As the second episode of Marriage begins, Ian (Sean Bean) and Emma (Nicola Walker) prepare to head to Jessica’s concert. Once they arrive, they grab drinks. Once they go inside, Jessica (Chantelle Alle) introduces herself as Jumble Jess and prepares to play her son “To Die For”. She meets them outside and thanks them for coming. A guy interrupts to tell Jessica how cool her performance was until he realizes he is interrupting their conversation. When Ian and Emma leave, they agree there is a quality to her while a lot of the girls are there to show off. Ian thinks she is best when she is natural. Adam (Jack Holden) tells Jessica that it was good, but she thinks there is more to it. He confesses it wasn’t the greatest gig he ever saw. Adam says he isn’t going to lie to her. If she can’t stand a bit of honesty, she is in the wrong business. Jessica wants him to tell the truth.

Ian talks about her lyrics because it is interesting how young people talk about love. They talk about the passion and excitement of it. Ian admits it is different when you’ve been together as long as they have. He says it’ll be 27 years on Thursday. Emma tells him to shut up and come here. Helen (Jackie Clune) gets into a car crash. She gets out of her car to scream at the woman who crashed into her. Once she goes inside, Ian comes in for his interview. He points out that he has decades of experience in this role and other much more senior roles. He says he is hungry for a new challenge. The interview ends and he leaves. On his way out, Ian stops to tell the receptionist that the mirrors in the lift were filthy. The receptionist lets him know that responsibility belongs to the cleaning contractors. Ian asks him if he is comfortable sending people into a lift like that. The receptionist says he is neither comfortable nor uncomfortable.

Emma picks up Gerry (James Bolam) and tells him that Jamie needs her to join him at the Legal Providers Conference. She believes it is a massive step-up for her. When they get into the car, she forces him to put his seatbelt on and click it in. Ian goes to a pub. Emma tells her father that she is the only one Jamie asked to come to the conference. They head into the Barnsdown Medical Centre where they talk to a man about his kids and the upcoming GCEs. Ian takes out the garbage and finds something that interests in. Emma makes it home and learns from Ian that the interview went great. Once she gets changed, they continue talking about the interview. When she asks if they liked him, Ian hugs her and says she kept looking at her phone. He tells her about the state of the lifts and how he complained about it. After Ian asks about her good news, Emma insists it was nothing really.

Adam stops and ridicules a Tory politician or campaigner and calls him a Nazi. Then, he catches up with Jessica and asks what she thinks about marriage. She calls it crazy. He asks if she wants to be free and single to sleep around. Jessica thinks marriage is old-fashioned. It is like a relic from an age when there were boundaries. Now, people can be whoever they decide they are. When you look at a father at a wedding, it is gross because one man hands over control of a woman to another man. She claims the whole institution is designed to make the woman be with the same man forever and ever. Before long, Adam chases her out of the house to apologize and try to get her to come back. He claims he only said one negative thing. He believes she is being such a baby and shouldn’t ruin their nice dinner. Meanwhile, Ian and Emma argue about the tweezers since they can’t find them. Emma gets a call from her father to get her help fixing the stove.

In the car, Emma tells Ian that there is nothing wrong with her dad’s oven. She believes he is playing mind games. Ian offers to go around there, but that only upsets Emma even more. Ian promises that he’ll do whatever she wants. Emma wants to go to dinner with her husband on her anniversary. She wants to have one night where they don’t have to think about money. She wants to live her life without swallowing everyone’s crap before going inside to check on her dad. Gerry tells her Paul is busy. While messing with the stove, she learns that he used it this morning. Gerry doesn’t seem to know why she is dressed up so she reminds him that it is their wedding anniversary.

Gerry insists he didn’t know it was her anniversary. Emma admits it has been 27 years. Gerry says she was good to get through a week with him since they were ready for her to come running back. Emma says they’re going to a Turkish restaurant. She begins making him something to eat while reminding her dad that she is going out for dinner. Gerry doesn’t think she wants to go to dinner with Ian. He reminds her that they didn’t get to talk about the conference thing properly the other day. He asks if she gets her own room before saying Jamie obviously thinks a lot of her. Ian will be jealous. Gerry tries to get her to stay. Once he realizes she won’t, he asks what she is going to do. Emma says she is meant to be going out to dinner. Ian and Emma return home later that night. They end up hanging out on the couch and watching television. She thanks him for tonight while Ian tells her he loves her pajamas.

