ITV’s new drama Coldwater boasts possibly the most inadvertently comical opening 20 minutes ever. It’s also, in the current TV climate, very telling. In how many different ways can it be explained that Andrew Lincoln’s John is a troubled, weak, vulnerable man? He runs away from a violent incident in a playground so fast that he forgets one of his kids. He can’t face the prospect of sex with his wife. He gets bullied by a man in a petrol station. He is browbeaten by his new neighbour. He has an encounter with a psychiatrist, which is less an insight into his shrivelled soul than a signifier of it. Why? Because he’s a troubled, weak, vulnerable man! Got it? Then we can proceed.
This kind of nuance-free exposition is becoming dangerously common in television drama. You might also recognise it, for example, at the start of Netflix’s political thriller Hostage. Suranne Jones’s ambitious minister Abigail Dalton is discussing the possibility of running for the top job with her husband Alex (Ashley Thomas). But she has a concern. Might a moment arrive when Abigail is forced to choose between the best interests of her family and the correct professional course of action? “If it ever comes down to a choice,” says Alex soothingly, “you’ll make the right one.”
