MaryLand

What follows is a low-key study of family dynamics, particularly the relationship between Becca and her sister, Rosaline (Eve Best). Both women put in fine performances but Best has the more vibrant role.

Credit to the writer Anne-Marie O'Connor for creating (with Jones) something that doesn't need tired violent tropes for its energy and plot, but uses the simpler, perennial themes of sibling rivalry, secret yearnings and unfulfilled potential.

Maryland confounds your expectations and is all the better, all the more credible and all the more moving for it.

This is an intelligent, restrained drama about the ties that bind.

Maryland has just enough bite to break the mould. It won’t be a Tuesday night revelation but, in what is proving to be a Golden Age for middle-aged female actors on the small screen, Maryland is neatly packaged and infinitely watchable.

When MaryLand concentrates on Becca and Rosaline re-bonding while seeking answers about their mother, the series works the best, thanks the performances from Jones and Best. The rest of the stories surrounding the sisters feel like filler that won’t really have much to do with the general direction of the series.

A disarmingly thoughtful show, deliberate in its messaging and affectingly involved with inter-familial relations, primarily between sisters. .... Directed by Susan Tully, beloved for her role on the original decade of "EastEnders," the series boasts two remarkable performances. .... What is less convincing are the reactions of each sister to various disclosures about mom's history and/or demise. Once we are past a certain point in the story, there seems little more that can shock, but each actress gets an opportunity to wax indignant, which feels like exactly that, a showcase.

At times, Maryland goes a bit too heavy with the “restrained anguish” on stony beaches and blustery hillocks; it’s much livelier when Becca and Rosaline get spicy with the sisterly spats. That said, it’s well performed (Jones and Best share the acting laurels) and feels almost radical in the way it conducts its non-sensationalist postmortem of hidden family dynamics.