‘War’ Doesn’t Know What To Do With Carla

A moment in the third episode (“Chip Off the Block”) of HBO’s War still frustrates me, episodes later. Carla (Sienna Miller) and her lawyers are making a play to dissolve the prenup between her and Morgan (Dominic West). Their angle is that Carla turned down work in highly lucrative superhero movies to stay close to her family. When the lawyers find a director who considered working with Carla, he says it was never going to happen because she’s “too difficult,” among other issues. It’s as if they’re talking about another, more interesting person because the Carla we see on War is too passive to be seen this way.

As Vulture’s Rafaela Bassili puts it: “Is this difficult woman in the room with us? Would love to meet her.” In fairness to War, a highly enjoyable, frothy, legal soap opera, there’s lots of characters to manage. Both Morgan and Carla have legal teams, arbiters, mediators, friends, kids; the show services tons of people. Additionally, War seems more interested in following the lawyers as they scheme and argue than they are on Morgan and Carla, but Carla’s one of the central characters as one half of the divorcing couple. Dialogue about her keeps insisting she’s a diva who’s hard to manage, but she couldn’t be more passive.

In the first episode (“It’s Done”), Carla has her only active moment so far when she enlists her friend Flora in a scheme to honey-trap Morgan. Evidence of infidelity would be excellent ammo for the coming divorce. Since then, Carla has just sat on her hands. There’s a scene in “Chip Off the Block” where her lawyers are strategizing on how to portray her as a mother. They’re worried she comes across as too thorny to be seen as a good parent. Carla bristles at that, not wanting to be seen as a bad mom, but within a minute, she folds. She’ll do whatever her lawyers tell her. Words like “thorny” and “difficult” suggest she has some fight in her.

War gave itself the opportunity to show us her difficult side of her when she met with her son, Gabe (Aran Murphy). She’s distant and aloof during their conversation, entirely reactive. The energy lies with Gabe as he tears into his mother, assuming (correctly) there’s infidelity afoot, and generally reading her for filth. He even shouts her name in public to show her how little she’s recognized, and she just takes it. Instead of firing back, which could show the viewer she has some real bite, she seems embarrassed and indifferent. It’s no fault of Miller’s, who’s quite good at playing chilly, that the writing gives her so little to do.

Let’s contrast that with Morgan. When Flora makes her pass at him, West lets Morgan’s faux-reluctance show. He claims he never “does this,” but invites her into his hotel room for sex anyway. He’s a man ruled by impulses both good and bad. There’s an electric moment during an arbitration session in which Gabe’s relationship to Morgan is severely tested: Because Gabe is not Morgan’s biological son, he didn’t factor into the prenup, so to keep the prenup whole, Morgan needs to downplay his very real and fatherly affection. He’s conflicted about it, but Morgan goes through with presenting himself as unengaged in Gabe’s life. Little does he know that Gabe is in the room next door, hearing the whole thing. Gabe bursts in, screaming at Morgan for destroying their family. They have the kind of lacerating argument that’s only possible when real love is betrayed. The arbitrator even notes that despite any claims to the contrary, those were the actions of a father.

This imbalance between the warring parties gives the show a lopsided quality. Morgan’s conflicts give the viewers insight into his character and affect the plot in satisfying ways. Carla gets no such luck. Her contributions to the plot stopped after the premiere, and her impact on the show is blunted further every time she rolls over when her lawyers ask. It’s a shame War can’t seem to show us the prickly battle-axe that Carla was meant to be, because she’d make this fun show even better.