State of Play (2003)
David Morrissey and John Simm
So I've been on a British TV kick recently and this is the latest thing I netflixed. State of Play is a six episode British series about a politician involved in a scandal and the journalists who are trying to get the scoop. Stephen Collins (David Morrissey) is a normal MP who was having an affair with his research assistant, Sophia Baker. One day she's run over by a train and their entire affair comes to light. He thinks he just has to weather the storm caused by her suicide, but it soon becomes apparent that she was murdered. But by whom? The main journalist who's seeking the truth of the story is Cal McCaffrey (John Simm) who used to be Stephen's campaign manager and is still his friend. As Cal and his coworkers dig deeper, her death is linked to some very high levels of government. Bill Nighy, Kelly Macdonald, and James McAvoy also star in it as Cal's colleagues and Polly Walker plays Stephen's wronged wife who Cal has always carried a torch for.
State of Play has a big reputation as one of the Best British miniseries in recent years...And it didn't really live up to its reputation. It's very engrossing, but there's not much to it. When it's about solving the mystery it's very good, but then it tries to make comments about political corruption and they fall flat. Also, none of the characters are quite as well-developed as they need to be. If it were just about 5% deeper, it would have been really fantastic.
And irrelevant sidebar - I just looked it up on IMDB and discovered that they've remade State of Play as an American movie which will come out later this year starring Russell Crowe as Cal and Ben Affleck as Stephen. Ben Affleck replacing David Morrissey is like asking Miley Cyrus to fill in for Dolly Parton - insane! One cool thing is that they're having Helen Mirren take the Bill Nighy role as the saucy editor-in-chief of the newspaper. That should be pretty good.