wed 13/08/2025

tv

The Continental, Prime Video - welcome to the expanding John Wick universe

Adam Sweeting

Now that earnings from the John Wick movie franchise have topped a billion dollars, it’s no surprise that there should be moves afoot to cash in by developing a “John Wick Universe”.

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Wilderness, Prime Video review - twisty thriller that leaves a nasty aftertaste

Helen Hawkins

Jenna Coleman has had a mostly upbeat acting CV to date, notably playing Clara in Doctor Who and the young Queen in ITV’s Victoria. The mood darkened with her excellent turn as the French-Canadian girlfriend of the mass murderer in The Serpent; now it turns to pitch with Wilderness.

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Top Boy, Season 5, Netflix review - grime and punishment

Adam Sweeting

And so Ronan Bennett’s Hackney gangster odyssey reaches its conclusion, having made the leap from its Channel 4 origins back in 2011 to become, over its last three series, one of Netflix’s top-rating and most acclaimed shows. And it has managed to do it without diluting or compromising its London roots, despite detours to Jamaica, Spain, Morocco and even Ramsgate.

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Who Is Erin Carter?, Netflix review - secrets and ultra-violence under the Catalan sun

Adam Sweeting

One thing we know for sure about Erin Carter is that she’s played by Swedish-Kurdish actor Evin Ahmad, and it’s clear right from the start that she’s a woman with a complicated past which she’s trying to run away from. But you’ll have to get to episode four before the mysteries start to unwind themselves.

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The Woman in the Wall, BBC One review - deliciously dark murder mystery with a tragic hinterland

Helen Hawkins

Ruth Wilson possibly hasn’t had as much to get her teeth into on-screen since she vamped it up in Luther. Her performance as Lorna Brady in The Woman in the Wall is an object lesson in the way a performer in demand for her engaging looks and edgy sexiness can smartly step off that particular conveyor belt and go off in a totally new direction. 

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The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies, BBC One - deliciously bingeable drama from the Skinner sisters

Adam Sweeting

They could have titled this series Gaslighting. It’s a sly and twisty thriller about a conman whose deadliest weapon is his gift for making his victims feel as if everything that happened to them was their own fault, and they brought it on themselves.

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Harlan Coben's Shelter, Prime Video review - what the hell is going on in Kasselton, New Jersey?

Adam Sweeting

Netflix scooped up the rights to an armful of Harlan Coben’s standalone novels for a colossal sum, and now Amazon Prime has nipped in and signed up Coben’s series of Mickey Bolitar books, which fall under the “young adult” heading. Shelter is the first one off the blocks.

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Only Murders in the Building, Disney+ review - this comedy crime drama is a class act

Adam Sweeting

Despite its cursory nods to new technology, there’s something deliciously old-fashioned about Only Murders in the Building. Now into its third series, it tells the stories of a trio of affluent Manhattanites who make true-life podcasts about the mysterious deaths that occur in their palatial Upper West Side apartment building.

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Enemy of the People, Channel 4 review - murder and corruption in the age of digital media

Adam Sweeting

Presented to you by Channel 4’s industrious Walter, Enemy of the People is a punchy Finnish drama which makes some smart and timely observations about life in the age of digital money and poisonous social media.

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Wolf, BBC One review - a load of old...

Adam Sweeting

Adapted by Megan Gallagher from one of Mo Hayder’s Jack Caffery novels (the seventh one, apparently), Wolf might be described as Welsh Gothic, spiced up with a splash of gratuitous sadism. Episode two, for instance, is titled merely “Torture”, which might apply to some of the acting as much as the dramatic content.

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