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...
Deadwood: Looking back at HBO’s true masterpiece.
“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...
Apple TV’s For All Mankind is the best recent example of prestige TV.
America is reeling from a gigantic loss in the Cold War – of prestige, of humiliation. In other words: A Red Moon. We are introduced to Ronald D. Moore’s For All Mankind as it throws us for an alternate history style scenario establishing the gauntlet from the get-go...
David Simon returns. We Own This City and the vindication of The Wire
A new David Simon project dropping has roughly the same effect on critics that a designer drug has when it debuts among addicts. So with We Own This City beginning on Tuesday 7th June on Sky Atlantic expect a deluge of podcasts, blogs and think pieces marking the...
The Sopranos: The show that paved the way for all that was to come.
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...
Better Call Saul’s Plan and Execution is an tense and moving watch.
If you've seen the mid-season finale of Better Call Saul then you're probably still sat aghast. I spent its closing moments with my hand clasped over my mouth as if I'd just witnessed something horrific. Thinking about it now, with a few days to let the episode sink...
The rise and rise of Apple TV+: Why the streamer is a must.
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...
Sarah Lancashire’s Julia to return for second season.
Sarah Lancashire is to return for a second season of HBO Max's re-telling of Julia Child's life story in Julia Executive Producers Chris Keyser and Daniel Goldfarb said, “Julia Child tends to make people happy. In a bleak world, she is a welcome balm. Making this...
Paramount Plus to launch in the UK.
We've got Peacock (available for free through Sky and NOW) and now we have a date for another US streamer, Paramount Plus. The CBS backed streamer will arrive in the UK on Wednesday 22nd June. Paramount has announced that the service - home to not only the various...
Better Call Saul ‘Rock and Hard Place’ delivers heart stopping action
During its fifth season, a conversation arose about whether Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul was actually a better show than its predecessor. Breaking Bad is my favourite TV show of all time, it blew my tiny mind but even I started to question it. What I loved...
Shining Girls is a rewarding watch designed to keep you guessing.
For a large chunk of its opening episode, you may not be quite sure of what is going on during Shining Girls. Beginning on a genuinely creepy note, the series draws you into its mystery and utilisation of particular genre tropes thanks to some superlative deployment...
Season 2 of Russian Doll doesn’t need to exist but I think I’m glad it does
Before I can review the new season of Russian Doll I need to address the elephant in the room. Does the season need to exist? The first season of Natasha Lyonne's brilliantly wacky and downright strange comedy was an immediate hit. The announcement of a second season...
Tom Hiddleston signs on for The White Darkness from Apple TV+
Apple TV+ announced new drama “The White Darkness." Starring Tom Hiddleston, who will also serve as executive producer, and based on David Grann’s nonfiction work of the same name. The new co-production from Apple Studios and UCP is developed by Pachinko showrunner...
Better Call Saul star boards Constellation for Apple TV+
Apple TV+ have a new drama that is a cross between sci-fi and psychological thriller. Constellation will star Noomi Rapace as Jo, a woman who returns to Earth after a disaster in space — only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing. The...
Sky confirm date for the return of The Flight Attendant
Sky and NOW have released the full trailer for season two of the critically acclaimed dark comedy series The Flight Attendant. The full eight-episode season will return on the 26th May, exclusively on Sky Max and streaming service NOW. The series will be released as a...
Why ‘The Dropout’ stands head and shoulders above the rest in a very crowded field.
*Contains spoilers for the series up to the finale.* The era of Peak-TV appears to be going through a grifter stage right now, and not just any grifter too. Maybe it’s that the stories are high profile, or maybe it’s because television writers are trying to make sense...
Apple announce Black Bird led by Taron Egerton.
Apple has unveiled first-look images and a premiere date for 'Black Bird' an upcoming six-episode psychological thriller developed and executive produced by Dennis Lehane and starring Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser. The series will premiere globally on TV+ with...
Looking back at The West Wing and how it shaped my view of how the world could work.
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...
Apple TV+ release bizarre trailer for anthology Roar
Based on Cecilia Ahern’s short-story collection of the same name, Roar is an eight-part dark comedy series that uses magical, supernatural, and the bizarre to tell the stories of eight women, each dealing with extraordinary struggles. In the recently released trailer,...
Drama adaptation of The Staircase coming to Sky this Spring
Sky have confirmed The Staircase, starring BAFTA and Academy Award® winner Colin Firth (Kingsman: The Golden Circle, A Single Man) as Michael Peterson and Toni Collette (Knives Out, Muriel’s Wedding) as Kathleen Peterson is to premiere this spring on Sky and streaming...
Huzzah! The Great returns to Channel 4
The hit Emmy-nominated series “The Great,” starring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult, returns to Channel 4 this summer for a second series, which now sees Catherine finally taking the Russian throne for her own – but she will quickly learn that dethroning her husband...
Netflix release trailer for Anatomy of a Scandal.
Netflix have released the first trailer for their upcoming thriller Anatomy of a Scandal from acclaimed screenwriter David E Kelley. Set in London, the series is adapted from the internationally bestselling novel of the same name, by Sarah Vaughan. It stars Sienna...
Cassie’s back in first trailer for The Flight Attendant.
Sky have revealed that the second season of dark comedy The Flight Attendant will air in May. Season two of The Flight Attendant finds Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) living her best sober life in Los Angeles while moonlighting as a CIA asset in her spare time. But when...
HBO release trailer for spiritual sequel to The Wire ‘We Own This City’
Based on Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton’s same-named non-fiction book, We Own This City sees The Wire creators David Simon and George Pelecanos reunite for a gritty six-part series that looks at the world of crime, cops, and corruption as they chronicle the rise...