State of Play

This British, made-for-TV drama about politics, journalism, and crime is superbly complex, and engaging for the entire six hours worth of the show. In short, the story is about how a group of London-based journalists take on the stories of two deaths: a druggies' shooting and the mysterious death of a politician's researcher, Sonja Baker, also the politician's lover. As the journalists dig deeper, they discover that the deaths are connected, and that the case involves everyone from ex-military to a mountainous corporation to high-seated members of Parliament. How are they going to prove what is true? The entire cast was great, playing roles varying from pathetically childish, unhelpful source to sarcastic, resourceful editor with amazing acting ability. The political atmosphere was very realistic, crackling with tensions and secrets between members of Parliament which added suspense to the story, especially when you knew those secrets pertained to the whole Sonja Baker case. The large list of characters will help make complex drama-lovers love this drama more, even though some of the minor characters I wish they gave more closure to in the script. However, this drama contains content that even its superb acting and engaging mystery can't make up for; R rating-level language (something I wish the CSM reviewer had made more note of), moderate sexual content, very realistic violence, and inadmirable characters decorate the surface. This show highlights the terrible risks desperate journalists will take - in competition with other news sources - to get valid information and a good story. I would strongly recommend this show to kids who want to get into the media field, even if it's just TV reporting I'd still recommend it; the way these journalists break the law for the sake of getting information no doubt occurs in the real world of journalism. Over all, this show was excellent in the sense that the acting was good and the story exciting. But watch out for all the iffy content.