Best Interests

As a result of Thorne’s knowledge and experience, Best Interests is rich in the kind of detail that truly humanises and brings home the experience of a family with a chronically ill and increasingly disabled child as well as their current plight.

It’s a vanishingly rare thing for a series to be content to sit in the complexity of its own story, and allow audiences to come to their own conclusions about what it means, or what they might do in a similar situation. But it’s why this series is so powerful in the end.

Even with all of the high drama and acting flexes, perhaps the show’s biggest trick is that it never loses its clear-eyed empathy for anyone onscreen, even as this weighty story basically demands that you pick a side.

Best Interests is certainly one of those shows that would be considered a “heavy watch.” But Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen both do a fantastic job of playing parents put in a difficult situation as they have to make literal life-and-death decisions about their disabled child.

Horgan and Sheen propel the show with their wonderfully complicated performances. .... Sadly, the voice that is missing is Marnie’s. Her life is rendered through flashbacks that feel like rosy, one-dimensional glimpses of what once was. But as a depiction of what happens once she can no longer speak for herself, “Best Interests” is devastatingly complex.

There are some structural issues, and a longer runtime would allow the emotional journey to feel more balanced and less like struggling to stay afloat in a rising pool of tears for four hours, but overall, it's a stunning drama and a great exhibition of top-tier acting talent.

For some the storyline will be too tough to deal with, for others it will prove a powerful exposure to a situation that can otherwise only be understood by those with lived experience. But those considering whether to watch the series can rest assured that the subject matter has been tackled unflinchingly yet sensitively, and the enormous questions the series poses aren't given easy answers. It's impressively detailed, well-structured and features some mesmerising performances.

It’s brutal, at times overwrought. But in the end, yes, there is a powerful and moving redemption that feels beautiful and true.

The couple may eventually take sides, then, but Thorne doesn’t force his audience to empathise with just one perspective. Instead, he eloquently and plainly sets out his question without agenda or judgement: what would you do?