Scenes from a Marriage (2021)

Swedish filmmaking legend Ingmar Bergman revolutionized the television miniseries with his 1973 epic Scenes From a Marriage and HBO Max is hoping for that same revolutionary magic with their 2021 reboot of the same name. The five part limited series, which debuted in the late summer of 2021, stars longtime friends and Juilliard classmates Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain as Jonathan and Mira, a couple who first meet as undergrads at Columbia University, but don't get together until several years later. Each episode of the series focuses on a different day in the life of their marriage, with Jonathan working as a professor of philosophy at Tufts and Mira bringing home most of the family's income thanks to a job as the vice president of a successful tech company. Jonathan is the primary caregiver for the couple's only daughter and over the course of the show's five episodes, we see the tension in their relationship under the microscope. The love between them is obviously there, but the series is obviously much more focused on the things driving them apart rather than the handful of things that bring them together. The series' appeal lies in watching two insanely talented actors convey the pain in a dissolving relationship, which makes for one hell of an agonizing watch, particularly for anyone who has experienced the break up of a long term relationship. Sadly, in the first two episodes at least, Oscar Isaac doesn't go nude. We do get to see him shirtless in the bathroom in episode two while Chastain takes a shower, but that nudity disparity is only going to leave you dissatisfied. Come on Oscar, give the people what they want... dat ass!