Happy Valley is deeply conservative copaganda
The series celebrates Catherine Cawood’s rough justice. Now, Labour is calling for more police officers like her. Are our memories…
ByTV reviews
Discover compelling insights into the latest TV shows with our selection of reviews, providing critical analysis, expert opinions, and captivating commentary on the most popular and thought-provoking series.
Stranger Things series four is all about “trauma”. No wonder Gen Z love it
The sci-fi show is increasingly metaphorical, speaking directly to younger viewers well-acquainted with pop psychology.
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Hugo Blick’s masterful drama The English has left me in slack-jawed awe
I love how Emily Blunt holds a gun in this ultraviolent, suspenseful series set in the American West in the…
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The White Lotus and the horror of the super-rich
The second season of Mike White’s luxury-hotel comedy-drama is an exquisite examination of the miseries of the wealthy.
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Netflix’s Ozark is overstuffed – not to mention tonally weird
Could the channel use a hit? Every time my subscription leaves my bank account, I think again that it could.
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As Succession ends – how long should a great TV show run?
The question of when to end a series is a perfect example of the tension between art and commerce.
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When did The Crown get so boring?
The new series of the Netflix show is more Hello! magazine than history – and no more exciting for it.…
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The deep realism of Better Call Saul
This Breaking Bad spin-off was a high point in television drama: never has a series better conveyed the complexities of…
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The Rings of Power is bold, beautiful and thrilling television
Amazon bet on its Lord of the Rings prequel, the most expensive TV show ever made. It paid off.
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House of the Dragon: sex, violence and top notes of incest
This prequel is still Game of Thrones in all its bloody, deviant glory.
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Fleishman Is in Trouble is a slick but exhausting portrait of New York wealth
This series belongs to a new big-budget genre of TV that attempts to intellectually flatter viewers who can actually afford…
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Clarkson’s Farm is yet more proof that nimbys run the world
A planning system that says no at the slightest hint of opposition, and to hell with our economic decline, is…
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BBC One’s The Gold is outstandingly enjoyable TV
This madly entertaining drama about the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery doubles as an account of the Thatcherite Eighties.
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An Everywoman on her way up
Funny Woman is a broad, old-fashioned comedy about an aspiring female comic in Sixties London with an indisputable star at…
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Why we will mourn the loss of Happy Valley
Marrying suspense and a profound understanding of character, the epic finale proved that Sally Wainwright’s police drama has always been…
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How Happy Valley reveals the reality of austerity
Since 2014, Sally Wainwright’s complex police drama has laid bare the hope and terror of living in the north of…
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Russell T Davies’ Nolly is more than melodrama – it’s a social history
The story of the Crossroads actress Noele Gordon (played by Helena Bonham-Carter) becomes a metaphor for something bigger.
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The fierce women doctors of Maternal show that TV drama is moving on
Not so long ago, every successful working woman on screen was either a secret wreck or a man-in-training.
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Everyone Else Burns attempts “edgy” comedy – but ends up predictable
Like so many supposedly funny shows just lately, this sitcom about an extreme Christian sect isn’t funny enough.
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Why The Last of Us is the dystopian drama of the post-pandemic era
Our interest in apocalyptic narratives has accelerated after Covid – but something sets this series apart from its peers.
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