I've seen the entire first season and read quite a few reviews. I think Doctor Foster's amazing - one of the most honest examinations of a broken marriage that I've seen. Some complain that Gemma's behaviour is extreme or erratic, but then maybe they've been happily married for forty years and have zero experience of betrayal. Like many other people, I've been in that situation, and I know just how crazy it can make you feel, when you instinctively know that something is very wrong, but your spouse keeps insisting that nothing is wrong.
Gemma's whole world has been destroyed by the one person she was entitled to trust absolutely, and not only is she possessed by insane rage and hurt, but she's fighting like a she-wolf to save what she can salvage, especially her son and her home. Of course the drama is exaggerated for the screen, but still it manages to capture those excruciating emotions. The soundtrack, editing and cinematography are utterly brilliant, showing us the strange ways that the brain responds to extreme shock and pain. And of course Suranne Jones is astounding, a towering talent of incredible diversity, courage, honesty and sure-footedness. Bertie Carvel as the husband is almost too good, inspiring a profound loathing and revulsion as a character so utterly selfish, but also pathetic, since his vainglorious schemes come to nothing, or not much. Tom Taylor as the son is deeply touching, helpless, bitterly wounded, and enraged. This is what the arts are for: to reveal something about human experience. Doctor Foster (season 1) does this in spades.
Gemma's whole world has been destroyed by the one person she was entitled to trust absolutely, and not only is she possessed by insane rage and hurt, but she's fighting like a she-wolf to save what she can salvage, especially her son and her home. Of course the drama is exaggerated for the screen, but still it manages to capture those excruciating emotions. The soundtrack, editing and cinematography are utterly brilliant, showing us the strange ways that the brain responds to extreme shock and pain. And of course Suranne Jones is astounding, a towering talent of incredible diversity, courage, honesty and sure-footedness. Bertie Carvel as the husband is almost too good, inspiring a profound loathing and revulsion as a character so utterly selfish, but also pathetic, since his vainglorious schemes come to nothing, or not much. Tom Taylor as the son is deeply touching, helpless, bitterly wounded, and enraged. This is what the arts are for: to reveal something about human experience. Doctor Foster (season 1) does this in spades.
