Forget “muddy trenches”, said Belen Edwards on Mashable. In HBO’s new legal drama, “War”, battles are fought in “elegant wood-panelled rooms or glassy offices perched high above London’s streets”.
But the “polished” setting doesn’t mean the fighting is clean – far from it. The lawyers at the rival firms locking horns in this high-profile divorce case are “itching to get absolutely filthy”.
The combative couple at the centre of the series are film star Carla Duval (Sienna Miller) and tech mogul Morgan Henderson (Dominic West). In the first of many “underhanded” chess moves, Carla enlists her friend to “honeytrap” her husband so she can kick-start divorce proceedings. It’s a “tantalisingly bitter amuse-bouche for all the delicious drama to come”.
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Miller and West are “perfectly cast” in this “tasty divorce drama”, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. Writer George Kay provides a “snappy script” that charts the couple’s descent into “rancour” and a “battle over Morgan’s fortune”. Carla’s team is led by “plucky husband-and-wife team” James McArdle and Phoebe Fox, while Morgan opts for the “Machiavellian” St John Smallwood (“a classy Pip Torrens”).
Add to the mix a supporting cast that includes Celia Imrie, Nick Mohammed and “actor-of-the-moment” Aran Murphy (the “lookalike son” of Cillian), and the show has “a lot going for it”. But after the first “irresistible” episode, you do start longing for “fewer backroom legal meetings” and more scenes with the warring couple.
And while the “scheming” and betrayal can be “thrilling”, said Judy Berman in Time magazine, despite the persuasive acting, some of the characters feel “underdeveloped”. Kay invokes “big, timely issues” from “extreme wealth” to the dark side of social media “without finding much to say about them”.
Mostly, though, “War” is a “triumph”, said Gareth McLean in Radio Times. “Glossy, smart, very high-end and thoroughly entertaining”, it’s the kind of show that makes you “want to be a lawyer when you grow up – even if the way they operate is pretty appalling”.
