Review by C.J. Bunce
Should you or shouldn’t you? The 2022 series Our House is one of those suspense dramas that might sound good on paper. It stars Tuppence Middleton, an actor who is often the best component of any project she signs up for, especially in Mank, Disappearance at Clifton Hill, and The Lady Vanishes, making her mark earlier in movies The Current War and The Imitation Game, with guest roles on series Electric Dreams, Black Mirror, and Bones. This time she plays Fiona Lawson, a wife and mother whose husband cheats on her and then vanishes. The story opens as she arrives at her home, only to find it occupied by a new couple. In a short, four-episode, one-and-done series, the plot drifts back and forth from the past to the present, holding back the truth until the very end. It’s streaming now on PBS Passport.
Martin Compston plays husband Bram, and it’s unfortunate this series is on the heels of Traces, where he played a similar bad apple. He’s not quite typecast–yet. Middleton and Compston work well together, but the chopped up script by Simon Ashton (EastEnders), adapting a book by Louise Candish, is only successful in creating angst and a succession of cringe moments for Middleton to react to.
The back and forth perspectives aren’t so easy to keep track of, but Bram cheated on Fiona with Fiona’s friend Merle, played by Weruche Opia (Black Mirror). Fiona and Merle belong to a circle of friends, but Fiona doesn’t disclose the cheating or leave the group, one of the many unlikely set-ups. Bram as a human is a series of mistakes: first the cheating, losing his drivers license without telling his wife, then leaving the scene of a car wreck where a young girl dies, then trying to get his wife back but cheating on her with someone else, then allowing himself to be blackmailed, then agreeing to sell the house out from under his wife to keep the secret of the car wreck quiet. It’s all a convoluted–and preposterous–mess.
Rupert Penry-Jones (The Batman, The Strain) plays a dual role as the blackmailer and new love interest for Fiona–a spoiler, but an obvious twist considering the lack of players in this short story. Buket Kömür plays Penry-Jones’s accomplice, and the woman Bram is cheating with.
Fiona makes her own mistakes, including agreeing to keep Bram around for the kids by sharing an apartment with him. Nobody is likable, although you’re supposed to feel sympathy for Fiona, who shows a pattern of being attracted to men of poor character. The production looks good and the series is filmed well. Middleton is always fun to watch. But the series is too flimsy and easily passable for other projects featuring the leads. The only redeeming feature in Our House is its ending, providing a satisfying end for everyone involved.
Initially airing on PBS in the States, Our House is now streaming on PBS Passport and other platforms.
