The BBC show is full of enjoyably escapist melodrama, punch-the-air moments of justice – and so many inter-office relationships that their HR department must be terrified
The Split is back for a third and final season, and with it, the best tailoring on television. The family law drama is glossy, big and bold, and it has an air of unapologetic grandeur that is missing from a lot of television at the moment. Most big TV dramas, these days, have something of an earnest streak, but this BBC One series exists in its own lane, a glamorous grande dame adjusting her bosom as she wades into every betrayal and affair in a five-mile radius. It is irresistibly fun.
The women of the Defoe family – matriarch Ruth and siblings Hannah, Nina and Rose – bring more melodrama to the table than most of their clients. It may be a legal drama, but this isn’t about courtroom showdowns and closing arguments that blow the whole case wide open. It’s about relationships of all stripes, and what happens when they reach breaking point. Ruth, Hannah and Nina are all in the family business, and help clients to navigate the choppy waters of death, divorce and parental responsibilities every day.
