State of the Union

Great realistic dialogue and great chemistry between Rosamund Pike and Chris O'dowd. Half of me wants more episodes that are longer and where we follow them into the counseling session. The other half of me is satisfied with these short snapshots into the life of a married couple trying to save their marriage.

Everything about the show is great but one thing that kind of bothered me is the low amount of sequence shots and crazy amount of cuts in the cafe scenes. Considering the episodes are only ten minutes long, I don't know why didn't opt in for more continuity. The cuts honestly distracted me a lot. But at least this gets better after episode seven.

Regardless, everyone should give the show a try, whole season is 100 minutes and worth every minute.

State of the Union follows a couple who meet in a pub immediately before their weekly marital therapy session. Each episode pieces together how their lives were, what drew them together, and what has started to pull them apart. Season 1 is pretty good. It follows Tom and Louise, who are trying to figure out how to do their marriage work if they even can. Both characters are complicated and relatable. And Chris O'Dowd and Rosamund Pike have great chemistry. Season 2, on the other hand, is hard to watch. It is just two people fighting. I didn't like the characters or care if they made it work or not. Plus, it was basically the same every episode. They also tried to add in extra characters, and there just isn't enough time in ten-minute episodes for more than two characters. Brendan Gleeson is a great actor, but he doesn't have much to work with. It was so bad I don't imagine I would watch a third season.

Season 1: 8 Season 2: 4.

Total rating : 7.

I feel like in this day and age when the traditional family is so apparently going into decline, where so many people are prone to the mentality that "if it doesn't work, I'll just start anew and find something that's better," this short little series is extremely refreshing and might provide a cause for some relevant and meaningful reflection.

What I really love about the series is how real the characters feel. Even though we only get to see a short snippet of their lives, the episodes do a great job of showing us how broken they are and the struggle that they are going through.

I don't think I would have enjoyed the series as much if they actually showed the conversations/therapy sessions that they had. Frankly that would have just been predictable/boring drama that I can certainly do without. What the short 10 minute style so brilliantly depicts is the internal struggles that they are grappling with, without any added meaningless cliches and drama.

Also Chris O'Dowd and Roasmund Pike are very likable and have great chemistry together. The conversations they had were quite witty consistently funny throughout without feeling too overly pretentious.

I couldn't recommend this enough to anyone who is even remotely interested after reading the synopsis.

Well acted and engaging. The shear simplicity of the premise and the varying tones of the dialogue really highlights how little we really know each other in relationships. Big fan of Nick Hornby's writing, so I was quite happy when stumbling upon this.