In the second episode of Furious (now available on Disney+), a petite woman in her early twenties (Lola Petticrew) wearing a striking wig seduces a much older man (Rob Delaney) before using a needle to administer a powerful sedative that renders him unable to move....
I last saw Sue Johnston playing one of an ensemble of ageing actors in Channel 4’s Truelove as old friends whose meet-ups were increasing in frequency as they met at mutual friends’ funerals. It was from this bleak backdrop that the series grew into a dark reflection...
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Ted Lasso star and co-creator Jason Sudeikis says an “epiphany” convinced him to make the decision to revive his show, after the third season had been declared “the end”. It’s not hard to imagine that the epiphany may have...
“Shut it down! Shut it all down!” When this line is shouted less than 15 minutes into the first episode of Widow’s Bay, you know exactly the influences shaping Apple’s comedy horror. It’s the same cry the mayor in Jaws fails to heed, and the damning demand of...
Forgive me father for I have sinned. I assumed Channel 4’s nun and priest romantic drama Falling was going to be a titillating romp of lustful temptation and sweaty cassocks. But instead what we got was a beautiful contemplation on the nature of love, sacrifice and...
TV producers scout the bestseller lists to find promising content for their next smash hit, and it must be quite a compliment to an author if their book is chosen. Even more flattering, however, is to have your book optioned before it is even published. That is what...
When a TV show creates a promotion that obscures the true nature of the story they are telling, it can be a gamble. It can pay off spectacularly - like Hulu’s Paradise (sci-fi emotional drama disguised as a political thriller) - or in the case of DTF St Louis, it can...
In his surprise mega-hit Baby Reindeer, comedian, writer and star of the show Richard Gadd mined his own trauma to write a show that became an instant hit on Netflix and started a conversation about mental health, sexual abuse and what it means to be a man. Before...
When Beef debuted in 2023, it became a word-of-mouth hit and awards darling. Created by Lee Sung Jin, the series focused on an argument or 'beef' between two people, which spiralled out of control and took over their lives. Steven Yeun and Ali Wong were perfect as the...
Welcome to The Pitt, the nickname for the Emergency Department at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Centre. If, like me, you're immersed in a world of TV, you'll already know a lot about it and be frustrated that we've had to wait nearly eighteen months for it to arrive in...
Mackenzie Crook may not have reached national treasure status yet, but his oeuvre suggests it is only a matter of time. His roles include inimitable Gareth from The Office and Worzel Gummidge in his own take on the iconic series, and, most notably, he wrote, directed,...
In the greyest of grey Januaries, it is a gold-star-level move by Apple to bring us the third season of sunshine-in-a-bottle comedy drama Shrinking. The Jason Segel/Harrison Ford vehicle, focusing on grieving therapist Jimmy Laird (Segel) and his surrounding support...
In recent years, queer TV shows and representation have been slowly rising in popularity and getting a lot more attention, which is nothing but good news. However, a lot of them tend to fall into three categories: teen drama, autobiographical, or full-on tragedy....
In Waiting For the Out a prisoner asks philosophy teacher Dan what job you can get with a degree in philosophy. Dan’s reluctant answer of “this” reflects the way philosophy is often depicted as an educational pyramid scheme - you learn it only for the purpose of...
Throughout our lives, we all make mistakes. Sometimes they’re tiny little things that niggle at us for as long as we remain conscious, preying on our insecurities and anxieties. Other times, we don’t even realise we’re making those mistakes, actions so burned into us...
Upon first glance of All Her Fault, you’d be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu. The nightmare begins when Marissa (Sarah Snook) goes to collect her six-year-old son Milo (Duke McCloud) from a play date, only to find that the kind-faced lady greeting her who has...
Vince Gilligan, showrunner and mastermind behind the new Apple TV series Pluribus, has spent a long time in Albuquerque. He set his masterpiece Breaking Bad in the New Mexico city and used its barren yet beautiful landscape to accentuate every nail-biting moment of...
In October 1995, British girl group Eternal found themselves at a bit of a crossroads. They'd been delivering hit after hit since their debut single "Stay" reached number 4 in 1993, but their management was unhappy. The four-piece girl group made up of best friends...
All too quickly our time with Jasckon Lamb (Sir Gary Oldman) and his team of success-impaired agents comes to a close for another year, with the finale of season 5. For some, this season has underwhelmed. The scale has felt smaller than other seasons, despite the fact...
After some of Slow Horses best episodes, season 5 slows down for episode 5 “Circus”. It’s essentially an epilogue and prologue - dissecting the chaos of last week’s melee that led to the accidental death of Dennis Gimball (Christopher Villiers), and setting up the...
There's another version of Task that ends with Maeve (Emilia Jones) getting the bag of money from her uncle, and Tom (Mark Ruffalo) and Aleah (Thuso Mbedu) learning that their fellow Task force member Grasso (Fabien Frankel) was the mole, feeding information to the...
When menopausal, lonely, bereft school teacher Beth (Joanna Scanlan) decides to take her own life, she’s interrupted by a call from her brother. It’s a call that many women of a similar age will recognise. A brother who didn’t bear the brunt of care responsibilities,...
There is perhaps no drama on TV right now which more narratively echoes the idea of a Rube Goldberg machine - a contraption which relies on a chain of events to complete an action - than Slow Horses. All the pieces and players must be in the exact position at the...
It’s getting colder, darker, and I am dreading winter. Thank goodness for the return of Blue Lights. Whilst the squalid corridors of Blackthorn police station lack the sunshine I am craving, the BAFTA-winning series is fast securing a status alongside the likes of...