HBO's 'War' pits Dominic West and Sienna Miller in a slick London divorce battle

HBO's new London legal drama 'War' opens with a honey trap, a film premiere ambush, and billions of dollars in play — and it barely pauses for breath across eight episodes. The question critics are arguing over is whether that relentless momentum is a feature or a disguise.

Created by George Kay — the writer behind the stylish espionage thriller 'Lupin' and the thriller 'Hijack' — 'War' centres on a scorched-earth divorce between tech mogul Morgan Henderson (Dominic West) and his actress wife Carla Duval (Sienna Miller). Morgan built his fortune on a social media app premised on people being nice to each other; Carla wants half of the billion-dollar business he launched after they married. The couple's mutual antagonism sets two rival London law firms against each other: the old-money, dark-wood austerity of Cathcarts, and the glass-and-metal millennial energy of upstart firm Taylor & Byrne.

Decider called it 'an utter delight — a high-end truffle designed to always leave you hungry for more,' comparing it favourably to 'The Good Wife' and HBO's 'Industry.' TV Guide landed in a different place entirely, finding the show 'totally watchable' but ultimately hollow: 'There's an emptiness to it that makes it go in one ear and out the other.'

War is heaven: an absolute blast of a TV show.— Decider review

For a show that boldly called itself War, you'd just hope for a bit more fight.— TV Guide review

Both camps agree on the production values. Cathcarts' offices evoke, according to Decider, 'the austere marble halls of an Oxford library or nobleman's mausoleum,' while Taylor & Byrne's Canary Wharf glass box signals what TV Guide calls 'corporate millennial coldness.' The visual contrast is doing real narrative work — the firms' aesthetics are their personalities.

West and Miller draw praise from both outlets, though Decider notes they are 'ever so slightly outshone' by the lawyers around them. Pip Torrens — best known as Tommy Lascelles in 'The Crown' — plays Cathcarts' St. John Smallwood as, in Decider's words, 'a dragon in human form, hoarding information instead of gold.' Phoebe Fox's Serena Byrne, whose real-life pregnancy Kay wrote into the script, is described as equally compelling. Nina Sosanya, James McArdle, and Archie Renaux round out the central ensemble, with Renaux's junior lawyer Johnny Warren — secretly playing both firms against each other — serving as the thread that stitches the rival storylines together.

TV Guide's sharpest criticism is aimed at the show's overcrowded canvas. Talented performers including Nick Mohammed and Celia Imrie are given, in the reviewer's assessment, 'small, nothing' roles or are 'called into the main action much too late.' With eight episodes split across two firms and a sprawling ensemble, the show never finds enough room for everyone it has hired.

The class dynamics that could give 'War' its sharpest edge — Johnny Warren's working-class outsider striving to enter a world of bespoke suits and backstabbing, his upper-crust girlfriend embarrassed by his lack of connections — are present but, according to TV Guide, never given enough bite. The show 'doesn't care enough about Johnny's upstairs-downstairs experience' to make it land.

HBO and UK broadcaster Sky ordered two seasons of 'War' upfront in an anthology format. Season two, already in production, shifts to a defamation case and brings in an entirely new lead cast: Marisa Tomei, Kelly Macdonald, David Harewood, and Richard Schiff. The two rival law firms — Cathcarts and Taylor & Byrne — carry over as the connective tissue between seasons.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an 84% approval rating from 25 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10. Metacritic's weighted average from 20 critics sits at 74 out of 100, indicating 'generally favorable' reviews — a spread that maps neatly onto the split between Decider's enthusiasm and TV Guide's cooler assessment. 'War' premieres Thursday, October 1 at 9/8c on HBO, and October 2 on Sky Atlantic.

Why it matters — With two seasons already ordered and a transatlantic HBO/Sky platform, 'War' is positioned as a flagship prestige drama for autumn 2026 — and the debate over whether it earns that billing will shape how audiences approach the anthology's second chapter.

Sources differ on Overall quality of 'War': 'An utter delight' and 'heaven: an absolute blast of a TV show' (decider.com) vs 'Totally watchable' but with 'an emptiness to it' and lacking 'a set of razor sharp teeth' (tvguide.com)

Reported by wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org, hollywoodreporter.com, decider.com, tvguide.com