There could not have been a more fitting time for Anatomy of a Scandal (Netflix) to arrive. This splashy, trashy drama, a starry adaptation of the novel by Sarah Vaughan, deals with politicians who believe themselves to be above the law, and the blind privilege of the ultra-wealthy. It is a twisty, slippery thing, so the specifics are difficult to discuss without spoiling it. But Sienna Miller is Sophie Whitehouse, happily married to Britain’s “most fanciable” minister, James (a brilliantly oily Rupert Friend), until they find their lives swept up in the scandal of the title.Anatomy of a Scandal Season 1 Download.
None of these characters speak like human beings. “My darling man, where the fuck are you?” coos Sophie down the phone when her husband fails to turn up to a party. “If the future doesn’t include you, Sophie Whitehouse, then the future is shite,” he coos back, later on. Bleurgh. Maybe this is how posh people woo each other. “You think like a poet … politics could always use more poetry,” says James, but not to Sophie, which is where his most recent troubles begin. He deserves to be put in the dock for that line alone.
It unfolds at a pace, half in the present day, half in flashback to Sophie and James’s time at Oxford, where he rowed and was a member of the Bullingdon-esque Libertine club. There is boorish behaviour. People say “boys will be boys” on more than one occasion. People meet in dark corridors to discuss dastardly deals. It is part political thriller, part courtroom drama, and it attempts to wear many hats. On the one hand, it is a twisty thriller that knows it is silly and hams that up. On the other, it attempts a serious exploration of consent and power, which sits uneasily with all the fireworks, and barely begins to unravel the knots it makes for itself.And there are many fireworks.