tv
The Woman in the Wall, BBC One review - deliciously dark murder mystery with a tragic hinterlandMonday, 04 September 2023
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. Read more... |
The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies, BBC One - deliciously bingeable drama from the Skinner sistersWednesday, 30 August 2023
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. Read more... |
Harlan Coben's Shelter, Prime Video review - what the hell is going on in Kasselton, New Jersey?Tuesday, 22 August 2023
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. Read more... |
Only Murders in the Building, Disney+ review - this comedy crime drama is a class actSaturday, 19 August 2023
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. Read more... |
Enemy of the People, Channel 4 review - murder and corruption in the age of digital mediaWednesday, 09 August 2023
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. Read more... |
Wolf, BBC One review - a load of old...Wednesday, 02 August 2023
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. Read more... |
Special Ops: Lioness, Paramount+ review - high-octane female cast conducts war on terrorWednesday, 26 July 2023
If you want to get a hit show on American TV, you could do a lot worse than recruit Taylor Sheridan to create it for you. Special Ops: Lioness, a bruising trip into the innards of a CIA counter-terror unit, follows a string of successes which have made Sheridan a towering presence in film and TV. Read more... |
Rosie Jones: Am I a R*tard? Channel 4 review - disappointing documentaryFriday, 21 July 2023
Channel 4 has been getting a lot of flack on Twitter from people involved in disability for the title of this documentary. Read more... |
World on Fire, Series 2, BBC One - return of Peter Bowker's panoramic view of World War TwoTuesday, 18 July 2023
Writer Peter Bowker apparently had plans to make six series of World on Fire, but the arrival of Covid after 2019’s first series threw a spanner in the works. Anyway, here’s the second one at last, and it’s a little strange to find that this encyclopedic saga of the Second World War has only advanced as far as the autumn of 1940. Read more... |
Disturbing Disappearances, More4 review - headstrong 'tec tackles Pied Piper mysterySaturday, 15 July 2023
This five-part policier is the finale of the current Walter Presents French season, and takes us to the town of Montclair on France’s eastern border. The opening self-contained episode, occupying a chunky two-hour slot, took for its theme the legend of the Pied Piper. In this, you may recall, the children of Hamelin were lured away by the titular itinerant musician and drowned. Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
The Day of the Jackal, Sky Atlantic review - Frederick Forsy...
Fred Zinnemann’s 1973 film The Day of the Jackal was successful thanks to its lean, almost documentary-like treatment of its story of a...
L’Addition, BAC review – top billing for physical comedy duo
Can experimental theatre survive the decades? This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Forced Entertainment theatre company, whose mission is...
Tucker Zimmerman, The Lexington, London review - undersung o...
Tucker Zimmerman is singing a number called “Don’t Go Crazy (Go in Peace)”. At 83, he performs sitting down. Surrounded by support band Iji, who...
Album: Primal Scream - Come Ahead
In many ways, Primal Scream have had a strikingly similar career path to the Rolling Stones – despite them forming some 20 years after Mick and...
Fauré Centenary Concert 5, Wigmore Hall review - a final fli...
As Steven Isserlis announced just before the final work, in more senses than one, of a five-day revelation, the 79 year old Fauré...
Barcelona, Duke of York's Theatre review - Lily Collins...
The Catalan capital has given its name to a famous number in the Stephen Sondheim musical, Company. And here it is lending geographical...
Album: Alley Cat - The Widow Project
If the names Pinch, Vex’d, Burial, Digital Mystikz, The Bug mean anything to you, stop reading now and buy or stream this album. Seriously, go. Go...