'Mammals' wonders if monogamy is possible

Almost from the start, "Mammals" is more than it seems. It seems to be about a married couple, awaiting the birth of their second child. Jamie and Amandine are sexy and loving and adventuresome. Here they are in an idyllic cabin by the sea. The mysteries begin with 1) Sir Tom Jones as the renter next door, 2) a whale in the bay, and 3) a shocking slit in a blissful marriage.

Jamie is a chef, preparing for opening the restaurant he's longed for. He has declared that he won't yell at his sous chefs as his bosses did. Amandine is a marketing expert. They live in London. She is French. He names his restaurant for her.

When the characters' lives are up-ended, Jamie ends up with Amandine's cell phone. That fact leads to information germane to the plot for all that such mention might spoil it. To wit: "Mammals" is about faithfulness. monogamy, betrayal, and detection. 

It's about the couple but also about family and friends and lovers. In addition to Jamie and Amandine, there are Jamie's distant sister Lue (played by the inimitable Sally Hawkins) and her husband, Jeff (Colin Morgan), who studies the behavior of mammals such as the prairie vole. 

Characters also include a therapist, who has to remind Amandine that she is a grief counselor, not a relationship counselor. "What's the difference?" Amandine asks, knowing the answer.

Amandine's many layers are refined by Melia Kreiling, lithely seductive. Watch her pose questions about fidelity. Jamie is played remarkably well by James Corden. He has not been in a scripted television series since 2014 but has been a chat show host on late-night television. Watch him in the well-written flashback to Jamie's naive meeting with Amandine, obviously out of his league.

"Mammals" was written by the serious playwright of "Jerusalem," Jez Butterworth. It is directed by Stephanie Laing, whose prior work ("Physical" and "Made for Love") presented her morbid affection for humor. There is humor in  "Mammals," too. How else to explain the presence of a winking whale? Or of a Scrabble game with a message in the tiles? Or the fantasy involving Coco Channel? Or, heck, Tom Jones himself! The French music well supports settings and mysteries.

"Mammals" comprises six episodes, each with a cliffy ending; the whole series ends on a cliff's edge, in fact. It needs more resolution to be really satisfying; nonetheless, each part is magnetic.