(courtesy IMP awards)
Even if you are a Woman of a Certain Age (and yes, this is directly referenced in the show; I will leave you to work out exactly how), or even a Man of you know, you will still likely be familiar with the phrase “ride or die”.
Referring to the person for whom you would do absolutely anything without hesitation and with all your heart, it’s a piece of urban dictionary slang that has gifted itself as title of the Tessa Coates-created show Ride or Die.
If you have ever wondered how far you might go for that very special person in your life, be it spouse, partner, BFF, etc, then you might take inspiration from the vibrantly fun and deeply meaningful friendship at the heart of the show, that of the American-born wife of a leading British politician, Debbie Claybourne (Octavia Spencer) and her forensic accountant bestie, Judith Burton who is secretly an assassin for a super-secret, off-the-books agency whose job is to kill “really bad people” (think war criminals, arms dealers, the like).
The premise of the show isn’t a million miles away from movies and shows you might have seen previously such as 1994’s True Lies but it’s what it does with the concept of the buddy comedy where one half of the prevailing friendship is keeping a huge secret from the other such as, oh you know, carrying on a clandestine career which doesn’t involve 9-to-5 use of spreadsheets and uninspiringly decorated lunchrooms, that really marks Ride or Die as something really special.
At its heart, for all of the guns and explosions and jumping from trains, Ride or Die is about the power of friendship, and in particular a friendship between two women who have been there for 25 years for each other and who make all the shittiness and exhaustion and challenges and trials of life feel more than a little bearable.
In fact, so much do Debbie and Judith matter to each other, whether it is surviving an upper class bookclub where the books are predictable in their outcomes and banal in their prose (pass the vat of win, please) or laughing at a mutual friend’s awful new haircut that, much like the Emperor’s new clothes, is not remarked upon, that they are on the one person in each other’s life who can be relied upon to always size up a situation and be there in whatever capacity is needed, no matter what.
And then, not through her choosing but the actions of the Big Bad of the piece who sets a shitstorm of messy and bloody complications in play, Debbie discovers her husband has SECRETS, mobsters and Interpol and god knows who else has an interest in what he’s done, and the only person who can save her is her bestie, Judith, who is most assuredly not someoneforensically accounting for things (though she is, in fact, it turns out qualified in the field).
Colour Debbie almost disbelievingly shocked, surprised, horrified and all the other things that come to mind when a secret explodes with volatile destructiveness in your life.
Again, it’s not something you haven’t seen before in a million other shows but Coates does something truly remarkable with her premise and its grand, violent and often very funny reveal – she goes deep exploring what our “ride or die” people to mean us and what it truly means to self-sacrificially have someone’s back.
In the case of Debbie and Judith, it’s a LOT with much of the narrative propelled, in measures intensely emotional, hilariously comedic or furiously action-oriented, by what these two people will do to protect and care for the other and what happens when it turns out there are too many secrets, too many lies, to sustain the fabric of a friendship that has hitherto felt metaphorically bulletproof, and it called upon to be the literal embodiment of that too.
While Ride or Die has a stellar cast including Bill Nighy as The Director, the sociopathically amoral head of the agency for which Judith works, Calam Lynch as Sam, Judith’s young but beautifully suited and heart of gold/strong moral compass handler, and Jamie Parker as Debbie’s gutless weasel of a husband David – honourable mentions too to Ed Skrein and Savannah Steyn in their respective pivotal roles – the heart and soul of this exceptionally grounded and very human show are Spencer and Waddingham who have the sort of chemistry that makes you believe, INSTANTLY, that they are best friends and have always been that.
The ins and outs of their friendship in the other of all pressure cooker circumstances is what fills Ride or Die with heart, humour and some hugely deeply questions about what really matters to us when the chips are well and truly down.
The magic of the show is that asks these huge questions, and specifically from the point of view of two women who, according to society’s warped and very narrow idea of the worth of a person at a certain point in their life, are well past being of any real use to anyone.
We know that’s garbage, of course, and so does Coates clearly who takes the idea that there is fire, passion and worth and a million other good and enduring things in the lives of Women of a Certain Age and that you underestimate them at your peril (yes, even you Albanian mobsters and Interpol detectives).
That manages to say so much that emotionally hits home HARD in the course of eight episodes that are frequently comedy gold – think going too slow on a European freeway or telling the object of an assassination hit to be quiet, please – and which have balletically intense and near orchestral fight scenes is something even more remarkable.
None of the rich, vivacious and heartfelt humanity of Ride or Die is ever lost in the often fast-moving narrative which, no matter what it has going on, is always happy in Coates’ assured hands, to take the time to let an emotion or a situation play out to full heartbreaking, thoughtful or hilarious effect.
Ride or Die is a spy drama with intense humanity woven into its very DNA, and it executes its story of two besties thrown into an ordeal by (gun)fire to end to all existential ordeals with the sort of garrulous fun but thoughtfulness and care and more than a little on-the-run quirk that make it something well and truly above the pack and more than worth your time in a streaming age where very shows are really worth your binging time.
This show absolutely is, however, and you will feel better about the world, and what you may be willing to do for your ride or die, after watching it, and while you will remember the bangs and the booms and the creative deaths and spying shenanigans, what will stay with you is the rich and enduring power of truly friendship and how it can make or break us, or if it’s the real deal, like it emphatically is with Debbie and Judith, absolutely defy who and why you are, no matter what might come against it.
Ride or Die streams on Prime Video.
Another interview …