My wife and I have begun watching season three of the British series “The Split.” Focusing on a high-end London law firm specializing in divorce, the series follows the lives and careers of the Defoe sisters, two of whom work as attorneys in the family firm under the guidance of their mother, a senior divorce attorney and the founder of the firm.
The series ably captures the tension between the cold, dispassionate culture of a high end law firm and the raw emotions that divorce brings to the surface. The veneer of civility that the attorneys of Noble Hale Defoe bring to their cases can never quite contain the pain and rage of their clients, and the sisters’ own personal crises create additional cracks in that veneer. The principal roles – in fact, all of the roles – are perfectly cast, and wonderfully acted, just as you’d expect in a British series. Nicola Walker, who I’ve enjoyed in the Last Tango in Halifax and the atmospheric police series Unforgotten, plays Hannah Defoe Stern, an overworked divorce attorney trying to keep her marriage afloat and her family intact. Walker has lots of heavy lifting to do in this role, and at times one can sense the strain of trying to portray a character whose indecisiveness drives so much of the plot during the first three seasons of the show. Nevertheless, Walker nearly manages to make Hannah’s deeply conflicted state of mind believable and engaging. She uses a variety of sudden facial twitches and a halting, sometimes near-stammering delivery to register Hannah’s sense of shock and betrayal as she absorbs the unpleasant facts of her teetering marriage and other calamities.
Those in the series’ supporting roles have it a bit easier: Annabel Scholey is brilliant as Hannah’s beautiful and mercurial younger sister Nina, who is also an attorney in the firm. Fiona Button’s performance as Hannah’s youngest sister Rose is perhaps the most powerful in season three, at least for me. As a young woman who’s adrift professionally, Rose is somehow steadied by the sudden loss of her husband in a bicycle accident. It’s Rose who makes the three sisters and their mother Ruth believable as a family.
If anything about “The Split” rings false at all, it’s the hyperactive pace of the plot. At times, one is tempted to wonder whether any one family could experience quite so many crises in such a short period of time. This trait seems to mark most drama series in these days of streaming, so my complaint isn’t limited to this show. Perhaps some day, writers of streamed television content will trust their ability to keep viewers watching without quite so many twists and turns.
