It was the show’s mastery of character that made it great. 20 years ago this month, HBO aired the first episode of The Wire. Nine months earlier, 9/11 had dramatically snatched federal law enforcement’s attention and budget away from the war on drugs and towards the...
“Pain or damage don’t end the world. Or despair, or f***ing beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you’ve got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man… and give some back” This could well be the mission statement for Deadwood, David Milch’s...
Like everyone else, including James Gandolfini’s own son, Michael, in preparation for his role in the prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark (as cited during his interview with Simon Mayo for Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review) I used lockdown to start watching The...
Co-written by site Editor Luke Knowles and Site Contributor Amy Beth. *Contains spoilers for season one of Severance* “You know, my mother was an atheist. She used to say that there was good news and bad news about hell. The good news is hell is just a product of the...
You can’t beat a catchy slogan. ‘MI5, Not 9-to-5’ exclaimed the trailers and advertising promotion for a new BBC spy drama that promised to bring slick intelligent thrills to prime time British television. Brilliantly produced teaser trailers dotted the BBC for weeks...
When people talk about the satire of even the recent past, the most common response is that today, it wouldn’t even pass as satire. Since The Thick of It aired its first season, some of the jokes in those early episodes actually became government policies, and...
This piece was co-authored by CustardTV Editor Luke Knowles and site contributor Eamon Hennedy It's difficult to say where 'cringe comedy' came from. The idea that you're laughing at the joke but also at the awfulness of the situation and the agony of those it...
The Nominations for this year's BAFTA TV Awards are out. https://www.thecustardtv.com/its-a-sin-stath-lets-flats-and-help-lead-bafta-nominations/ Normally, I'm miffed by obvious snubs but the nominees represent the best of 2021. I'd be happy with anyone winning the...
Before the events of the Russia/Ukraine war, I had written a piece about how The West Wing demonstrates the importance of language. About how in a world that provides open lines of communication to talk to anyone – even anonymously – that words are important to the...
Inclusivity is a good thing. A lot is made of the importance of people seeing themselves represented on screen. As a disabled person, I'm seeing more disabled people on television and whilst that's a positive thing I don't think it's entirely the only way you can see...
When The Marvelous Mrs Maisel won Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series, as well as for writing and direction and its creator Amy Sherman-Palladino took to the stage in 2018, it didn’t come as a major surprise for several reasons. The series itself has frequently proven...
When I wrote my first review of Pam & Tommy the rest of the world had yet to see it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Seeing past its more outlandish and grotesque moments (hello Tommy Lee's penis, how are you this fine evening?) to the human story at the centre. I had...
As Killing Eve careers towards its end, with the arrival of the 4th and final season, fans of the show are inevitably questioning how the thriller will leave our star-crossed protagonists Eve and Villanelle. Since MI5 agent Eve (Sandra Oh) first crossed paths with...
One of the scenes I remember most vividly from Cucumber, Russell T. Davies' underrated 2015 mini-series - which could somewhat reductively be called Queer as Folk for the 21st century - is a sequence in which three characters, all men, all queer, get ready for a night...
For most people these days, “shipping” is when an online shop adds half the price of your shopping cart which allows you to have a delivery person chuck your purchases vaguely at your front door. But there is another definition of the word is a mystery to most, except...
At some point around ten years ago, Marvel Studios figured out a system that worked for them: take the formulaic plot structure inherent to superhero movies and wrap it in different genres that fit each character. This strategy helps Iron Man feel like a war movie,...
"Great telly stays with you." I see television as a medium with the ability to bring us together more than any other. There's no greater feeling than watching the same thing together as a nation. It can generate a buzz and conversation and make you feel part of...
Netflix dramas can be a strange breed. They're often bombastic and over the top like the strangely addictive YOU or they are sleeper hits that become huge like Korean mega-hit Squid Game. Every so often though the streaming giant delivers a drama that relies more on...
Following the news that the licence fee will be frozen for two years, Robin Parker looks at where the BBC goes from here. It’s rapidly becoming less a tactic than a matter of policy: whenever they’re in for a kicking, this government initiates Operation Bash the Beeb....
In the fourth episode of the BBC's brilliant thriller The Tourist, rookie cop Helen Chambers admits she tried to kill herself. It's an admission that comes out easily. She admits that the death of her father when she was younger, felt like 'the lights went out in her...
Thanks to the influx of streaming services, television classics are now available to us more readily and easier than they ever have been, and with it comes the news usually that those very services are willing to pay an arm and a leg to buy those streaming rights. So...
Damon Lindelof’s The Leftovers, adapted from Tom Perotta’s novel, feels only timelier now. The series is set in a world that is dealing with the aftermath of an unexplained event – called The Departure that saw 2% of the world's population vanish with no warning. its...
2021's television was outstanding but we've high hopes for the shows of 2022. In this piece, Site Editor Luke Knowles and site contributor Hannah Fletcher pick their most anticipated new and returning shows. It's entirely possible that none of our picks will live up...
As this year's series of Strictly Come Dancing reaches its final stages, Matt Donnelly looks at what makes the show special and how it has stayed relevant where other shows have long since fallen out of favour with the British public. September means many things to...