Doctor Foster–”Fatal Attraction” or, A Woman Scorned

Doctor Foster (season 1) opens with a loving scene of husband and wife enjoying a routine morning with their teenage son, Tom (Tom Taylor).  Seems like the perfect life… until it isn’t.  A trusted GP in  London, Dr. Gemma Foster (Suranne Jones of “Hostage”) starts to wonder why her husband, Simon (Bertie Carvel), a real-estate developer, seems to be getting home later and later.  When she calls his office  one day, after she suspects her husband is acting erratically, she guesses he is having an affair because his administrative assistant is evasive about his schedule and whereabouts.  

Soon, the lies, secrets, and betrayals– not only from her husband but also from her friends,–  begin to consume her, tearing her  world apart. Now in  turmoil as she gets closer to discovering the truth about her husband’s duplicity, Gemma begins to become psychopathological and obsessive, destroying not only her professional life but that of her son and friends.  

With the mission to make her husband Simon feel the same inconsolable feelings of betrayal that Gemma has endured, she plots a number of unethical  and devious acts of revenge.  Placing Simon in the same desperate emotional state she is in now,  each episode intensifies her rage,  making her less sympathetic and increasingly irrational. Gemma’s unhinged actions, at her most extreme, results in a  loss of credibility and understanding for her behavior.

Morally ambiguous with each succeeding episode, Gemma is a  hard look at the bitter consequences of couples trapped in heartbreaking, unredeemable relationships.  

The minor characters–administrative personnel, friends and neighbors, children’s parents and friends– get enough screen time and backstory to add to the comprehension of the collateral damage of those in one’s social and professional circles.  Most of the time, these characters are not unnecessary footnotes, a difficult narrative device  to pull off. Characters sometimes act with poor judgment or display narcissism  themselves in their attempts to support Gemma or Simon.

The only consistently sympathetic character in Doctor Foster is Gemma and Simon’s son, Tom.  A teenager, stuck between feuding parents in the middle of a destructive divorce, has nowhere to go, both physically and emotionally.

There are a number of slow and uneven scenes in the introduction of superfluous characters who slow down the pacing considerably: for example, some of the patients Gemma treats.  The viewer assumes the characters are important. Not so much.

The finale is expected but also a relief.  There is no justice but there is a resolution of sorts:  beware the woman scorned.  

Availability:  BritBox; season 2 is also on BritBox

Note:  See the September 7, 2025  review of Hostage.