Doctor Foster – Series 2 review

Beginning the first series of Doctor Foster, initially, I found myself quite bored. Another drama about a woman who finds out her husband is having an affair – I couldn’t have said it was anything of a novelty. But the intensely gripping drama pulled on all the right strings to drive its viewers crazy, especially when professional, successful and beautiful mother Gemma Foster (Suranne Jones) considered staying with the man who betrayed her – for the sake of keeping a family unit. Perhaps its most alluring aspect was the normality of the family home accompanied by Gemma’s success only later to be contrasted with a directionless haze of confusion. Happiness was a bubble that popped quite ferociously in a well-off family. Perfection – whether in family, relationships, or work – the series proved, simply does not exist.

When I found out there was a second series after binge-watching the first in a day, I had mixed feelings. How could the plot possibly drag out? The bombshell of the affair had been dropped in the most glorious, measured manner. I didn’t think it could evoke the same nail-biting feelings I felt in the first series. I was to find that the second series highlighted the aftermath of such an intense emotional whirlwind, and yes, Gemma was just a little bit more crazy.

We can’t all like Gemma for her actions, but that’s what made the series far more intriguing

It’s been two years since the bomb of an affair, lies and deceit exploded in the Foster household. I didn’t, for one second think that things could be remotely okay in a household that has experienced what Gemma and Tom did. The trauma, I was certain, was going to run deep. It began fairly calmly. Gemma and Tom’s world appeared to have returned to something of normality. Simon (Bertie Cavell) was out of the picture. Gemma seemed to have her life back on track. For about 5 minutes. Gemma’s downfall did not happen in the first series – not when she cheated out of spite, not even when she exposed Simon’s affair at the dinner table, but when Simon, after two years of healing, came back and ripped off the Band-Aid, erupting every emotion that had been repressed for the past two years. Her craziness honestly didn’t surprise me. The final episode of the first series was truly a prelude for the madness of the second series and reminds the viewer that anyone under certain circumstances will go to lengths they didn’t believe they were capable of.

The aftermath of raw emotion festers in the second series with an unapologetic desire for revenge between Simon and Gemma. As the series progresses, we are met with the familiar painful feeling of growing up vicariously through Tom. Realising that his father is far from perfect reaches its climax when Simon nearly commits suicide in front of his own son. It also highlights that adults are human too, and unfortunately being human involves being selfish, which Gemma seems to represent with her tunnel vision focus on her own desire for revenge. The most important thing in Gemma’s life, Tom, is neglected and used as a tool in order to play with Simon’s emotions. This was subtle in the first series; Tom was the first thing Gemma mentioned after outing Simon out on his affair, reminding him that their son was waiting at home for them.

But by the second series, my sympathies towards Gemma become less and less. After Tom finally returns home after living with his father, she uses this opportunity to have dinner – with both of them. The precious moments she could have spent with her son, after she desperately tried to get him back to her home, are spent taunting her ex-husband. As for Simon, I don’t think it was possible to feel an inch of sympathy. His total lack of honesty relinquished that from him. His emotional manipulation in the first series was so subtly intense that Gemma is portrayed as the craziest of them all. But at the end it’s clear that craziest one in the room is Simon. Years of lies finally caught up with him in a hot emotional rage, resulting in him wanting to take his own life.

The ending of the series with the disappearance of Tom I believe was a good finale, marking the utter impact of his parents’ actions. His already warped behaviour, including sexual assault and violence, I can personally forgive because I believe Tom was the greatest victim. Throughout the two series he was pushed aside by his parents to accommodate their own pursuits against each other and ultimately neglected. His disappearance evokes the pain of losing someone whilst they’re still alive. It echoes the feeling Gemma must have felt losing Simon – the person she thought he was, to this new brand of psychopath that he had become. With this consideration, we cannot be too harsh on Gemma. Clearly reeling from her own parents’ death, her inability to respond appropriately to the set of circumstances presented is to ask too highly of her. We can’t all like Gemma for her actions, but that’s what made the series far more intriguing. It was realistic in its portrayal that ultimately, there is no perfect way to react to when life hits you in the face, especially when it’s a revelation within your very household.