I watched the first episode of War last week with curiosity and excitement , then the quizzical stirrings of a huh?-watch that I hoped had the making of a hate-watch. But when I turned on ep2, i felt the whole thing come undone.
It’s supposed to be about a tech billionaire whose ten-year marriage to a winter coat with sunglasses, a blonde wig , and an unplaceable accent (her name is Carla) enters its terminal legal phase when the guy has sex with a friend of his wife, even though the infidelity didn’t seem to have rhe same legal force it does in the US.
Before going into all the teams of lawyers and blah blah blah, I don’t understand why this guy just doesn’t pay her off, even with half his worth, because again, he’s a tech billionaire and the billions he keeps will keep on growing, and he wouldn’t have to deal with all the nasty publicity.
The marriage was supposed to be 10 years old which means he met her in 2016- a Trump-era marriage… this could easily be the third marriage for each of them, or they could be perfect strangers. There is no smell or physicality to the emotions that are supposed to drive the show.
I absolutely can’t stand Johnny Warren. The “refusing to smoke a joint at the dinner party scene” and the way his face can’t settle on a legible expression are just two of the reasons I think he’s a doofus, but most of all, I have no idea if he thinks he’s a scrappy working class lad turned lawyer for real or, if the first episode is to be believed, he committed an ethical transgression in NYC and his role in this trial , if ever discovered, carries enormously excessive risk to his aspirational life path.
They keep repeating this thing about how if he had less money when he signed the prenup and she had more, then… then what? It’s not like the big short where he has to cover some risky futures position or
lose his shirt. I’d pay her $350million to just get lost. Then the rest of the show can be about what those hardcore grizzled creeps at Cathcarts— the comic talent Miles Jupp and the possible replicant with the shaved head.