tv
Dead Pixels, E4, review - gamers for a laughFriday, 29 March 2019
The joke in Dead Pixels, a new sitcom on E4, is that there is a better life to be pursued in the fantasy world of videogames. In this alt. environment, outcomes can be controlled by consoles and keyboards, squeamishness about violence can be parked and you are free to be your best or worst self. Read more... |
Road to Brexit, BBC Two review - a rotten historian for a rotten parliamentWednesday, 27 March 2019
Let me be clear. The agonising process of the UK’s departure, or not, from the EU will be an infinite field of academic study over the decades to come. Read more... |
Victoria, Series 3, ITV review - can Her Maj cope with the Age of Revolution?Monday, 25 March 2019
ITV has an enviable knack for creating populist historical costume dramas which never seem to wear out, despite a million rotations on ITV3. Read more... |
Pose, BBC Two review - transgender goes mainstreamFriday, 22 March 2019
NYC, 1987. AIDS is ravaging the city, Reagan’s in power, Trump is in his tower. The American dream is available - to some. And for some of those to whom it’s not, there’s the world of balls, vogueing and competing for trophies. If your family has kicked you out for being gay or trans, the balls are a place where you can strike a pose, find acceptance and make your legendary mark. Read more... |
The Bay, ITV, review - Broadchurch goes northThursday, 21 March 2019
In the 1970s, the Mancunian stand-up Colin Crompton had a famous routine about Morecambe. He characterised Morecambe as “a sort of cemetery with lights” where “they don't bury their dead, they stand them up in bus shelters with a bingo ticket in their hand”. Read more... |
Shetland, Series 5 Finale, BBC One review - Sicario-on-Sea?Wednesday, 20 March 2019
Thing is, a lot of this unpleasantness could have been avoided if DI Jimmy Perez had just watched the second series of The Missing. Read more... |
Showbands, BBC Four review - an Irish cultural phenomenon explainedSaturday, 16 March 2019
Ask most people what a showband is and they’ll give you a blank look. But ask any Irish person (or those born in the Irish diaspora) who is north of 50 and they will probably look misty-eyed. For between the late 1950s and 1980s showbands were a huge Irish cultural phenomenon, and Ardal O’Hanlon was our amiable guide through this brief but illuminating history of them. Read more... |
Cheat, ITV review - fear and loathing in academiaTuesday, 12 March 2019
As fans of Inspector Morse are well aware, there are plenty of snakes lurking in the grass at our premier seats of learning. Read more... |
After Life, Netflix, review - Ricky Gervais's grief emojiFriday, 08 March 2019
The limitless goodwill generated by The Office earned Ricky Gervais the right to do and say as he pleased. Thus, hosting the Golden Globes, he was toweringly rude to Hollywood royalty. In Extras he gleefully portrayed celebrities as vain and ghastly. In The Invention of Lying he explored the logical consequence of a world in which people say what they really think. Read more... |
Leaving Neverland: Michael Jackson and Me, Channel 4 review - sordid revelations from the court of the King of PopThursday, 07 March 2019
Not just the Peter Pan of Pop, but also its very own Houdini. With the aid of shed-loads of money, an illusion-spinning PR machine and the most aggressive lawyers that money could buy, Michael Jackson managed to make it to his premature exit in 2009 without being sent to jail. Read more... |
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