Playing Nice

My Review- Playing Nice Streaming on SBS on Demand My Rating - 7.5/10 This interesting and emotionally charged four part one off mini series poses a question no parent would ever hopefully be faced with .

How would you react if you were called to a meeting by the Chief of a Hospital to tell you how sorry they were that the young child you had nurtured from birth was not actually yours ?

Due to a mix up of name tags accidental or otherwise each baby had in fact been handed over to the wrong parents which later was confirmed by DNA testing.

Now two couples face the horrifying dilemma of either keeping the sons they have raised and loved from birth or reclaiming their biological child.

James Norton and Niamh Algar star as a couple Pete Riley and Maddie Wilson the parents of Theo their young son.

The other couple Miles and Lucy Lambert are played by James McCardle and Jessica Brown Findlay are parents to David who has health some issues .

Miles when told that Theo the more active outgoing child is actually his son sets in place a devious set of legal challenges and investigations that threaten Pete and Maddies custody of their son .

Playing Nice is an excellent title for this series because The Lambert's appear to be playing nice in the beginning however as the excellent screenplay by Grace Ofori-Attah based on a global best seller by J. P. Delaney progresses the true colours of Miles Lambert are revealed.

I found this series very well produced , directed and I enjoyed the performances from all the cast ,especially James Norton.

The story really fits the bleak winter of Cornwall. The characters can be a little infuriating, but you're left to stew in your own emotions while you wait for the story to evolve.

Loved seeing Mevagissey as it's rarely seen in Cornish TV programs. Watergate, Truro and Saint Agnes, as well as a few south coast beaches also take a starring role.

But the scenery does it for me. It's the real deal.

In an age of fakery and cgi, this drama feels real and at a pace that you'll soon get used to, like the pace of life in Cornwall, UK.

I suggest you go find these places off season, you won't be disappointed.

It's not an easy series to watch; on the contrary, it's quite intense and also frustrating.

I must admit that after watching the first episode, I decided to take a break; it's not my type of series. But it stuck in my head, It's addictive and very psychologycal.

And of course I love British series, and this one is in beautiful Cornwall, nice photography by the way. :)

In addition, the series addresses issues of role division, self-development, 'nature and nurture', social institutions and the changing social view of these matters.

The castig is also quite good.

I did miss a lot more emotion and excitement in some of the characters, and the ending seemed really weak and .. I would have chose something less cheesy overal.

Ideal for viewers with a strong sense of justice (although it is hard to watch) and a preference for grounded British drama. Interesting topic.

The subject matter starts off well. What would any of us do if we discovered that our child wasn't our child.

The frustration and confusion at the start makes sense and you do get a fairly accurate take on what 4 regular people would do in this scenario.

Then however, they made Pete become a complete man child without zero intellectual though, making basic mistake after basic mistake and being far too trusting for any normal human being. Then of course he forgets that he was a journalist and shows next to zero of these skills, showing zero attempt to do any basic research. With 99% of his mistakes just not being something any normal human being would make.

Peter aside, Miles was far too two dimensional a villain, being laughable at times, with Pete and Maddie not reacting like any normal person would. No police down South?

Overally the show starts with promise but soon turns into a badly written villain series, with Pete repeatedly making mistakes that makes no logical sense, and the finale was well, lackluster to say the least.

Doubt anyone will be watching this in a month's time.

High hopes for this mini-series, but these were quickly dashed within 10 minutes of the first episode.

Formulaic, predictable and entirely unbelievable. A waste of a promising premise and quality cast.

By the time you get to the end of the final episode, you know what is going to be the outcome, but will struggle to care either way. Pantomime villains and seems to borrow a lot of the main protagonist's characteristics from Sleeping with the Enemy, only not as well or as menacingly.

There are so many flaws in the plot you lose the ability to empathise with the characters despite the awful situation.

It could and should have been so much better!