ITV's new thriller 'The Party' follows a bloody 40th birthday bash, but with three timelines and a slow burn, the real twist remains tantalizingly out of reach.
A bloody start and a confusing web
The new five-parter stars Luke Evans as opinion editor Martin, who we meet in the gory afterglow of his best mate's 40th. Martin is in an interrogation room, covered in blood, so the bash has clearly not gone to plan.
We zoom back to the beginning of the titular party, which is being thrown by high-flying Tory politician Ben (Tom Cullen). Either the new ITV thriller has not done enough to explain the who/what/where of it all, or I'm a bit dim, but it takes a second to wrap my head around how all these people relate to each other.
There's Martin, who acts more like a mafia fixer than any journalist I've ever met, and his pregnant wife Lucy (Sarah Solemani, who also wrote the screenplay), who has pregnancy acne they keep telling us about. There's also birthday boy Ben and his wife Serena (Lydia Leonard). Then there are yet more people, since this is a party after all, at Ben's family estate, Denby Hall.
Three timelines and a possible identity swap
We then leap to a third timeline, back in 1997, as Ben meets Martin at their posh public school. Martin comes from a humble background, but was pushed towards a scholarship application by his mum (Joanna Scanlan, with a bit of a shaky Welsh accent).
This, again, takes a moment to adjust to, in part because the teenage actors look diddly squat like their older counterparts. Young Martin looks more like Cullen than Evans. As a result, I started cracking up a theory that they had somehow swapped identities – perhaps that is the big, inevitable twist! So far, not so.
Martin manages to inveigle himself into Ben's inner circle, after developing an apparent obsession with him. Adapted from Elizabeth Day's 2017 novel of the same name, the Ripley and Saltburn comparisons will be inevitable. Except, interestingly enough, here the affection is repaid. It is Ben's twin, Phoebe, who tells Martin her brother is in the closet. She is conspicuously absent from the present-day timeline. That can't be good.
Political ambitions and class themes
But anyway, back to the party! The Tory leader has just resigned, triggering Ben's political ambitions, as well as those of fellow partygoer Jarvis (Sam Troughton), a lecherous schemer from their university days. He's as Bullingdon Club as The Party gets.
Cullen and Evans have terrific chemistry, their solo scenes thrumming with homoeroticism as well as some trauma bonding. Martin is still, clearly, infatuated with Ben and it's easy to see why: he's a lot of fun to be around. Cullen is having a whale of a time in the role.
Evans doubled up as an executive producer on The Party and was instrumental in getting the adaptation made, admitting he somewhat selfishly nabbed himself the lead role in an interview with the BBC. Perhaps as a result, he doesn't quite sink into Martin's skin as well as Cullen does Ben's. Martin is secretive and shifty, but it's hard to win over the audience when you're wholly unreadable.
Some of the rich people stuff – shooting weekends, odd nicknames, estate bedrooms with esoteric names, miserable plumbing – is unfortunately a bit old hat now. It might not have been if the novel had been adapted more promptly, but we've had numerous eat the rich shows. Nothing particularly fresh is being plumbed with the class themes.
Verdict: A confusing but compelling watch
A touch confusing and overly familiar, but I'll see The Party to the inevitably bitter end. After the first three episodes, we're still building up to whatever terrible thing happened at the party. Despite some qualms, I want to know what the terrible thing is. Perhaps it's the time-hopping structure, but the uber-wealthy show that this most reminded me of was Netflix's The Perfect Couple. This is so far superior to that. Let's hope the end reveal is better too.
The Party continues on Monday at 9pm on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.
