Don’t be deceived by the impression the first couple of episodes make, this is not a mundane, trope-filled series. On the contrary, it unfolds a complex examination of marriage. The drama places adultery in the wider context of already fractured relationships and explores it as a symptom not a cause.

It rings the changes and thoroughly deals with all sides of the situation, identifying every nuance and plunging into everyone’s complex and conflicted feelings. The excuses, evasions and dishonesty, not only with their partners, but with themselves. The selfishness and procrastination that accompany the slow move towards emotional honesty, self knowledge and self acceptance. It leaves no stone unturned, no nuance uninvestigated. To its credit, I often thought that I knew where it was headed, only to become unsure again. Very much like the real life process of negotiating relationships.

And this is its strength. It is a mature reflection on the fragility and messiness of relationships which can probably only be fully appreciated by people who have some life experience.

However, with so much to pack in, there is little subtlety in the way the next angle is manufactured. We shift from one perspective to the next like factory processes on a conveyor belt and the final episode is one conveyor belt too far imo. You can see the spreadsheet with the plot points divided up into the number of episodes and the flow charts for the character developments. The writing is not quite subtle or smooth enough to be wholly convincing.

Having said that, there is so much material that it could have benefitted from a longer unfolding. This is really not something I say very often, normally I want to get in there with the blue pencil and drastically prune things back. But only eleven, forty-five minute episodes cramps its style. Although I don’t think the writer (Okazaki Satoko) is top notch, I think she has enough skills to have eased the flow if she had been given a longer opportunity.

The performances are mixed. For me, Nao and Nagayama Eita make a much more convincing pairing than the other couple. There is greater transparency to their internal emotions. I found Iwata Takanori unconvincing. The right expression is on his face but the emotion isn’t there in his guts.

With so much opportunity to overplay the melo, it is a credit to the director (Nishitani Hiroshi) that he underplays it in true Japanese fashion. As a result the pathos of the situation is enhanced. But it could have been more so if he had made more use of silence and pauses. Possibly the pressure of time disallowed this.

There’s some inexcusably bad editing, where the screen flashes black in the middle of a scene, possibly where ad breaks have been sloppily removed. And whoever edited the soundtrack should be demoted. Too often it was too loud, too obvious, too repetitive, too random and so noticeably truncated that it was like a shock to the system.

All the way through I was wavering between giving this 7.5 or 8, but in the end, even though the insightful content merited the 8, the execution disappointed.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.