National Treasure or Nah?

Or Nah? is a feature where we watch and review the first episode of a new TV show. We’ll let you know if it’s worth checking out. As always, these reviews are the opinion of the reviewer, but we’ll try to adequately explain why you should or shouldn’t give the show a chance and provide shows for comparison.

National Treasure| S1E1 | Starring: Robbie Coltrane, Julie Waters, Andrea Riseborough, Tim McInnerny and Babou Ceesay

Images: Hulu

66-year-old comedian Paul Finchley is clearly not the star he used to be. The series opens with him presenting his former comedy partner Karl (played by McInnerny) with an award at a ceremony. Paul is funny, but clearly the straight man in the pair with Karl upstaging him. Karl is knighted with the title of ‘sir’ while Paul has no title. Nonetheless, Paul is still beloved by the British public and hosts a daytime quiz show.

Throughout the episode everyone tells Paul how much they enjoyed his work with Karl. This begins at the awards ceremony where he makes small talk with television executives, aka his bosses. In the taxi ride home, the driver asks Paul to say his famous lines from his comedy duo days. As a viewer, you begin to get tired of people bringing up the old comedy days.

When Paul returns home, he and his wife Marie (Walters) seem to get along and joke in a loving manner. The next morning the family scene with Paul, Marie and their grandchildren is disrupted by the police. A woman has come forward and said that Paul raped her years ago. Paul is taken away to the station for questioning and the house is searched.

Marie Finchley

At the police station Paul briefly meets his lawyer Jerome (Ceesay) who was hired by Paul’s manager. During the police interview we learn that Paul’s daughter is in a halfway house and her children’s father has custody. We also receive hints that growing up, Paul’s family life was not pleasant.

Paul is released and returns home looking for comfort from Marie. Instead of comfort she quickly reminds him of the times he returned home ‘smelling of other women’ and letting him know that the police found porn on his phone. Marie doesn’t care that Paul looked at porn, but she doesn’t understand why he can’t wait to do so on his laptop. Around this time, we also learn about Paul’s open adultery. Although Marie usually forgives Paul for his infidelity, this isn’t going to be one of those times. Paul is forced to sleep on the couch. At some point Karl visits Paul and Karl genuinely seems to care about his former partner.

In the middle of the night Jerome arrives and tells Paul that the police set him up by letting them leave via the back door. Apparently, a reporter on another case was around and witnessed Finchley’s departure from the station. Paul’s arrest is all over the news and the next morning on Paul’s way to visit his daughter Dee, he makes a statement to the press. Marie is upstairs looking out of the window and she is not amused.

During the visit to Dee, it’s clear that the father and daughter have an uneasy relationship. Dee tells him about a bizarre, violent, and sexual dream she had where he was present. Dee’s clearly troubled, but the roots of it are yet to be known.

Dee Finchley

When Paul leaves Dee’s flat and makes a surreptitious phone call from a phone booth it’s obvious that he’s up to something shady. Sure enough, the next time we see Paul he’s visiting a prostitute.

On the taxi ride to work instead of showering Paul with compliments, the driver asks him if he’s guilty or not. Paul is relieved of his daytime quiz show host and he returns home. With very little prompting Paul admits to Marie that he slept with someone in between visiting their daughter and meeting the network executives.

Paul and Marie visit Jerome and a new addition to the legal dream team, Gerry (Mark Lewis Jones), a former police detective who is investigating everyone related to the case. Jerome and Gerry inform the Finchleys that seven women have now come forward to accuse Paul of rape. The main source of concern is the new accusation made by Dee’s former babysitter. She was a teenager at the time of the allegation, so Paul isn’t just an accused rapist, now he’s an accused pedophile. The show ends with Paul speaking to himself and saying “They think I’m fucking Jimmy Saville” followed by a slow-motion shower scene with Paul looking like a miserable wreck.

The Good

There are only four episodes, so the story is compact.

The writing is good and some of the lines stick with you. Before Paul leaves Dee she tells him “I don’t know what you want me to say, but I want you to know that there’s a big part of me that wants to say it”. The writing encapsulates not only the characters’ relationships others, but also the characters’ feelings about themselves.

The cast is excellent, everyone plays their roles to perfection. Three standouts are Coltrane, Cessay, and Marshall. Coltrane portrays a nuanced philandering comic with hints of depth behind his wit. Cessay plays Paul’s lawyer in a slightly over the top bombastic, smooth, and strategic manner which makes him the perfect high profile criminal lawyer. Nadine Marshall as the main police detective vacillates between calm and just a tad over Paul’s alleged fuckery.

The Bad

The UK celebrity rape and abuse scandals have been heavily reported in the news over the past few years. Viewers might be tired or still too disgusted to watch a story inspired by them.

The Verdict

This is definitely worth continuing. Given the honest nature of the Finchleys’ marriage it will be interesting to see what Marie does and doesn’t know. Hopefully we’ll be able to gain insight into Marie, Paul, and Dee’s family life. Whether or not the writers give viewers fictional justice also remains to be seen.

Watch This if You Like:

Broadchurch, Doctor Foster, Line of Duty, Paranoid