Querida Marnie

I'm a single guy with no kids so there's no way I could ever truly empathise with these parents.

What I can comment on though is how incredibly well the core characters have been crafted, warts and all. I found myself swinging from loathing Sharon Horgan's character to rooting for her and her unrelenting quest. She is not a martyr though. She is flawed - like all of us - and her character can be so polarising at times. However, at the core is a truly brilliant performance. Michael Sheen is great as always and T'nia Miller (uncredited???) continues to show her brilliant acting chops. I'm obsessed with her charismatic performances.

What I loved most about this limited series is the fact that sometimes we, as the audience, are not meant to view in black and white but instead feel squeamish, sympathise,, hurt deep in the gut, be angered and unsettled, take sides, lose faith in those sides, reposition our own compass and, at the end, leave with soulful wonderings after the credits roll. This is what top class storytelling is all about.

It's not a 10 for me but damn, this is fine viewing.

Parents Nicci and Andrew face a huge decision, when Doctors suggest removing treatment from their seriously ill daughter, claiming that she's suffering as a result of being kept alive.

I'll start by saying this is a very tough watch, if you or a loved one is in a similar position to anyone here, this may prove to be an uncomfortable watch, as it does deal with an incredibly sad and sensitive issue.

This is The BBC at its best, this is an outstanding drama, I've said many times that drama works when it makes you think, question and feel, this show prompted several passionate discussions at work, all of us had different opinions.

It's evenly paced, sincere and perfectly believable, a scenario I'm sure a number of families have found themselves in. This takes on a real journey, you see the family experience from start to finish. All sorts of moral questions are raised.

The acting is off the scale, Sharon Horgan, I'm so used to seeing her in comedy, but wow she showa just how good she is. Alison and Noma Dumezweni are both first rate too.

Michael Sheen, I am certain he will pick up an award for this, it's hard not to watch and know that he's adding a touch of greatness, I have no doubt at all that one day he will be regarded as one of the best actors on the planet, it's a captivating performance as Andrew.

Brilliant drama.

9/10.

Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen play the parents of a child who, after a lifetime of illness is on life support in the hospital and have a massive disagreement as to how her future should be managed.

Jack Thorne wrote it and as always, he capturers the emotions and anguish of the conflicted parents in all its pain and desperation.

I admit to crying many times, wondering how I would react to such a life changing challenge as in what they are faced with.

The couple are torn apart as their older daughter handles the while situation in a dangerous way herself, with her unknowing parents caught up in their younger daughter's precarious health.

Riveting film, brilliantly acted.

Recommend.

8/10.

A great but sad story brilliantly written and executed. Excellent performances from Sheen and Horgan as would be expected but surprisingly surpassed by the two more junior starlets, Alison Oliver and Niamh Moriarty. Looking forward to the concluding episodes, it has me hooked from the start and is highly recommended.

The story and characters jump off the screen at you from the first scene with the parents on a short respite break which shows their humanity and close relationship but we are quickly dragged into a world where the couples relationship will be tested to the full. Katie, played excellently by Alison Oliver, is the older sister of Marnie, played superbly by Niamh Moriarty, and her own life struggling with teenage years and the lack of attention and normality from her parents who have to spend so much time on the medical needs of critically ill Marnie is an absorbing subplot.

The drama shines a bright light on the real life struggles of a family, a medical team and their contacts struggling with an impossibly difficult question to which there is no right answer. Excellent writing, directing and editing shine through, highly recommended.

Best Interests is supposed to be 'moving' and 'tug at heartstrings' but by the midst of episode 3, it's hard to really root for any of the characters.

The good is that a major aspect feels authentic, and that is the toll being a carer can take on virtually everything in your life - no matter how much you don't want that to happen. That part is genuine and feeling the inability to talk to to anyone about how difficult it is for those in the midst of it & how difficult it is for those around them to respond or know how to help, what to say, etc.

The bad is that they've tried to pack too much in to a show that doesn't feel conducive to it in an organic way. The writers have a hollow gay sister, an uncle with Asperger's, multiple disabled, but save for a little boy, it feel like they're intentionally type casting disabled actors to tick boxes. The gay sister's friend or love interest (or whatever she's supposed to be) is just as unlikeable in this as she is in Conversations With Friends, and just as hollow.

Best Interests seems to be yet another in an unending line of shows from what appear to be Gen Z or (barely) millennial writers who feel the need to pay lip service to diversity and hating everything about every generation other than their own. In areas where one hopes for dialogue that's genuinely meaningful, someone has to go off on a tangent.

To be perfectly blunt, it's not often I find myself looking at the time left before an episode is over, but I've done it with each episode in the series thus far. You know they want you to empathise and in a weirdly detached sort of way, you empathise with the younger, hospitalised sister for multiple reasons while watching the other characters fall apart and not really feeling much of anything for them. You should, but they're so tedious, intellectually you can empathise in terms of it happening you, yet not in a way that makes you genuinely care about them. That's not exactly a mark of brilliant television or acting.

Best Interests feels drawn out, at times disjointed and a project that could have had a bigger impact had there been stronger execution and better casting. Aside from the little girl who plays Marnie & the lad who plays George, there simply isn't chemistry between the actors that makes you believe these characters are real people or a real family. Individually, most of the actors are perfectly fine and it isn't that they're terrible - they simply lack chemistry.

I was watching because I was bored, but I think I'm going back to re-runs of other shows. There are worse things to watch, but there is also plenty that's better.