Maryland (2022 TV Movie) User Reviews

A short, sharp, shock of a production that grips you in

[wellthatswhatithinkanyway · 9/10 · 1 August 2022]

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

Mary (Hayley Squires) is walking home after a night out dancing, and finds herself sexually assaulted. PC Moody (Daniel Mays) arrives at her home to take her to the station to make her statement, where she meets Mary (Zowe Ashton) who shares her name and her experience of sexual assault. While the insensitive and slightly sinister Moody hangs around keeping them company, a group of female voices recite some baffling questionnaire forms, some grim statistics and the general foreboding nature of the female experience.

The best viewing experiences can catch you by surprise, something you weren't aware of that sucks you in with a magnetic grip. And so was my experience on my first holiday in several years, as I found myself in a Premier Inn room with no Virgin Media box, doing what I usually don't do watching late evening terrestrial TV. And so this empowering short play, adapted from a stage play of the same name, about violence against females reached out and grabbed me, and left me determined to give it a more detailed, in depth second viewing.

The subject matter is one of the grimmest and most uncomfortable of all things to admit is rampant in our society, but that doesn't mean it's any less necessary to highlight. And so it's wonderful we have such wonderfully natural, humanistic actresses such as Squires and Ashton in the primary roles, who come off as unsettlingly convincing, while Mays's everyman persona also gives him that wolf-in-sheeps-clothing feel of most real life monsters. The female voices create an unnerving effect by speaking all at once, reenforcing the power of their words, delivering a shattering monologue involving true life tales, interspersed with grim statistics. "What is it that makes us so fu*king killable?" they wail at one point, perfectly justifiable given everything they've read off.

Some things don't need a feature-length running time to hit hard, a shorter, more directed effort can be just as effective, which this uneasy but powerful piece perfectly proves. ****

Packs a huge punch.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 19 December 2022]

A PC takes a young woman, called Mary into The Police Station, to make a statement about her recent assault, there she meets amongst victim, also called Mary.

I thought this was an incredibly powerful thirty minutes of drama, for a one off, short film this packed a real punch, better than many ninety minute dramas and six part series.

It is thought provoking, chilling and quite disturbing, please tell me that victims of assault aren't treated in such a horrendous way, you'd think and hope any victims are treated with nothing but sensitivity and compassion.

Hayley Squires and Zawe Ashton were both equally fantastic as the victims of the piece, two powerful performances from them. Daniel Mays as always, was very good.

I loved the group of women that served to voice the thoughts and feelings, they made a very powerful statement.

9/10.

Not all Men, But More Men Than You Think.

[southdavid · 9/10 · 14 April 2023]

Also from the Guardian's top TV of 2022 list was "Maryland" a short, filmed play, for the want of a better description, written by Lucy Kirkwood, who wrote "Adult Material" a miniseries I watched and really liked a couple of years ago, again as it was on a Guardian's best of the year list.

Two women, both victims of sexual assault, are brought to a station to take part in a Police lineup. Both women are named Mary (Zawe Ashton and Hayley Squires) which is a source of amusement to the nervous and uneasy Police Officer Moody (Daniel Mays) who has been to fetch them. They're told not to discuss the cases with each other, but the ridiculous nature of the line-up forces them to open up. A Greek chorus of 'furies' talk about the dangers and experiences of women and debate why the violence perpetrated against them continues to go unchecked.

Performances in this are really good. Hayley Squires, who was in "Adult Material" is great as the understandably outraged Mary, with whom we experience the farcical lineup, the dignity free photograph session and hear her "plans" for the rest of the day. Zawe Ashton is the quieter of the two but it's still a powerful performance. It's testament to Daniel Mays that I never really thought that the story was going to go the way it does.

As a (large) man, I can't begin to comprehend what it's like to live with the kind of constant, low level apprehension that women are dealing with. But, even for only a brief time, I got some sense of what it must be like, watching this. It's a devastating scream of rage at the situation, made all the more distressing by the fact that it's probably not going to change anything. Some poor woman will be murdered the night I type this and another on the night you read it.

I'm stealing from the Guardian's review here, but it probably should be shown in schools to try and get everyone to consider it earlier in life, if we're ever going to change it.

Powerful

[kessikat · 10/10 · 23 July 2022]

For such a short running time, this is one of the most powerful pieces of work I have ever seen. A portrayal of the persistent violence committed against women, by men. It took my breath away. Hayley Squires is one of my favourite actors, one day she'll win an Oscar. Zawe Ashton is note perfect. The chorus of women's voices/the furies were impeccable and heartbreaking.

What a strange production

[frukuk · 1/10 · 6 July 2023]

What is the point of this strange production? To paraphrase the chorus at the end: "When will you be as angry as we are?" I guess that is the point. But this is so strange and diffuse that it left me feeling confused rather than angry.

Clearly there is much wrong in the world. I don't know if we have actually regressed over the past 50 years (or more), but I had thought we were in a better place than we seem to be in today.

But this strange production didn't make me feel angry/angrier. So, I'm either not part of the target audience (surely the entire world?) or it simply failed in its objective.