A Very British Scandal is a divorce case that broke out around 1963 A cleverly wicked retelling of the Duchess of Argyll’s Margaret Campbell, who plays the worldly, careless character of Claire Foy, as well as her rascal husband, Ian Campbell, the Duke of Argyll (Paul Bettany, in sunglasses and tweed fatal). The Duke uses his castle at Invereray to seduce the extremely rich Margaret, marry her, and rob her like a bank. Margaret fights back with an affair—Foy’s casual, unabashed incarnation of female desire is the spark of the show. In the ensuing court case, famously photographed showing Marguerite nude (but for her pearls) performing nude with an anonymous man, she remained honorably unhurried in the rather bitter end of the trial. Delightful and sad, and at only three episodes, Scandal is a grown-up pleasure. —TA
WE OWN THIS CITY (HBO)
Jon Bernthal in We Own This City. Photo: Courtesy of HBO
Those of us who remember how thrilling it was to watch The Wire for the first time, hold a special place in our cultural hearts for David Simon and Baltimore Location, a city of problems where policing, race, the drug war and politics are memorably intertwined. News of the latest series, also set in Baltimore, which Simon co-wrote and produced with legendary crime novelist George Pelecanos, is also about policing, and hopes are high. Finally, We Own This City
almost meets them – a six-part series that is a complex and relentless portrait of police corruption with the seriousness of long-form journalism. If it’s not as exciting (what else?) as The Wire, it’s an important reminder of the complexities of police reform, and it’s absolutely lights-out Jon Byrne Thur (Jon Bernthal) as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins is a very bad officer, but his charm and male confidence never leave him. He’s an uplifting antihero whose downfall has both tragedy and retribution. —TA
White Lotus (HBO)
