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...
Last week, Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) gave Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) his last chance to walk away from all this mess. In an emotional and honest car ride to Bushkill, the two lead actors finally shared a scene together where they spoke about death, faith, and family....
If someone hadn’t watched this week’s episode of Slow Horses, it would be hard to convince them that an episode whose pivotal movements include exploding penguins and a silent but deadly fart, could be one of the spy thriller’s best - but here we are. ...
There is nothing better in the world of Slow Horses than when Head Horse Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) has his proteges around him, is 12 steps ahead of them, and is - as the young folk say - reading them to filth. While the opening episode of season 5 had the Horses...
In episode 3 of Task, we were treated to a flashback to the day Tom (Mark Ruffalo), his wife, and their young daughter, Sara (Phoebe Fox), welcomed their new adopted children, Emily (Silvia Dionicio) and Ethan (Andrew Russel), into the family home for the first time....
As the nights draw in, and the end of the year looms, there are particular British certainties - the heating will go on, Strictly will dominate Saturday evenings, and Slow Horses will return to raise the bar for TV with aplomb. It’s supremely comforting to know that...
As climate change causes the world to heat up and the waters rise, so too is a wave of anti-immigration hatred and violence rising up in the UK, and across Europe. And that prejudice is as poisonous and destructive to humanity as the environmental disaster that creeps...
This is incredibly awkward. I have to start this review by confessing to something. In my review for the first episode, I omitted what is clearly a hugely important plot point going forward. Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) isn't randomly scoping out these trap houses owned by...
Early in the new season of Only Murders in the Building, someone says to someone else, "Four is a lot of murders for one building." It's hard to disagree, but I appreciate that the comedic murder mystery, helmed by Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, is...
*This review includes spoilers for the opening episode of Task* Task opens by introducing two men. These men have a lot in common; they are both burdened by a past trauma that lingers just below the surface, they both feel in a rut, like the best years of their lives...
I'm currently rewatching the American version of The Office for what I think must be the fifth time. And yes, I was one of those dead against it when it was first announced. How could an American remake possibly reach the heights of Gervais' and Merchant's...
New Apple TV drama Smoke is based on the hit podcast Firebug. About a serial arsonist lighting up southern California in the 1980s. And what could be worse than one uncatchable arsonist? How about two? In that classic TV trope, arson investigator Dave...
This review contains spoilers for the entire fourth season of The Bear. The Bear is a show that set such a high bar for itself throughout its first two seasons that the third season felt like a real disappointment. On reflection, I think we all judged it too harshly....
Based on the Danish novels penned by Jussi Adler Olsen, Dept. Q is Netflix’s fresh take which relocates the insufferable DCI Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) and his new cold-case department to Scotland. The premise may sound recycled, but the tight, darkly...
Growing up queer automatically means growing up different. From a young age, you quickly learn that being different is often perceived as “wrong.” When you’re queer, you can sense that difference in you before you even know how to label it or what it is. Oftentimes,...
The final episode of The Last of Us season 2 follows on from where episode 5 left off. While spending extended time with Ellie (Bella Ramsay) and Joel was nice, making their flashback the penultimate episode meant that any momentum built by Ellie's risky journey...
The penultimate episode of the season begins with a flashback to Austin, Texas, in 1983, in which a young Joel (Andrew Diaz / Pedro Pascal) covers for Tommy (David Miranda / Gabriel Luna) by lying to their father, Javier (Tony Dalton). The episode's throughline is...
In the mid-80s 80s movies like The Big Chill and Peter’s Friends, and TV shows like thirtysomething showed a popularity for the “Friends Reunited” genre - stories exploring the dynamics and peculiarities of groups of old college friends. The characters were inevitably...
Episode 4 opens with the introduction of Isaac Dixon (the ever-incredible Jeffrey Wright) as we see his backstory unfold with him joining the WLF 11 years prior. In the source material, little is known about Isaac’s backstory, so getting to see how he joined the WLF...
After last week's brutally chaotic episode, episode 3 of The Last of Us is more interested in the quiet moments of grief and the long road ahead for Jackson’s survivors. Beginning with the aftermath of the infected onslaught that brought death and destruction and a...