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Utopia: In Search of the Dream, BBC Four review - the best of all possible documentaries?Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Only man is vile, goes the hymn, and yet humankind has always imagined ideal societies where people care for one another, everyone has access to anything necessary physical and emotional well-being, and all is for the best – without irony – in the best of all possible worlds. Read more... |
Fargo, Series 3 Finale, Channel 4 review - the best drama of the year?Thursday, 03 August 2017
“This is a true story. This is a story…” The self-referential nature of Noah Hawley’s baroque narrative arc was one of the great joys of the third season of Fargo. Over the past 10 weeks its constant invention, cinematic tricks and award-worthy performances have come together to produce the best drama of the year (so far). Read more... |
Man in an Orange Shirt, BBC Two review - soft-focus view of 1940s gay love affairTuesday, 01 August 2017
As chat-up lines go, “I can’t do my fly up single-handed” is pretty full on – even if it is true. Thomas March (James McArdle) is speaking to James Berryman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who not only went to the same public school but has also just saved his life on the Italian front during World War Two. Furthermore, the come-on works. The wounded soldiers are soon sucking face. Read more... |
The Handmaid's Tale, Series 1 finale, Channel 4 review - exquisite to look at but glacially slowMonday, 31 July 2017
Come awards time, it’s inevitable that Elisabeth Moss will be collecting a few for her portrayal of Offred, the endlessly-suffering lead character in The Handmaid’s Tale (her real name is June). But I reckon the real stars of the show are cinematographer Colin Watkinson plus the production design and art direction teams. Read more... |
Queer as Art, BBC Two review - showbusiness and the gay revolutionSunday, 30 July 2017
Part of the BBC's Gay Britannia season, here was a programme fulfilling what it said on the tin: prominent LGBTQ (when will all these expanding acronyms cease to confuse us all) figures narrating, examining, discussing, analysing, letting it all hang out about LGBTQ folk and the arts during the past half-century. Read more... |
Top of the Lake: China Girl, BBC Two review - thrillingly murkyFriday, 28 July 2017
In the riveting first series of Top of the Lake, it was personal for Down Under detective Robin Griffin. She headed to a hilly corner of New Zealand to be around for the death of her mother while looking into the disappearance of a young girl. Read more... |
Against the Law, BBC Two review - uplifting and deeply movingThursday, 27 July 2017
The thing almost no one remembers about the great Nora Ephron/Rob Reiner 1989 romcom When Harry Met Sally is that the love story is intercut with real couples talking to camera about the mechanics and longevity of their true-life loves. It shouldn’t work, but it does. Remarkably, Fergus O’Brien’s deeply moving BBC film Against the Law, armed with far darker material, pulls off the self-same trick. Read more... |
Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, ITV review – intimate revelations from William and HarryTuesday, 25 July 2017
The death of Princess Diana 20 years ago had an extraordinary emotional effect on millions of people who had never met her, so what on earth must it have felt like for her two young sons? Prince Harry, aged 12 when his mother died, reflected on that in this much-anticipated programme. Read more... |
It's So Easy and Other Lies, Sky Arts review - uneven rock bio outstays its welcomeSaturday, 22 July 2017
Duff McKagan is a survivor. He’s a bass player too, from the fledgling Seattle punk/proto-grunge outfit 10 Minute Warning to the stadium-filling behemoth of Guns N’ Roses, but if you were judging by the narrative weight of this 2015 documentary, you’d have to conclude that he’s mostly survivor. Read more... |
Fearless, Series Finale, ITV review - big build-up to an anticlimaxTuesday, 18 July 2017
It was a coup by ITV to get Homeland writer Patrick Harbinson to pen this paranoid-conspiracy series, and rather droll to get Helen McCrory (wife of Homeland’s Damian Lewis) to play the lead. Read more... |
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