ITV's Strangers
Emily Lane
Strangers is ITV’s newest serial television drama, aired on the 10th September 2018 starring Emilia Fox from Silent Witness and John Simm from Life on Mars and created by Jack and Harry Williams, the brothers behind last year's drama Liar. Strangers is set in Hong Kong and based around a widower named Jonah.
Jonah was an ordinary man working as a professor and married to Megan, his wife of 5 years. Suddenly, his world begins to fall apart when he receives an international phone call informing him of his wife’s tragic death in Hong Kong - where she had been working for 6 months. Jonah’s fear of flying had prevented him from visiting her during this time, however in order to identify her mangled body, he must visit Hong Kong. Upon arrival, Jonah discovers his wife had been keeping dark secrets from him and the truth begins to unravel. He meets a consul and an activist: both people seemingly more involved in his life than he realises. As he spirals deeper into her web of lies, it shows how little he really knew her in the first place; they might as well have been strangers.
Strangers is set in Hong Kong, making the show more engaging and unique as it is a reasonably unfamiliar setting for the majority of ITVs British audience as one of their official languages, Chinese, is difficult to interpret. Therefore, we are withheld information in potentially significant conversations between characters. This makes the show so much more addictive because the story is told from the perspective of Jonah who is “a long way from the truth”, the tag line for the show. If that doesn’t sound intriguing enough, every episode raises questions about whether Jonah’s relationships with the other characters are trustworthy or not. It’s episode 7 now and it seems like Jonah has managed to attract all of the shady people in Hong Kong, as he is constantly threatened with danger and death in every single episode.
Strangers has received mixed reviews with the main criticism being that it is too complicated. This could be down to Chinese culture differing so greatly to ours with different languages, government policies and beliefs . Personally, I think this adds realism and relevant context to the show and contributes to Jonah’s state of confusion when his expectations are not met – a similar position to the audience as we are experiencing the story unfold from his perspective and have similar ideas about cultures. Strangers also features many sub-plots such as the consul Sally Porter (Emilia Fox) aiding the investigation as well as Lau Chen (Katie Leung), an activist protesting against an organisation called XO. The sub plots keep the series engaging and simply seeing how 3 completely separate people can become so easily intertwined in each other’s lives is of interest.
The last episode of Strangers season 1 will air on the 29th October, and I’m already hoping for a season 2. The neon art style , plot line and setting all work together to create an engaging, aesthetically pleasing and gripping drama that I can’t stop watching: I have no idea what I'm do every Monday night at 9 pm when it’s over.
Jonah was an ordinary man working as a professor and married to Megan, his wife of 5 years. Suddenly, his world begins to fall apart when he receives an international phone call informing him of his wife’s tragic death in Hong Kong - where she had been working for 6 months. Jonah’s fear of flying had prevented him from visiting her during this time, however in order to identify her mangled body, he must visit Hong Kong. Upon arrival, Jonah discovers his wife had been keeping dark secrets from him and the truth begins to unravel. He meets a consul and an activist: both people seemingly more involved in his life than he realises. As he spirals deeper into her web of lies, it shows how little he really knew her in the first place; they might as well have been strangers.
Strangers is set in Hong Kong, making the show more engaging and unique as it is a reasonably unfamiliar setting for the majority of ITVs British audience as one of their official languages, Chinese, is difficult to interpret. Therefore, we are withheld information in potentially significant conversations between characters. This makes the show so much more addictive because the story is told from the perspective of Jonah who is “a long way from the truth”, the tag line for the show. If that doesn’t sound intriguing enough, every episode raises questions about whether Jonah’s relationships with the other characters are trustworthy or not. It’s episode 7 now and it seems like Jonah has managed to attract all of the shady people in Hong Kong, as he is constantly threatened with danger and death in every single episode.
Strangers has received mixed reviews with the main criticism being that it is too complicated. This could be down to Chinese culture differing so greatly to ours with different languages, government policies and beliefs . Personally, I think this adds realism and relevant context to the show and contributes to Jonah’s state of confusion when his expectations are not met – a similar position to the audience as we are experiencing the story unfold from his perspective and have similar ideas about cultures. Strangers also features many sub-plots such as the consul Sally Porter (Emilia Fox) aiding the investigation as well as Lau Chen (Katie Leung), an activist protesting against an organisation called XO. The sub plots keep the series engaging and simply seeing how 3 completely separate people can become so easily intertwined in each other’s lives is of interest.
The last episode of Strangers season 1 will air on the 29th October, and I’m already hoping for a season 2. The neon art style , plot line and setting all work together to create an engaging, aesthetically pleasing and gripping drama that I can’t stop watching: I have no idea what I'm do every Monday night at 9 pm when it’s over.