State of Play

Truth and Justice/Artwork by Kate Dorsey

    I love catalogs.  I always have.  So many interesting things can be found in them.  A catalog is how I found Midsomer Murders and other shows.  It’s also how I found State of Play.  Which I’m going to talk about right now.

    Sonia Baker (Shauna Macdonald) is dead.  A research assistant for MP Stephen Collins (David Morrissey), Sonia’s death is at first believed to be a suicide.  After further investigation, it is declared murder.

    The death of Sonia is devastating for Collins’ reputation.  When it comes out he was having an affair with her, the situation becomes worse.

    Looking to save himself, Collins turns to his ex-campaign manager, journalist Cal McCaffrey (John Simm).  This puts Cal in an odd position.  Cal wants to help Collins, but he is a journalist and he must look at facts.  The facts are taking the story on odd turns, such as the fact a murdered teenager has been found to be connected to Sonia.

    Kelvin Stagg’s death is being classified as drug related, but Cal doesn’t think so.  There is too much suspicious information about his death to give it such a simple resolution.  The same with Sonia’s death.  He has to investigate further.

    Working with Cal is Della Smith (Kelly Macdonald).  She is the one who forms a relationship with the police in order to obtain information.  Della also cleans up the mess Cal creates when he gets in trouble for having a relationship with Collins’ wife, Anne (Polly Walker).

    Another journalist looking into things is Helen Preger (Amelia Bullmore).  Her connections are with members of the government.  When it looks Sonia’s death may involve further members of Parliament, she is the one who goes to talk to them. 

    Dan Foster (James McAvoy) is a freelance journalist.  He joins Cal’s team when it is discovered their two different investigations are going after the same subject.  With the help of a transcriptionist, Syd Hardy (Tom Burke), Dan records all the conversations he and other journalists have with person of interest Dominic Foy (Marc Warren).  This transcribing is helpful as Foy’s story changes every time someone speaks to him.

    Overseeing the entire investigation is editor Cameron Foster (Bill Nighy).  As the editor, Cameron is the one to decide if the story Cal and the others are investigating gets run or not.  Or at least he is until he is essentially removed from his position when the investigation gets too close to an oil company for comfort.

    With coverups, lies, and changing evidence, it really is a race to get the case solved and the story written before everything they have discovered disappears forever.

    Watching this series, I found it absolutely fascinating to see the lengths these journalists would go to get their story.  They had to have solid, hard-core facts before they could move forward with anything.  Some of the tactics used to get these facts were definitely questionable.  In my opinion, having Foy followed to the point he became paranoid was too far.  Although, if people did not lie so much, maybe people would not have to go to such extremes to get to the truth.  It can all become a very tricky, uneasy situation.

    Something else tricky was Cal’s relationship with Anne.  It turned romantic after Collins’ affair with Sonia came out.  Still, it was not the brightest thing to do.  It hurt Cal both personally and professionally.  The professional repercussions Cal figured out pretty fast.  The personal took him a while.

    There is only one season of this show, which is disappointing.  It would have been interesting to see what story the journalists looked into next.  As journalists write about everything, the next investigation could have been about anything.