REVIEW: ‘War’ Episode 1 — “It’s Done”

Groucho Marx once said, “Marriage is the chief cause of divorce.” The poignant, though satirical, observation has been reimagined for comedy time and time again in the decades since he first coined it. In War Episode 1, director George Kay gives audiences a messy, less humorous, and fairly uninspired look at divorce.

Tech mogul Morgan Henderson (Dominic West) is a less-than-faithful husband to Hollywood actress Carla Duval (Sienna Miller). When Carla turns her suspicions of Morgan’s infidelity into hard evidence, she begins the process of filing for divorce and nullifying the incredibly large prenup the two signed ahead of their wedding.

Meanwhile, Johnny Warren (Archie Renaux) is a waiter at a high-class bar and restaurant. Though he completed his law degree in the States, he’s had a hard time finding work as a lawyer since returning to London. Still, Johnny continues interviewing at every firm that will take a meeting, including the law firms representing Morgan and Carla.

The info dump is bountiful in War Episode 1.

The aptly named War shows the underhanded nature of suing for divorce. War Episode 1 shows a great parallel between actual battle and a legal battle. Characters lie, cheat, and work tirelessly to be the smartest person in the room because in this battle, that person wins. As one of Morgan’s attorneys put it, “If they play dirty, we’ll give them utter filth.”

Unfortunately, as easy as the premise and metaphors are to follow, most of War Episode 1 has little that’s exciting or original. It’s a legal drama, and it clearly sets up a serialized story about a singular high-profile divorce case between a billionaire and his famous wife. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of that, but it’s not new, it’s not exciting, it’s just fine.

Johnny is given an inordinate amount of unnecessary exposition. From learning about his relationships to getting fired from his job as a waiter to having a girlfriend from an ultra-wealthy family he met at university, the info-dump is bountiful when it comes to the young, hungry lawyer-to-be.

War Episode 1 wants you to know that whatever you think it’s setting up is only the half of it.

Unfortunately, it’s all meaningless drivel. If Johnny’s backstory and even some of the story beats surrounding him in War Episode 1 simply disappeared, he could still function within the episode and nothing would change. That said, in the last ten minutes of War Episode 1, a twist comes out of left field that changes everything. While the show had a mediocre premise up to this point, War now also claims that whatever you think is going on, you’re probably wrong. That’s a much more fascinating story to watch.

This twist shows that War Episode 1 isn’t setting the series up to be a standard run-of-the-mill legal drama. It’s truly going to show two law firms and the people they represent going to war. They’ll use every tactic available to an invading or defending army, including espionage, infiltration, manipulation, intelligence gathering, and even psychological warfare. Morgan and Carla are set up for war.

It wholly upends every expectation set by the 45-ish minutes that precede it. It’s no longer clear exactly what’s likely to come next. Even the “This Season on War” segment after the credits rolled did little to answer the questions War Episode 1 left behind.

While not every character has been introduced, Dominic West completely steals the show every time he appears on screen. The arrogant, somewhat whiny, entitled way he portrays Morgan works incredibly well to show how out of touch he is with the reality that his choices have consequences.

It’s very similar to how he played middle-aged Prince Charles on The Crown. Here, though, it works better because it feels less like character assassination of a real person and more like a more generalized and fictional, though incredibly perceptive take on the wealthy elite.

Sienna Miller, by contrast, is underused. While Miller makes the most of every scene she’s in, there simply aren’t many. War Episode 1 almost treats her like a set piece rather than an actual character with a voice. It’s disappointing because Miller does fantastic character work with the little she’s given.

War Episode 1 sets up a mundane, almost boring premise that is rescued in the eleventh hour.

Archie Renaux is overused. In his role as Johnny, he does fine, but the saturation of his character in the episode feels like it exists only to make us care about him. But the more he appears, the less capable he seems of doing that.

This isn’t a failure of Renaux to become Johnny but of his character’s writing. While Johnny likely is the cog in the machine that will make or break this case, he spends most of War Episode 1 struggling to make audiences care that he’s even there. It’s clear that Johnny is important, but War Episode 1 seems to mistake screen time for character development.

Overall, War Episode 1 sets up a mundane, almost boring premise that is rescued in the eleventh hour by a plot twist that was actually somewhat unpredictable. That twist alone barely earns it enough interest for a second episode, but it has a lot of work to do to convince anyone that it’s more than exactly what it appears.

War Episode 1 is streaming exclusively on HBO Max with new episodes airing Thursdays.