tv
Fleishman Is in Trouble, Disney+ review - mid-life crises in ManhattanWednesday, 01 March 2023
As films and television series based in New York City tend to do, Fleishman Is in Trouble opens with an aerial shot of Manhattan – except, significantly, this sequence is presented upside down. Read more... |
Drive to Survive, Season 5, Netflix review - fly-on-the wall F1 show may need a rebootFriday, 24 February 2023
The backstage revelations about the politics and personalities that fuel Formula One have made Drive to Survive one of Netflix’s most reliable bestsellers, but on this fifth outing there’s a lurking sense that the novelty is wearing off. Read more... |
The Gold, BBC One review - gripping dramatisation of the 1983 Brink's-Mat bullion robberyTuesday, 14 February 2023
The raid on the Brink’s-Mat warehouse at Heathrow in November 1983 has entered the folklore of British crime and criminology. The gang of six armed robbers had expected to find £3m in cash, but instead got away with £26m worth of gold bullion. The story of what happened to the loot, the thieves and their associates remains at least partially swathed in mystery to this day. Read more... |
Fauda, Season 4, Netflix review - Israeli terrorism thriller gets darker and dirtierSaturday, 04 February 2023
Bald, barrel-shaped and pugnacious, Doron Kavillio (Lior Raz) could have been conceived as the anti-Bond or the un-Ethan Hunt. But as action heroes go, Doron can mix it with the finest as he tracks down terrorists with his comrades in Israel’s Mista’arvim Special Forces team. Read more... |
Women at War, Netflix review - contrasting stories entwine during the chaos of World War OneThursday, 26 January 2023
A sprawling French-made drama set in the early days of the First World War in 1914, Women at War tells the stories of a quartet of female protagonists as they struggle to make sense of the mayhem which suddenly engulfs them. Read more... |
Stewart, Sky Documentaries review - touching and insightful portrait of Scottish race aceTuesday, 17 January 2023
“Stupid, dumb and thick” was how Jackie Stewart felt he was characterised at school in Dunbartonshire, and it wasn’t until he was 43 that he was diagnosed as being severely dyslexic. By that time he’d won the Formula One World Championship three times, become a popular sports commentator for ABC television and thrown himself into the role of globe-trotting ambassador for the Ford Motor Company. Read more... |
Happy Valley, Series 3, BBC One review - tension mounts as the Yorkshire crime drama approaches its conclusionMonday, 16 January 2023
In this glittering era of global streaming, the viewer is constantly bombarded with the latest and most sensational TV drama from South Korea, Australia, Denmark, California etcetera. But Huddersfield’s own Sally Wainwright continues to show most of the competition a clean pair of heels. Read more... |
Stonehouse, ITV review - history repeats itself as farceThursday, 05 January 2023
A disclaimer in the opening credits confessed that some scenes in this three-part history of disgraced Labour MP John Stonehouse had been “imagined for dramatic purposes”, but there was no need. The man’s life story fell comfortably into the “you couldn’t make it up” zone, and there wasn’t really much that screenwriter John Preston needed to add. Read more... |
Best of 2022: TVThursday, 29 December 2022
It may be the lack of old-fashioned blockbuster movies that explains the staggering success of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, and the explanation for the lack of blockbuster movies may be that all the money and effort are being poured into television. Read more... |
Doc Martin Christmas Special, ITV review - Santa comes to Portwenn as the final curtain fallsTuesday, 27 December 2022
In 10 series stretching over the last 18 years, ITV's Doc Martin unobtrusively became an enduringly popular household name, but it finally reached the end of the road with this Christmas one-off. Unless, of course, there’s a prequel, a sequel, an origin story or a transformed internationalised version from Netflix. Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Landman, Paramount+ review - once upon a time in the West
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Jeff Young: Wild Twin review - a box of tricks
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