Things get very tense in the second episode of ITV’s new miniseries. Here’s our Playing Nice episode 2 review.
Episode 1 of Playing Nice ended on the shocking revelation that Miles and Lucy (James McArdle and Jessica Brown Findlay) had filed a lawsuit to try and claim the custody of both Theo and David, the two boys swapped at the hospital as babies. Naturally, this has caused some tension and stress for Pete and Maddie (James Norton and Niamh Algar) as we meet them at the beginning of episode 2.
Pete and Maddie find out the lawsuit was filed eight weeks ago, meaning all the couple’s nice gestures were to manipulate them. In episode 1, Miles and Pete were bonding as a couple of guys, slapping each others’ backs a lot, but that’s all now gone. In fact, Miles is trying to manipulate Theo into thinking Miles is his real daddy. Biologically it’s true, for sure, but what a horrible thing to say to a 3-year-old.
Miles and Lucy are also trying to use Maddie’s struggles with Postnatal Depression as evidence of her being unsuitable being a mother. Although Playing Nice tends to focus a bit more on Pete as a main character, Maddie’s arc has a lot of power to it. The episode also focuses a lot more on Pete and Maddie spending time with David, trying to get to know their biological son.
We won’t go into the more spoilery details of the narrative but as we move forward, Playing Nice is starting to reveal its true colours. It has asserted itself as a psychological drama with some thriller elements and as our understanding of the characters deepens, so do their flaws.
Pete can be a bit passive and to act without thinking whereas Maddie has a tendency of just carrying on and trying to swallow her emotions, taking a long walk on the beach instead of leaning on her husband. Lucy is also passive, but it’s starting to seem that could be because of Miles. McArdle’s character is quickly becoming the truly evil villain of the series and who doesn’t love one of those?
So far, we haven’t been given a reason for Miles’ aggressive, extreme behaviour, but then again, do abusive people usually have those? Is getting custody of Theo just another way to show dominance, to get what you want despite the consequences? That remains to be seen, but we’re hooked.
Miles’ actions become steadily more unhinged and deplorable, but McArdle plays it all very cool. Grace Ofori-Attah’s script, adapted from J.P. Delaney’s novel, doesn’t go very deep into the questions of masculinity here, but Pete and Miles are like night and day. One is gentle and loving, while the other is excellent at pretending to be both of those things.
The episode ends on another cliffhanger of sorts and the plot is thickening quite quickly. Episode 2 doesn’t quite manage to find the right balance between all the characters and what themes of the narrative to pursue, but so far, Playing Nice is deeply addictive.
All episodes of Playing Nice are available on ITVX.
