Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Emmy Catch-Up: Scenes from a Marriage

Scenes from a Marriage: Season 1, Episode 2 “Poli” (B)

I remember watching the first episode of this show back when it aired in September as the Toronto International Film Festival was in full swing, and I likely would have kept watching it if I had known that the whole thing was only five episodes long. The show did not earn a very warm Emmy reception, with Oscar Isaac earning the show’s only bid and last year’s Emmy winner Jessica Chastain snubbed. I do think they’re both very good, and this is certainly a formidable showcase given that it’s just the two of them talking to each other for the entire hour. Whereas the first episode, which I of course watched close to a year ago, also featured Nicole Beharie and Corey Stoll, this one was just a two-hander, with Jonathan sitting down to dinner with headphones in not expecting Mira to come home and tell him that she was leaving for three months. It’s interesting to get this window into their relationship from this extended scene, and it does feel like there’s some context missing which is always the case in any conversation. Given this show’s title, I imagine that the next episode, which marks the midpoint of this show, will take place a few months later when the two of them once again reunite, and things will surely be much different from they were on this transformative night. We’ll see how living in Tel Aviv with someone else changes Mira and whether it means she’s still happy in the life she thinks she wants.

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