Alexandra Wood’s
Merit takes place in Spain, where the recession has hit jobs
particularly hard, and opens with Sofia (Ellie Turner) a few weeks into a new,
well-paid job with a high-powered banker. Her mother, '80s blouse-wearer Patricia (Karen Ascoe,) confronts Sofia with her
suspicions about how her daughter got a PA job that, by her own admission, other
people were better-qualified for. Did she offer her new boss Antonio something extra
in return for a job so well paid it's now not only supporting her, but also helping
pay her parents' mortgage? Although offended, Sofia doesn't actually deny the
accusation, instead moving away from home to sleep on a friend's couch. Over the
next few months Patricia tries to reconnect with her daughter, turning up outside
her work, informing her of the ways the recession is affecting them - her father
first losing his job, then attempting suicide - and asking to meet Antonio, because
if he really did give Sofia her job on merit, presumably he'll give one to her
equally-qualified mother.