Ian doesn’t think they’ve changed a bit in 27 years. He is a bit more positive because he is seeing Jamie tomorrow about his mom’s probate. The next day, Jamie (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) stops Emma on her way to lunch. When he learns she is going to eat out, she decides to join him. They agree to grab a salad and sit on the wall. Ian shows up at the office for his meeting with Jamie. Once Emma and Jamie get their salads, he ends up walking on talking on his phone. Claire (Kath Hughes) tells Ian that Jamie is with Emma. Jamie catches up with him seconds later. He mentions that he was talking to Emma about the conference. Ian asks about it and learns that they’re going to the Legal Providers Conference together. Jamie says it is one of the things you have to deal with when you’re one of the region’s leading small enterprise law firms. Ian tries to find out whether the whole office is going or just Jamie and Emma.

Jamie reveals his mom died of cancer at 46. Ian said it was everywhere in his mom while Jamie says it started in his mom’s ovaries. She had a hysterectomy and a lot of chemotherapy. Once they thought they got rid of it, they had a big party and fundraiser. They go outside so Jamie can show Ian his car. Emma goes inside to ask Jamie if everything went okay with Ian earlier. At home, Jamie says he is feeling fantastic since everything went well with his mom’s paperwork. When they talk about Emma’s salad, Ian says he thought she ate at her desk. She says she does. They go downstairs where Ian reveals he had a nice chat with Claire. He says they were talking about his redundancy and his mother. They agree that Claire is nice and very friendly. Emma asks if he mentioned Nicholas, but Ian says of course not. She reminds him that he didn’t say they had a son or if Claire mentioned her son. Emma complains that she talks about that boy all the time.

Once Ian asks about the conference, Emma claims she told him about it. He wants them to maximize their networking potential. Emma tells him that they might have to stay the night and it’ll be her and Jamie. Ian thinks she should see if Claire and Mike want to come. Ian tells her that he wants her, but she believes he is out of his tree. Jamie shares a drink with Emily (Shona McHugh). Emma knows Ian has been spending a lot of time alone, but he has created a whole situation about Jamie. She complains that he is dumping a pile of his crap on her when she hasn’t and won’t do anything. He offers to drive her so she can have a drink. Emma says she won’t be controlled by his jealousy. Jamie and Emily drink and joke. When she tells him he sounds like Emma, he says she is such a boring old B!tch. He goes on to say she has a creepy husband. She can’t believe she is sitting on his sofa.

In the morning, Emma tries to use the Internet before telling Ian it is doing a flashy thing. She needs to download a PDF and is supposed to be Jamie at some café in the middle of nowhere. She calls Claire who won’t print it. She complains about that to Ian. She can’t get the router working so she calls Jamie to leave a message telling him she might be a little late for the meeting. Ian finishes the Internet for them. She regrets leaving him that stupid message now. Emma admits she has never let him down before. Once Jamie calls her back, she tells him it is fine.

 

Marriage Review

Marriage seems a bit all over the place as if it doesn’t know what it wants to do. On the other hand, the series might be designed to be aimless if it was intended to represent someone’s interpretation of life in general. The series is attempting to cover a lot of topics, but it hasn’t managed to do so effectively just yet because the topics are only being glanced over for a few minutes. It is strange how the conversation abruptly cuts off at points and doesn’t finish what is being said.

Then, it’ll start in the middle of another conversation. I suppose this is an interesting way to portray a relationship when the couples really aren’t listening to one another even though it is slightly annoying. At times, it seems like the series is trying to make viewers feel sorry for the characters instead of sympathizing with them. It is doing this in the most unrealistic ways such as making Ian creepy as Jamie mentioned, making him ignored during the job interview, and even making Emma’s dad hate him.

As for the Jessica and Adam characters, they’re becoming mouthpieces for ideas more than vital components of the bigger story. There was no point in Adam yelling at some “Nazi” in the middle of the street while a jackhammer muddles his words. Jessica never downplayed the idea of getting married to Emma in the prior episode, but she is railing against it in the most radical way in this episode. It all just feels a bit silly and preachy.

A more subtle approach to get these ideas across would’ve made more sense even though the scenes were forgettable. Then, we have Ian throwing a fit over dirty mirrors. The characters are written so poorly that they’re incredibly difficult to like even in the least. It seems like they’ve been intentionally sabotaged.

Some aspects of the show work, but the mass majority of them do not. It feels like many jigsaw puzzles have been mixed and they just can’t be put back together. Once in a while, two pieces will fit, but they’re incompatible more often than not. The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Marriage can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support Reel Mockery at this link.