NBC's soapy 'Slap' strikes at heart of domestic conflicts

It has a funny title and a premise that doesn't sound like it can support a TV show, but “The Slap,” NBC's new eight-episode “event series,” is a dead-serious grabber.

An American adaptation of an Australian show based upon a novel by Christos Tsiolkas, “The Slap” begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, with an episode containing the titular event: A misbehaving child is slapped by an adult at a tense 40th birthday party.

The slapper is Harry (Zachary Quinto), the rich, alpha-male cousin to Hector (Peter Sarsgaard), a New York City bureaucrat whose birthday is the focus of the first episode. The right-leaning Harry is at constant odds with Hector's artist friends Gary (Thomas Sadoski of “The Newsroom”) and Rosie (Melissa George, reprising her role from the Aussie original), who still breast-feeds her 5-year-old son Hugo. Hugo is a constant troublemaker, and once he starts swinging a baseball bat around, Harry takes action.

But this violence is just the beginning of the family's woes. Hector is secretly carrying a torch for one of wife Aisha's (Thandie Newton) employees — and that employee is still in high school. Hector's parents (Brian Cox and Maria Tucci) aren't big fans of Aisha, or modern American life, for that matter. And some of Hector's friends saw more than they should have at that party.

If this all sounds a bit unpleasant, it is — and many of the characters are, themselves, unpleasant. But it's engrossing to see how this series of domestic problems escalates, and the cast is undeniably impressive.

Quinto commands the screen with a performance that is both menacing and magnetic. NBC's promos ask us which side we will take, and it's hard to imagine taking Harry's side when this is all over, but Quinto inspires me to keep an open mind. There is no trace of his “Star Trek” or “American Horror Story” personas on display here; Quinto has created another indelible character.

I hope I can say the same for others by the time “The Slap” ends. Uma Thurman's TV producer and her young beau played by “Gossip Girl's” Penn Badgley seem like afterthoughts, and Hector's parents annoyed me to a spectacular degree.

The most unnecessary thing about “The Slap” is its heavy-handed, over-dramatic narration, which seems to have been plucked straight from the 2006 film adaptation of Tom Perrotta's “Little Children.” There's enough drama on the screen to keep us interested; the narrator just gets in the way.

Overall “The Slap” is a juicy, soapy treat, and, at only eight episodes, not much of a time investment. Watch it with someone who's ready for a conversation afterward.

• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald copy editor and a tireless consumer of pop culture. You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.