Stream It Or Skip It?

Imagine if you were told one day that the child you’ve been raising wasn’t biologically yours, and that someone out there is parenting your biological child. Yes, switched-at-birth scenarios are exceedingly rare, but they seem to be good fodder for TV shows and films. In a new UK miniseries, two sets of parents deal with the horrible news in very different ways.

Opening Shot: A man runs on a cliff above the water. He calls out to his son; we see a raincoat floating on the water. He dives in, grabs the coat and sees that it’s empty. He yells again for his son, not knowing where he is.

The Gist: Three months ago, that same man, Pete Riley (James Norton) is on that same Cornish coastal cliff with his son Theo (Alban Guo), who is wearing that same raincoat. They come back home, where Pete’s wife/Theo’s mom Maddie (Niamh Algar) is getting ready to go to her restaurant, where she’s the executive chef. Pete drops Theo at school, and the principal wants to talk to him.

Then we see Maddie get a phone call. Both Maddie and Pete go to the hospital where Theo was born prematurely, and are sitting in front of the CEO, the doctor who’s the head of the neonatal department, and the hospital’s lawyer. It has come to their attention that Theo might not be their biological child, and that he might have been accidentally switched with another couple’s son.

Of course, this is distressing news to the Rileys; they’re Theo’s parents, even if the DNA says otherwise. Pete seems more willing to go along than Maddie. Then, one morning, they get a surprise visit from Miles Lambert (James McArdle), the father of the other boy who was switched. They found out about it when their son David (Fraser Cornelissen) was genetically tested because of developmental delays.

After the Rileys get the bad news that their DNA doesn’t match Theo’s, though, they decide to take Miles up on his offer and go to where he and his wife Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay) live with David. The Rileys are shocked to see the massive, luxury home with high-priced art lining the walls. Theo is his outgoing self, but David seems to be shy, though he does take to Maddie. After some nervous small talk, the four agree that they should keep the child they’ve been parenting to this point, but be involved in the other boys’ lives.

As the Rileys and Lamberts get to know each other, it feels like Miles is aggressively trying to be involved with Theo, while it seems like they’re keeping Chris from the Rileys. They even invite the Rileys to their traditional holiday trip with their relatives, which Maddie refuses to do. Pete seems more trusting of Miles than Maddie is, but Maddie’s suspicions are soon confirmed.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Playing Nice, written by Grace Ofori-Attah and based on the book by J.P. Delaney, is somewhat similar to Switched At Birth, but is definitely a more harrowing story.

Our Take: Learning that the son you’ve been raising for however many years isn’t biologically yours is harrowing enough, but we knew that Playing Nice wasn’t about the trauma the two families involved have to deal with and how they try to combine their lives to accommodate the kids. It seemed pretty obvious from the time that Miles Lambert came to visit Pete and Maddie that the Lamberts were going to want more from the relationship than the Rileys will.

At first, given how much both Miles and Lucy emphasized Chris’ developmental delays and his shyness, and how much they enjoyed Theo’s personality, we figured they’d request the boys switch homes. Throughout the episode, we can see knowing stares from both Miles and Lucy that are there to indicate that they’re building a case that the Rileys were unfit parents. What we didn’t quite expect was a) what the Lambert’s ultimate custody request was going to be and b) how swiftly they wanted to execute it.

So while we were a touch disappointed at how easily we were able to predict the general direction of the series, we appreciated that things were a little bit different than we predicted.

The performances by the four leads help us really get into their respective psyches, especially the Rileys, who end up being more the victims of this scheme than anyone else. They’re financially scuffling and aren’t nearly as well off as the Lamberts, and it seems that Miles especially wants to throw his money around to show their perceived superiority as parents. He drives the lawsuit against the hospital, buys Theo a tricycle, and has no problems sharing their nanny with the Rileys.

As much as it seems that the Lamberts want the Rileys in David’s life, that never was the intention, which is indicated by how fast the Rileys were served with papers after their last confrontation. While seeming a bit ridiculous of a plot twist, it also shows just how much the Lamberts were preparing for that moment during every interaction they had with the Rileys.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: A man on a scooter drives by the Rileys and their friends, serving them with custody papers filed by the Lamberts.

Sleeper Star: The boys who play Theo and Chris are cute, of course, but they also do a good job at showing each kid’s divergent personalities.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While the first episode of Playing Nice is a bit predictable, the performances of the leads, along with the prospects of what will happen in the rest of the series, adds tension to the psychological thriller.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.