The Flap over The Slap

NBC’s new miniseries “The Slap” centers around an incident at a family birthday party when a man slaps a another couple’s child in the face after the little brat kicks him in the shins. But we learned a little about the drama each character already has going. Each installment in the saga is named after one of the characters. The first episode is entitled “Hector.”

Hector Apostolou is played by Peter Sarsgaard. He is about to turn 40, and have a big birthday party at his house the next day. But all Hector’s got on his mind is Connie, the family’s 16-year-old babysitter. His kids, Adam and Melissa, fight all the time. His wife, Aisha, is a doctor. Connie also helps out at the clinic she runs. Before the party, Hector goes to the clinic to get some valium out of his wife’s desk and invites Connie to the party. She brings along a friend named Richie who has a camera. Hector tells Richie, he’ll pay him a penny a photo if he takes random pictures at the party, but Richie says he’ll do it for free.

Hector’s parents, Manolis and Koula, come and Koula just about takes over. Aisha is not too thrilled with her mother-in-law and that gets worse when Koula presents them with a trip to Greece for a birthday present. She just takes it for granted that Aisha will take off work to see the Parthenon. Aisha voices her objections and Manolis tells Hector to get his wife in line. Hector’s brash cousin Harry, his wife Sandi and their teenaged son Rocco also attend, as well as family friend Anouk and her much younger boy toy, Jaime, who is not only starring in Anouk’s bed — he has a role on her TV show.

Family friends, Gary and Rosie, attend along with their unruly child Hugo. Unruly is kind of an understatement for Hugo: he is wild and destructive and his parents do nothing whatsoever to supervise or discipline him, no matter what he does, from scattering Hector’s jazz records all over, to destroying the garden. We’re not sure how old Hugo is supposed to be but he certainly looked too old to still be breast-feeding, a measure Rosie took to calm him. Cousin Harry takes a different measure when Hugo refuses to use a wiffle bat in the softball game, insisting on using a wooden bat. Then he refuses to leave the plate after he strikes out and starts swinging the bat around. Harry notices him swinging it close to the other kids and demands to know if Gary if he is going to do something about it. Gary does nothing. Harry goes over and takes the bat away from Hugo, grabs him up and tells him that he has to listen and Hugo kicks him in the shin. And that’s when he slaps the kid in the face.

Ironically, just recently Pope Francis came out with a controversial approval of spanking, but even he said that hitting in the face was a no-no.

“The Slap” is based on a 2011 Australian miniseries, which was based on the 2008 novel by Christos Tsiolkas. You can watch the Australian miniseries on IMDB and you can buy the book on Amazon.

Who played who in “Hector” –
Peter Sarsgaard – Hector
Thandie Newton – Aisha
Zachary Quinto – Harry
Brian Cox – Manolis
Uma Thurman – Anouk
Melissa George – Rosie
Makenzie Leigh – Connie
Lucas Hedges – Richie
Thomas Sadoski – Gary
Dylan Schombing – Hugo
Owen Tanzer – Rocco
Khalid Alzouma – Adam
Ashley Aufderheide – Melissa