I first ran across the BBC America production The State Within while I was on a sick day from work. The version on Amazon Prime, at least here in the U.S., is seven, fifty-minute episodes, which is exactly the right amount of time for marathoning something when you’re feeling too well to stay in bed but too poorly to do much more than sit in front of the television.
It was a good call: I was absolutely riveted. At the time, however, I figured it was because (a) I was sick and my brain wasn’t at full capacity and (b) I was in the middle of a celebrity crush on Jason Isaacs. But then, across this past holiday season, I found myself queuing it up again — and, like before, being completely enthralled. This time, I didn’t have anything to blame it on, either; this time, I can trust that I did, in fact, genuinely like it.