It's rare that I can say a drama absolutely won't be for everybody, but perhaps should be – that is the case with Babies.
Babies has a similar pace, tone and structure to that series, so I can already say with some degree of certainty that those who were unimpressed by Marriage will have similar feelings here.
This topic will simply be too harrowing, too close to the bone for some viewers – and that's completely understandable. However, if they do find themselves able to give the series a go and continue with it, my hope is that they will feel seen, whether they have been through the experiences depicted on screen or not.
Meanwhile, the series also focuses on Stephen's best friend Dave, played by Jack Bannon, in his new relationship with Charlotte Riley's Amanda. Dave is besotted with Amanda, but she is evidently from a different world that Stephen, Lisa and Dave and has a different approach to life – one which, we soon learn, is at least partly informed by her own experiences.
Unlike Marriage, which ran for four episodes, Babies takes place across six, a decision which is both earned on one level, yet on another appears to have been a mistake.
The sixth episode makes a key decision which simply doesn't work from a visual standpoint, and jars against the rest of the series, even if the dramatic intentions are clear and not necessarily completely misjudged.
This is effective in earlier episodes, but the conversations they have respectively reaches a pinnacle of mundanity here. One conversation between Stephen and his father where they find themselves laughing extensively, essentially about nothing, may be thematically resonant, but starts to border on inauthentic, something the rest of the series never is.
I wanted to get all of that out of the way up top, as it encapsulates the entire extent of my issues with Babies, which would otherwise have been a five star production. Now, we can get on to what it does right, which is a lot.
This isn't because of the specific subject matter. I imagine that the heartbreak of the experiences the central couple go through are well observed and accurate to real life, but this is not what I'm referring to. Instead, I am referring to the most specific examples of human behaviour, which are littered throughout each and every conversation and bit of behaviour.
I don't believe Golaszewski has planted a camera somewhere around my house to specifically observe my own individual behaviour, so I have to presume that there is something universal about what he is putting his finger on.
Throughout the runtime, I kept thinking of each of the central character's behaviours and how I either know someone just like that, or I think I myself am probably just like that.
Babies absolutely gives the topic its due, but it would be reductive to suggest that's all the series is about. There are also discussions around parenthood, adult friendships, aging and grappling with societal expectations, male repression, communication and so much more. But really, it's about relationships.
The authenticity of the relationships here means that whether you're watching a simple scene where Stephen and Dave are chatting at the pub or Lisa and Stephen are catching, or whether you're watching a heartbreaking sequence in which the central couple come to terms with what they're going through, all the scenes feel as rich and impactful as one another.
Here, however, he is phenomenal, giving a performance which could certainly be in contention as a career best. Stephen is someone who has masked any emotional turmoil with humour and an external resilience all his life.
As Lisa and Stephen's relationship, and the balance within it, shifts and changes, nothing either of them do ever feels out of character – it all feels like a natural continuation.
There are, of course, others outside of the quartet who enter into their orbits, but in many ways this is a hyper-focused piece, and one which needs to be given the weight and breadth of everything that's on its mind.
In many ways, it is also hopeful, filled with some genuinely funny moments, some uplifting revelations and thoughts on how to cope during difficult times, and some keen observations about human behaviour.
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