Adultery review: six-part affair drama falls flat — SkimNews
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- Adultery runs for six parts and follows Beth, a bored, bereaved mother of two who has lost her personal-training business, as she begins an affair with Tom, a married GP and father.
- Beth knocks Tom off his bicycle in a hospital waiting room, injuring his wrist, before their encounters move through a garden party and his GP surgery.
- Beth takes the affair from cars to the cottage left by her dead best friend and then to Tom’s Lake District cottage, where an urn and bleach go unemptied and they use a dangerously rickety table amid rat poo.
- Ollie and Jess bunk off school for a day in Blackpool and ride a rollercoaster while their parents have sex in the surgery, a contrast the review reads as a metaphor for the parents’ stasis.
- Romola Garai and Shelley Conn are singled out for the series’ great central performances, especially as Beth and Hannah, despite the surrounding adults remaining unconvincing.
- Dave is faulted for telling Beth “I’ve been inside that body” while looking at his ex-wife in a coffin, alongside other implausible details about swimming clothes and Tom’s injured wrist.
- Danny Brocklehurst’s Adultery is judged a clattering bag of clichés with a slight plot and heavy-handed class commentary, ending with the verdict that the six-part series is hardly worth the effort.
Why it matters: For anyone weighing whether to watch the six-part Adultery, this review leaves a clear thumbs-down: the slight plot, implausible adults and heavy-handed class commentary outweigh praise for Romola Garai and Shelley Conn. The practical effect is that even the show’s strongest performances are not presented as a reason to give it a chance.
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