‘The Split’: Filmin has the perfect prestigious law soap opera for this summer

With ‘The Split’, Abi Morgan intended to break down the taboo of divorce. “Divorce is not a failure”he told Guardian. “Sometimes marriages are finite. We don’t die at 40, we live long lives… sometimes too long to spend with just one person”.

Morgan is a well-established writer in the UK with a long and varied resume in theatre, television and film. She has been nominated twice for an Emmy for ‘The Hour’ and has two BAFTAs for ‘Sex Traffic’ and ‘White Girl’, but in Spain her scripts for the films ‘The Iron Lady’, ‘Shame’ and ‘Suffragettes’. Since her parents separated when she was 11 years old, she has been interested in the tribulations that come with the end of a long relationship, something that she has turned into ‘The Split’, a BBC series starring a lawyer specialized in Family Law who is dedicated to trying to carry out divorces in the most civilized (and lucrative) way possible. At home, of course, she has her own marital problems.

Although I am sure that with those last lines many readers will already be sold, I will add that ‘The Split’ is exactly the perfect series to gobble up during the summer holidays (or during the hot summer afternoons and nights for those who do not have that privilege ): a prestigious soap opera, wittily written, salty and a little goofy, performed with that close and believable elegance that only some British stars have (Nicola Walker and Deborah Findlay are delightful) and with an aspirational spirit, that is, it fills the screen with very expensive houses, offices and clothes. More reasons? Each season has six episodes, and the third, recently released on Filmin, is the last.

The British ‘The Good Wife’

It has been said that it is the British answer to ‘The Good Wife’, for obvious reasons: starring Hannah Defoe, a middle-aged lawyer who is also a mother (and not the other way around), each episode tells a legal case concrete as we follow the day-to-day hassles of the office and family that surround this woman. Who is also torn between a husband and an idyll that emerged in the work environment, has an enviable wardrobe and is not averse to a good glass of wine, like Alicia Florrick. But ‘The Split’ is more British, that is, less epic and, within its great licenses in pursuit of good melodrama, more realistic.

And above all, more everyday: not all the scenes have to advance the plot, many of them are only there so that we get to know the characters better, understand their relationships and enjoy their company. In that sense, this BBC series is classic TV fiction, not as obsessed with twists and cliffhangers as most current seriesbut in return able to let himself (and let us) breathe and thus build a more adult and human story (without being boring at any time, of course).

Because ‘The Split’ is interested in exploring the different ways in which relationships last, evolve, change and end. Not just the romantic ones. “I wanted to tell a story that had all the energy, warmth, vitality and complexity that you find in families”Morgan explained to Guardian.

Hannah is the eldest daughter of a family clan devoted almost entirely to family law, she left the firm founded by her parents to get away from the shadow of an egocentric mother who refuses to retire, and now she has to face her own family in court. sister, a party woman who in turn is sick of being in the shadow of a perfect older sister in everything. The little girl, meanwhile, is not a lawyer, just a young woman about to get married without being very convinced. In addition, the figure of the absent father who left the nest decades ago and now returns suddenly looms over all (Antony Head, the “Watcher” of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, who is now being typecast in villain roles thanks to this and ‘Ted Lasso’). Meanwhile, Hannah maintains a somewhat cold relationship with her husband, from whom she will also discover a secret that will endanger the relationship; and to top it off at work she reconnects with the typical old friend with whom something was about to happen in her youth (the idealization of what did not happen, the most dangerous source of infidelity).

Also like ‘The Good Wife,’ ‘The Split’ is the tale of a woman going through a midlife crisis. Hannah has everything she’s supposed to want (including a house with a kitchen that’s twice as big and beautiful as many flats in Madrid), but she’s unsatisfied.. She is one of many round and interesting female characters that the series has, written, directed, produced and starred by women.

The only drawback is that it may not be a good idea to watch this series with your partner if you are going through a crisis. But if the relationship is over, there is no point in prolonging it any longer than necessary. Perhaps what you need, as ‘The Split’ teaches, is to find a good lawyer.