Screenwriter Matthew Barry and director Ashley Way gave us one of the highlights of 2023's television production with Men Up, a witty, moving, and compassionate drama about the development of the drug that would become known as Viagra and the group of Welshmen who were its first guinea pigs.
Their new offering is more straightforward, and if it doesn't achieve the same success as Men Up, they can hardly be blamed for setting the bar so high.
Stars: Eve Myles, Gabrielle Creevy, Emun Elliott
The Guest is a fast-paced, furious, and absurd thriller, the kind that can only be pulled off if everyone involved in its creation and consumption approaches it without a hint of cynicism. Barry, Way, and the top-flight cast deliver their end of the bargain, delivering a propulsive plot. Viewers must fulfill theirs by uncritically accepting the multiple plot twists and bringing along enough metaphorical or real popcorn for the ride.
Thus, happiness will come as we embark on the story of the dispossessed young woman Ria (Gabrielle Creevy, with an excellent performance that goes a long way to keeping things from falling apart). She works as a cleaner for several unsavory people who fire her as soon as someone cheaper comes along ("If you're going to be funny, let's just call it a day, shall we?"), supports Lee (Sion Daniel Young), her irresponsible boyfriend since high school, and steals food to pay the rent on an illegal and depressing sublet while he complains about the lack of work.
Into this unrewarding life comes Fran (Eve Myles), a wealthy, self-made entrepreneur and apparent fairy godmother. She offers Ria a job cleaning four days a week in her luxurious mansion for a decent salary and gives inspirational speeches that awaken in Ria the longings and ambitions that have lain dormant since her mother died while she was still in school.
Sure, Fran could be all benevolence, but the glimpse of a shadowy figure in the supposedly empty guesthouse, and the sinister threads that punctuate every scene in which she appears, tell the astute observer otherwise, even before the elderly gardener, Derek (Clive Russell), tells her to get out of there while she still can. Though that's probably because of her memory. It almost certainly has nothing to do with the mansion's permanently locked room, the imports Mr. Fran constantly brings in from abroad and ships home, or her affair with Derek's son. It doesn't have anything to do with hints of domestic violence or insistence that being childless is a happy decision she made so she and her brooding husband could focus on the business.
Soon, Fran offers her more money, more responsibilities, more inspirational speeches, more clothes from her closet, gives her pills from her stash, and installs Ria in the guesthouse. She also encourages her protégé to use dating apps to see what Ria can do to improve their relationship now that Fran has shown her her worth. A guy named Mike Rice (Joseph Ollman) seems nice!
It's not that Ria's a fool. She has a survival instinct (she discreetly takes out her phone to film Fran and her lover fucking in the kitchen, although this could just be a reminder to fill up on Dettol twice, not future blackmail material) and enough intelligence to avoid being the kind of hero you end up yelling at in frustration.
With a glorious sense of inevitability, we enter a world of broken railings and dead bodies, Instagram clues, police suspicions, hidden diaries, wads of cash, and more, as Fran and Ria's relationship grows more twisted, more intense. The question of how dangerous it is to know them becomes more pressing.
Oh, I almost forgot (sorry, there's a lot going on)! And what about the former cleaner, Anna, who was also promoted to Fran's assistant, given a makeover, given a bunch of pills, and moved into the guesthouse? Why would anyone give up that cushy number? I'm sure there's no reasonable explanation, and you will too if you approached this with the right attitude, as recommended above.
The four episodes, ridiculous, well-played, and well-paced, are a delight. There's nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking here, aside from the huge amount of plot, but you'll have fun. I promise.
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