The Nest Review: A Gripping, Emotional Thriller Flooded With Cliffhangers

Now more than ever, viewers need to be swept away – to have time to be immersed in thinking about something other than the Coronavirus pandemic that is globally affecting the world in devastating ways. BBC One’s THE NEST is definitely the thriller to offer the perfect distraction and if you haven’t yet watched the series, believe me when I say you should!

The brilliant screenplay has been penned by BAFTA-winning screenwriter Nicole Taylor (Three Girls), who has created an emotional drama, dripping in suspense and with more twists and turns than a rollercoaster. The character development itself is like said ride, as you try to work out the complex characters in the show, their background and who is the real victim of all the events that are going on.

In short, the show tells the story of a wealthy, young couple who are desperate to have a family, whatever the cost may be. THE NEST is a five-part surrogacy thriller starring Line of Duty’s Martin Compston as local bad boy turned business man, Dan and Peaky Blinder’s Sophie Rundle as Emily his music teacher wife. They live in Glasgow happy in their marriage, but desperate to have a baby and to make things even more frenzied, they only have one embryo left.  

The headstrong couple have researched all avenues in order to become biological parents and even Dan’s sister Hilary (played by Fiona Bell), attempted to be a surrogate for the baby but suffered a miscarriage. As fate would allow it, Emily has an unexpected meeting with a young girl called Kaya played superbly by Mirren Mack (Sex Education). She’s a troubled 18-year-old with a hidden, violent history that the couple have no idea about. After learning about the couple’s difficulty to conceive and with them having only one frozen embryo left, she offers her help – but for a hefty price of course. Dan has strong reservations about the ambitious girl, but Emily is blindsided by her desperation to be a parent, so much so that she refuses to believe there could be any negative consequences from the arrangement. 

As their entangled triangle becomes littered with rebellion, secrets and cover ups, the three characters embark on a devastating journey through to the birth of the young baby, but even then, all is not what it seems. There are so many plot twists, which are easy to follow and at the end of each episode, you will be determined to watch the next instalment without hesitation. What keeps the series so intriguing is without a shadow of a doubt the engaging storyline, the emotional performances of the cast which are utterly outstanding, the questionable morality of what the couple have asked the potentially vulnerable teenager to do and the pace in which the series moves. The scene settings are exquisite with the most beautiful backdrops of the couple’s house on the Rosneath Peninsula and each frame of the series, makes the audience feel as though they are peeking at the story of the character’s lives through the enormous windows that engulf the exquisite house.

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The performances throughout the series are magnificent and there are not enough superlatives to describe the cast’s achievements. Sophie Rundle is phenomenal as the desperate and frantic Emily who continues to find solutions and hopes that one day she will have a child. Martin Compston is outstanding as Dan, who exudes such raw emotion in the last two episodes that you can feel his devastation at the possibility of losing the child. However, the standout star of the show is Mirren Mack, who offers a chilling performance as Kaya. Her delivery of the character bounces from a potentially dangerous, psychotic individual to an innocent, scared and vulnerable child, making her character difficult to work out exactly who she is in the early episodes of the series.  

The show does lend itself to a potential second series, but to be honest, the ending was impeccable, it would be hard to see the creators top this almost-perfect show.

Have you watched THE NEST yet? If so, what do you think of the show? As always, we like to know your thoughts, so leave a comment below, tweet us @filmandtvnow or drop us a comment on our Facebook page.

THE NEST has aired on BBC One, but if you have missed it, you can watch the episodes on catch-up or BBC iPlayer. 

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