- Network: Sundance , SundanceTV , Sundance Now
- Series Premiere Date: May 6, 2019
Season #: 2, 1
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
They [Nick Hornby, Stephen Frears, Rosamund Pike and Chris O’Dowd] have created something close to a masterpiece (or 10). It seems like a double-marriage of true minds. The quartet make it look effortless, even artless, but every aspect, every frame, every word, every beat is a perfectly considered, crafted and curated thing that creates something even greater than the sum of its parts.
-
[Chris O’Dowd and Rosamund Pike are] both magnificent, as is the script and Stephen Frears’ confidant, clean direction. It’s so good, in fact, you’re left wishing there was more; more time, more settings, more to the story than just the simple structure these professionals excel within.
-
I think it’s safe to posit that State of the Union is the right iteration of what it is, a marriage of form and function that is at least as functional as the marriage it depicts.
-
The two weak spots for me were that they seemed incompatible as a couple and he wasn't recriminatory enough. ... Maybe that will come later. Thus far, though, Hornby has created a cleverly structured two-handed play in ten segments, lush with domestic humdrummery, in which we will never see them in that therapist's room.
-
The narrowness of the show helps it wear its drawing-room lightness well, and it is littered with tiny delights.
-
Frears keeps the visual language fresh, too, with playful camera angles and seamless one-shots following the pair whenever they cross the street. And O’Dowd and Pike are more than up to the challenge of a 10-part two-hander: They carry the rhythmic dialogue deftly and beautifully, capturing the complex chemistry of a married couple dealing with more than they ever thought they would.
-
With the talent on hand in front of and behind the camera, this series easily could have gotten away with something closer to the In Treatment model, where Tom and Louise argue for close to a half-hour each time. But in a TV landscape where episodes and seasons can overstay their welcome, State of the Union turns out to be the perfect length.
-
Even when the writing feels a little vague or forced, Pike and O’Dowd make the scenes work. ... It’s hard to be pessimistic, because both performances are so expressive, aware and alive.
-
Delightfully wry, bittersweet comic drama.
-
The conversations that Tom and Louise have are generally funny, skipping around pop culture references ranging from Call the Midwife to the films of Preston Sturges to generational confusion about modern dating. They're also utterly lacerating, things they can't bring themselves to say to a stranger, but know they need to say out loud, even in a public place.
-
State of the Union pulls off a neat trick; given both its short running time and its fleetness of dialogue, we never get tired of hearing this couple’s arguments, which could in other contexts be tiresome and circular. And both partners’ minds are so wide-ranging that — with an assist from Frears’s fleet direction — the show never grows claustrophobic.
-
Fans of dialogue-heavy, character-driven storytelling will be intrigued, but the redundancy of the setting renders “State of the Union” less bingeable.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 12 out of 15
-
Mixed: 1 out of 15
-
Negative: 2 out of 15
-
May 10, 2019Admittedly, I only sat through 1 10-minute episode, but that was all I could handle. Uninteresting and depressing.