War Review: London Legal Battles, West & Miller Shine

Something combustible is hiding behind the polished suits and mahogany boardrooms of War. A divorce case becomes a slow-burn grenade. Dominic West and Sienna Miller pull you in with a look. Sometimes that's all a lawyer show needs.

Created by George Kay for HBO and Sky, War drops viewers into London's elite legal circuit, where two top firms—Taylor & Burn and their long-standing rivals—go head-to-head over a high-profile split between a tech megapractitioner and his film-star wife. At first glance it’s a legal tussle. But the dispute quickly peels back into ambition, media spin and bruised personal histories. Courtroom sparring shares the stage with whispers in corridors. Power plays. Private grievances. Everything darkens the case.

Critics have been mostly on the side of the defense. Rotten Tomatoes currently aggregates 25 reviews and returns an 84% critics score, while Metacritic tallies 21 reviews for a 73/100 average. Those headline numbers hide a spread: from near-ecstatic praise to blunt disappointment. So where does War actually land?

Some reviewers see a genuine heavyweight. Screen Rant awarded a 90/100 and argued that the first season is exceptional—so strong that a repeat of this form could elevate the show into the genre’s upper echelon. A similarly high 90/100 came from Variety, which applauded the series for moving beyond procedural tropes and finding small, human moments amid the betrayal and chess-like maneuvering; West and Miller, Variety notes, feel lived-in as former lovers now set across the battlefield.

There’s a consensus about the performances. IGN’s 80/100 review praises West and Miller as superb embodiments of the wealthy combatants preparing for war. They’re complemented, the review adds, by Archie Renaux, whose hungry, ambitious young lawyer cuts through with kinetic energy—an anchor for viewers curious about what people will risk to win.

Other outlets are enthused but cautious. The A.V. Club (83/100) calls War a lively, high-caliber drama that borrows the sheen and seriousness of premium TV. The Hollywood Reporter (80/100) points out a vital truth: sometimes the emotional traction of a story matters more than its moral purity; if a narrative can grip you, it has done its job. The Telegraph (80/100) liked the gripping opening but wondered whether the show’s momentum softens after episode one, leaving viewers wishing for more of West and Miller and slightly fewer closed-door legal scenes.

Not every critic bought the package. TheWrap (70/100) found the series initially electrifying but then sprawling—an array of subplots and new faces that sometimes diffuse the main tension. RogerEbert.com (60/100) argued that the show grows stronger as it moves on, yet took issue with the time it takes to settle into its true identity; the payoff, the review suggests, could be more of a season-two story than a first-season certainty.

At the lower end of the spectrum, TV Guide (54/100) described a curious hollowness: the ingredients for a compelling legal drama are present, but the show occasionally drifts past the moment where viewers form lasting attachments to its stakes. The Daily Beast (50/100) and Collider (50/100) both suggested that War sometimes relies on clichés and surface thrills—appealing to curiosity about celebrity wrongdoing, but stopping short of deeper interrogation. IndieWire landed harshest with a 33/100, contending that War struggles to build characters who can sustain multiple seasons.

So what does this kaleidoscope of reviews mean for you, the viewer? If you crave razor-sharp performances and the intoxicating grease of privilege clashing with legal craft, War likely delivers. If you prefer a tight, single-minded procedural where every subplot is clipped and consequential, you may find it meandering at times. The middle ground is where most opinions sit: a glossy, often thrilling legal drama that occasionally lets style edge out substance.

If War maintains its strengths—character work, moral friction, and those electric confrontations—it could become one of the season’s must-watch legal series.

Either way, the show raises the question critics keep returning to: when law becomes theater, who wins—and who simply survives the spectacle?