Tag: John Simm

I’ve seen episode one of Strangers now and it is magnificent.  Some of John’s best acting of his mature career, the usual uncanny finesse, nuanced but powerful emotions of grief and rage, to play the role of a good man spiraling out of control due to incredibly awful circumstances.  

@pantherpause and @canspotatimeagent tagging you because you’ve both seen it, and want to know your thoughts.  

My guess as to what’s going on (spoilers under the cut): 

Jonah’s wife was involved in illegal activity, possibly smuggling goods for the potential head of the big Hong Kong corporation over which students are now protesting.  She was involved in these crimes to somehow protect her first husband’s daughter, Lau (“you’ll understand when you meet her”), from becoming leverage/a target/victim to hurt her father, who was clearly once running with a bad crowd.   She fell in love with Jonah by accident while taking frequent trips back and forth from Hong Kong to the UK (which made her an ideal smuggler); Jonah is involved now by implication as her husband, whom the corrupt corporate exec and his people fear may know incriminating things, not realizing that Jonah’s wife kept everything from him.  Jonah is going to indeed get himself into trouble because he’s trying to get to the bottom of his wife’s past.  Having heard the voicemail that disproves the tampered police report that she “died on impact,” because she continued to breathe after the crash and was then shot, he will become obsessed with learning the truth. 

Clever to name him Jonah by the way, “Jonah and the whale,” swallowed up by the lies and crime and chaos, in over his head.