tv | The Arts Desk

tv

Lady in the Lake, Apple TV+ review - a multi-layered Baltimore murder mystery

Adam Sweeting Saturday, 27 July 2024

Laura Lippman’s source novel for Apple’s new drama became a New York Times bestseller when it was published in 2019, and director Alma Har’el’s screen realisation has fashioned it into an absorbing dive into various social, racial and political aspects of mid-Sixties America.

The Jetty, BBC One review - lowlife in a Northern town

Adam Sweeting Wednesday, 17 July 2024

Jenna Coleman seems to pick her roles with care, whether it’s Queen Victoria, the girlfriend of mass murderer Charles Sobhraj in The Serpent, or “occult detective” Johanna Constantine in The Sandman, but her antennae may have been a bit awry when she climbed aboard this one.

The Turkish Detective, BBC Two review - a bad business in the Bosphorus

Adam Sweeting Tuesday, 09 July 2024

Any show making its debut in the midst of Wimbledon and the Euro-football, plus a spectacular performance by Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone, is likely to be gasping for air, and BBC Two’s ditzy new cop series didn’t so much charge out of the blocks as trip over them. Masterminded by Ben Schiffer, the eight-part series is based on Barbara Nadel’s Inspector Ikmen novels, which are much loved by their readers.

The Night Caller, Channel 5 review - all he hears is radio ga ga

Adam Sweeting Monday, 08 July 2024

Showing over four consecutive nights, Night Caller is a stripped-down psychological thriller which steadily boils up to a conclusion which is both shocking and tragic.

Presumed Innocent, Apple TV+ review - you read the book and saw the movie...

Adam Sweeting Monday, 17 June 2024

Scott Turow published his cunningly-wrought legal thriller in 1987, and Alan J Pakula’s powerful movie version, starring Harrison Ford, appeared in 1990. Enough time has elapsed, perhaps, for Apple TV’s revised version of Presumed Innocent for the streaming age.

Eric, Netflix review - a fairytale of New York

Adam Sweeting Thursday, 06 June 2024

New York in the 1980s is the setting for Abi Morgan’s new six-part drama, and it’s a city riddled with squalor, homelessness, racism and rampant crime. The Aids pandemic is also beginning to rear its hideous head.

Tokyo Vice, Series 2, BBC iPlayer review - an exciting ride that stretches credibility

Adam Sweeting Thursday, 30 May 2024

It’s entirely fitting that Jake Adelstein should have a poster for All the President’s Men on the wall of his Tokyo apartment, since it was the filmic apogee of the notion of journalist as superstar.

The Beach Boys, Disney+ review - heroes and villains and good vibrations

Adam Sweeting Friday, 24 May 2024

It was – let’s see – 63 years ago today that Brian Wilson taught the band to play. Fabled for their resplendent harmonies and ecstatic hymning of the sun-kissed California dream, the Beach Boys seemed to represent everything golden and glorious about the mythic American West Coast. If you lived in Detroit or Deptford, it looked like a wonderland indeed.

Rebus, BBC One review - revival of Ian Rankin's Scottish 'tec hits the jackpot

Adam Sweeting Monday, 20 May 2024

The previous incarnation of Ian Rankin’s Scottish detective on ITV starred, in their contrasting styles, John Hannah and Ken Stott. For this Rebus redux, arriving nearly 25 years after the original first series began, screenwriter Gregory Burke has reworked the character as a younger Detective Sergeant, drawing on the spirit of Rankin’s original novels but with the author’s blessing to take the character somewhere new.

Comment

Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, Disney+ review - how the boy from Sayreville, NJ conquered the world

Adam Sweeting Tuesday, 07 May 2024

To mark the 40th anniversary of New Jersey’s second-greatest gift to rock’n’roll, Disney+ have served up this sprawling four-part documentary which tells you more about Jon Bon Jovi and his band of brothers than you ever needed to know. Or, possibly, wanted to.