tv
Only Murders in the Building, Disney+ review - this comedy crime drama is a class actSaturday, 19 August 2023
Despite its cursory nods to new technology, there’s something deliciously old-fashioned about Only Murders in the Building. Now into its third series, it tells the stories of a trio of affluent Manhattanites who make true-life podcasts about the mysterious deaths that occur in their palatial Upper West Side apartment building. Read more... |
Enemy of the People, Channel 4 review - murder and corruption in the age of digital mediaWednesday, 09 August 2023
Presented to you by Channel 4’s industrious Walter, Enemy of the People is a punchy Finnish drama which makes some smart and timely observations about life in the age of digital money and poisonous social media. Read more... |
Wolf, BBC One review - a load of old...Wednesday, 02 August 2023
Adapted by Megan Gallagher from one of Mo Hayder’s Jack Caffery novels (the seventh one, apparently), Wolf might be described as Welsh Gothic, spiced up with a splash of gratuitous sadism. Episode two, for instance, is titled merely “Torture”, which might apply to some of the acting as much as the dramatic content. Read more... |
Special Ops: Lioness, Paramount+ review - high-octane female cast conducts war on terrorWednesday, 26 July 2023
If you want to get a hit show on American TV, you could do a lot worse than recruit Taylor Sheridan to create it for you. Special Ops: Lioness, a bruising trip into the innards of a CIA counter-terror unit, follows a string of successes which have made Sheridan a towering presence in film and TV. Read more... |
Rosie Jones: Am I a R*tard? Channel 4 review - disappointing documentaryFriday, 21 July 2023
Channel 4 has been getting a lot of flack on Twitter from people involved in disability for the title of this documentary. Read more... |
World on Fire, Series 2, BBC One - return of Peter Bowker's panoramic view of World War TwoTuesday, 18 July 2023
Writer Peter Bowker apparently had plans to make six series of World on Fire, but the arrival of Covid after 2019’s first series threw a spanner in the works. Anyway, here’s the second one at last, and it’s a little strange to find that this encyclopedic saga of the Second World War has only advanced as far as the autumn of 1940. Read more... |
Disturbing Disappearances, More4 review - headstrong 'tec tackles Pied Piper mysterySaturday, 15 July 2023
This five-part policier is the finale of the current Walter Presents French season, and takes us to the town of Montclair on France’s eastern border. The opening self-contained episode, occupying a chunky two-hour slot, took for its theme the legend of the Pied Piper. In this, you may recall, the children of Hamelin were lured away by the titular itinerant musician and drowned. Read more... |
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Season 4, Prime Video review - final outing for John Krasinski's CIA heroTuesday, 04 July 2023
This fourth season of Prime’s reworking of Tom Clancy’s fictional CIA man is supposedly the last (to avoid any confusion they’ve dubbed it The Final Mission). It maintains its tradition of deluxe production values, globe-hopping locations and the kind of labyrinthine plotting liable to prompt frequent recourse to the rewind button. Read more... |
Hijack, Apple TV+ review - trapped at 40,000 feet with a bunch of armed thugsThursday, 29 June 2023
Probably because it’s a secret fear shared by many a flyer, aircraft hijacking has become its own screen mini-genre. We’ve already had not only Hijack but also Hijacked, not to mention the Wesley Snipes vehicle Passenger 57, Jodie Foster in Flightplan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 7500. Read more... |
Spiral of Lies, Channel 4 review - bodies, fibs and bad karma in BiarritzTuesday, 27 June 2023
Not to be confused with the matchless French policier Spiral, Spiral of Lies (or J’ai Menti in its native tongue) is a twisty tale of murder, guilt and deceit, playing out over a 16-year time period. Camille Lou pulls off the quite impressive feat of playing the main protagonist, Audrey Barreyre, as both a reckless 19-year-old and a lawyer in her mid-thirties, who finds herself forced to confront the fallout from the mistakes made by her younger self. Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, ZooNation, Linbury Theatre...
The Mad Hatter gets it about right when he tells Alice: “You’re entirely bonkers… but all the best people are.” Kate Prince takes this line and...
La traviata, Royal Opera review - a charismatic soprano in a...
Later this autumn Richard Eyre’s La Traviata celebrates its 30th birthday. Not bad going for the director’s first ever foray...
Red Rooms review - the darkest of webs
A woman sits at her computer. She copy-pastes an address into a search engine. She goes to street view. She zooms in. Click. Opens...
Sambre: Anatomy of a Crime, BBC Four review - satisfying nov...
Like the BBC’s documentary series The Yorkshire Ripper Files before it, the French six-part drama Sambre on...
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice review - a lively resurrection
Sometimes love never dies and the dead never rot. A lot of water has flowed down the River Styx since...
Blu-ray: Floating Clouds
Once regarded as highly as Kurosawa and Ozu, Japanese director Mikio Naruse’s star has fallen in recent decades, with few of his films readily...
Starve Acre review - unearthing the unearthly in a fine folk...
Blame the high cost of city housing, or killer smog. What else can explain a bright young couple’s move from 1970s...
First Person: Alexandra Dariescu on highlighting women at th...
This year, I am delighted to be supporting the Alexandra Dariescu Award at the Leeds International Piano Competition for an outstanding...
Proms 63-65, Choral Day review - from Harris to Handel/Mozar...
The Proms’ Indian summer of big visiting orchestras is over – and what a parade...
Album: Juniore - Trois, Deux, Un
Although it takes seconds to discern that Juniore are French, a core inspiration appears to be the echoing surf-pop instrumentals of Californian...