can the NBA survive FBI’s gambling investigation?Talking Points A casualty of the ‘sports gambling revolution’
-
How are ICE’s recruitment woes complicating Trump’s immigration agenda?TODAY’S BIG QUESTION Lowered training standards and ‘athletically allergic’ hopefuls are hindering the White House plan to turn the Department of Homeland Security into a federal police force
-
What is a bubble? Understanding the financial term.the explainer An AI bubble burst could be looming
-
Roasted squash and apple soup recipeThe Week Recommends Autumnal soup is full of warming and hearty flavours
-
6 well-crafted log homesFeature Featuring a floor-to-ceiling rock fireplace in Montana and a Tulikivi stove in New York
-
Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
-
Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into ArtFeature Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Dec. 7
-
Music reviews: Olivia Dean, Madi Diaz, and Hannah FrancesFeature “The Art of Loving,” “Fatal Optimist,” and “Nested in Tangles”
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Ready for the apocalypseFeature As anxiety rises about the state of the world, the ranks of preppers are growing—and changing.
