Two Weeks in August ★★★★

Two Weeks in August★★★★

Don’t let Two Weeks in August’s generic, placeholder-that-stuck title turn you off, nor its familiar premise – the resentments of the London vacationing class sizzle under the relentless late-summer heat of a gorgeous, unnamed Greek island.

Yes, this British drama is yet another post-White Lotus entry into the “luxurious holiday from hell” subgenre. Between the infidelity, co-dependent friendships, terrible French nanny and an ominous flash-forward to a wildfire ravaging through the island, Two Weeks in August offers plenty of schadenfreude for those left at home shivering in Australia watching a never-ending social media parade of Euro summers.

But this eight-part BBC series, created by Catherine Shepherd, uses TV’s trending tropes for its much more startling centre: a deeply embodied reawakening within Zoe (Jessica Raine, The Devil’s Hour; Call the Midwife), a middle-aged teacher, mother and people-pleaser who has sanded down her personality into an unremarkable, forgettable politeness.

It doesn’t make up for the title, but it’s easy to imagine “two weeks in August” as Zoe’s mantra of sorts in the months leading up to this holiday. If her sunny disposition can’t brighten up her unemployed husband Dan (Damien Molony), maybe soaking in the Mediterranean rays with their old university friends (and kids) can? Maybe not.

On day one, Dan could be mistaken for her sullen teen son, sticking to a black hoodie while complaining of the heat and rejecting suggestions for a swim. But the show refuses to villainise Dan or valorise Zoe, whose self-sacrifices to avoid upsetting others (taking the worst room; lying to her friends about Dan’s depression) carry an air of pride and resentment. Zoe’s deep unhappiness is instantly clear to everyone but herself, held brilliantly in Raine’s quivering smiles, erratic laughs and frantic, panicked eyes.

When a drunken transgression occurs on night one, Zoe’s anger emerges – not just as a gale force, but a reassessment of her compulsion towards peace-keeping. She’s not the only one on the trip who realises that a holiday can’t reset relationships, including self-centred actor Solomon (Nicholas Pinnock) and his younger wife (Antonia Thomas), as well as best friends Nat (Leila Farzad) and Jacob (Hugh Skinner, Twenty Twenty Six), who struggle to tap into their usual role as the fun, child-free friends.

One potentially alienating element is the show’s supernatural bent. Throughout, Zoe is haunted by foreboding, alluring apparitions from Greek mythology only she can see, including scorpions and three women embodying the Fates. A sprinkling of divine intervention within a grounded character-driven drama is jarring, but so is Zoe’s new self – anything but generic.

Two Weeks in August is streaming on Binge.

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