Married, Single, Other

This week I watched ITV’s new thirty-something drama Married, Single, Other. The script, Peter Souter’s debut, is cute, funny and quirky – sometimes a bit too much of all three at once. The writer is guilty of overkill, and the witty lines can come at the expense of real emotion. The one-liners (“All you need is a model girlfriend and you win a set of steak knives from Cliches R Us” quips Abbey to cheesy womaniser Clint) are too dense and leave little space in between for the realistic dialogue and developing relationships. One particular scene that could have benefited from a strong editor’s hand was an elderly lady dying while being treated by Eddie, an ambulance driver. There is a short debate about trying to resuscitate the patient at which point Eddie’s colleague Flo says “we have to try” and Eddie’s response “No. No we don’t” could have closed the scene beautifully. He then added more explanation about covering her chest with bruises and “bringing her back to some kind of half life” which wasn’t necessary and spoiled the poignancy of the woman’s death. Sometimes it’s what the characters don’t say that means more.