The new HBO Max series War is a layered, complex, magnetic legal drama that burns on screen. Told in its own style and with its own charisma, it features two great performances from The Wire‘s Dominic West and Golden Globe nominee Sienna Miller. A legal thriller with no easy answers about love, war, or what is fair, for that matter.
The funny part is, everyone is running around looking for whatever advantage they can find, from the plaintiffs to the legal beagles. Yet West and Miller have so much chemistry in the few scenes they share outside of sitting across a conference room table that I was actually rooting for the couple by the series end.
Maybe that’s what feels so unfair about HBO Max‘s limited series War: Just when you’ve grown attached to these characters, you have to accept you’ll never get a chance to revisit them with a new story.
HBO Max’s War Season 1 Plot
The story follows British tech billionaire Morgan Henderson (Dominic West), who, unlike most uber-wealthy men, seems like a genuine gentleman. A well-known figure across England, Morgan appears to have the perfect marriage, at least from the outside looking in. However, when he meets the lovely Flora (Rose Williams of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris fame), he can’t resist her, ugh, charms.
Morgan does at first, leaving her at the elevator. However, Flora takes the initiative and knocks on his hotel room door. After their rendezvous, he falls asleep, and Flora pulls out her phone and takes a picture of them in bed together. She then sends the enticing photo but looks guilty as she does so. Who does the attractive young woman send the picture to? The Sun? The Daily Mail? Tatler?
No, Flora sends it to someone with an agenda that will have dire financial consequences. That would be Carla Duvall (Sienna Miller), a legendary actress who happens to be Mrs. Morgan Henderson. She seems sick of her marriage; they have grown apart and stayed apart, despite Morgan raising and loving Carla’s son, Gabe (Youth’s Aran Murphy), like her own.
HBO Max’s War Season 1 Review
War is from George Kay, the genius behind Lupin, Criminal, Hijack, and the first season of Killing Eve. Kay elevates this beyond your typical legal courtroom thriller by adding plenty of morally corrupt intrigue from lawyers on both sides of the aisle. That includes corporate legal espionage, including a great turn by Archie Renaux, who plays Johnny, an ambitious young lawyer who spies for the Henderson legal team.
Kay and the writing team create legal supporting characters who deserve their own spinoffs. These lawyers are as compelling, morally compromised, and entertaining as the wealthy magnates they represent. This is the type of superb writing you would see in The Good Wife and The Good Fight, where the rose-colored lens through which we view lawyers as serving a higher purpose is shattered. These lawyers fight dirty, for money, and to win.
You won’t find an Atticus Finch in the bunch, I’ll tell you that.
Is HBO Max’s War Season 1 Worth Watching?
You have Pip Torrens, who is cold, calculating, and practically venomous, with dry humor and predatory intelligence that make him a standout. James McArdle brings devastating restraint, including a striking vulnerability. Then you have the wonderful Phoebe Fox, sharp and, at times, combustible, caught between noble pursuits and keeping the lights on. However, Ted Lasso‘s Nick Mohammed is remarkably underused here.
However, the season is an addictive outing that is deliciously pulpy, salaciously sophisticated, and wickedly intelligent. HBO Max’s War proves that all is fair in love and war, especially when everyone is fighting dirty, and the price is right.
Stream War weekly on HBO Max up until the season finale on November 19th!
HBO Max's War is an addictive outing that is deliciously pulpy, salaciously sophisticated, and wickedly intelligent, proving that all is fair in love and war, especially when everyone is fighting dirty, and the price is right.
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I am a film and television critic and a proud member of the Las Vegas Film Critic Society, Critics Choice Association, and a 🍅 Rotten Tomatoes/Tomato meter approved. However, I still put on my pants one leg at a time, and that’s when I often stumble over. When I’m not writing about movies, I patiently wait for the next Pearl Jam album and pass the time by scratching my wife’s back on Sunday afternoons while she watches endless reruns of California Dreams. I was proclaimed the smartest reviewer alive by actor Jason Isaacs, but I chose to ignore his obvious sarcasm. You can also find my work on InSession Film, Ready Steady Cut, Hidden Remote, Music City Drive-In, Nerd Alert, and Film Focus Online.