Critic Reviews

It would be interesting if The Nest was a story of how rich people’s suspicion of the working classes causes them to tear each other apart, one tray of roasted asparagus at a time. But at the moment, it feels as though it might be another morality tale about why not to trust someone from a council estate. Either way, The Nest is not as cosy as it sounds. I’m excited to watch the characters try to flee it.

The acting is faultless, with Mirren Mack giving an edgy performance as Kaya (although those two bits of hair hanging down her face drove me to distraction). And the power dynamic in surrogacy cases is a fascinating subject to explore: the middle-class couple with the money to change a disadvantaged girl’s life, but that girl holds all the cards until she signs over parental rights.

Its subtle layering so far puts The Nest a cut above the usual run of such dramas, though I hope the closing shots and the emerging facts about Kaya (via the investigator Dan has put on Kaya’s trail and a reveal by James) don’t signal a slide into a more by-numbers approach in the coming weeks.

The Nest is twisty enough to keep our interest, but we just wish the first episode didn’t have so many eye-rolling coincidences.

The tone of this darkly compelling limited series largely sidesteps cheesy melodrama for an adult, provocative study of class differences and social engineering. [20 Jul - 2 Aug 2020, p.9]