Family Thriller 'Playing Nice' Plays Unpleasant & Repetitive
Does it have urgent, modern themes, or is it an old-school Gothic drama with a contemporary coat of paint? This question arises in all four episodes of Playing Nice, a thriller miniseries written by Grace Ofori-Attah that premiered in Britain around the New Year. The series takes a head-turning, unlikely yet possible scenario – what if you took the wrong baby home from the hospital and your toddler actually belongs to someone else? – and greedily injects it with infuriating, ludicrous twists and suspense.
Our nice, ordinary couple is Pete (James Norton) and Maddie (Niamh Algar), whose current money anxieties have materialised after Maddie recovered from a severe bout of post-partum depression – they’ve gone through their fair share of suffering and worry in the three brief years their son has been alive. But their world is upended when the hospital informs them that their son Theo (Alban Guo) is not biologically theirs. Enter the smarmy, rich Miles (James McArdle) and his priss, timid wife Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay), whose child David (Fraser Cornelissen) has developmental issues from Maddie’s difficult birth.
The situation is horrid, but at first, there’s nothing off-putting about Miles and Lucy other than being smug and overfamiliar – putting up with noxious personalities may be the price that Pete and Maddie have to pay to ensure their swapped-at-birth kids have a safe, happy upbringing.
