tv
Boiling Point, BBC One review - chef drama that's simmering nicelyMonday, 02 October 2023
The problem facing any chef series is that its daily dramas are essentially rooted in the same small, sweaty space. It’s like one of the reductions prepared there, all the flavours compressed into an intense spoonful of sauce. Read more... |
The Continental, Prime Video - welcome to the expanding John Wick universeWednesday, 27 September 2023
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”. Read more... |
Wilderness, Prime Video review - twisty thriller that leaves a nasty aftertasteMonday, 18 September 2023
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. Read more... |
Top Boy, Season 5, Netflix review - grime and punishmentSaturday, 16 September 2023
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. Read more... |
Who Is Erin Carter?, Netflix review - secrets and ultra-violence under the Catalan sunThursday, 07 September 2023
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. Read more... |
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... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
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Rumours review - pallid satire on geopolitics
It must have seemed such a delicious premise – a Buñuel-esque comedy about world leaders trapped at a luxury retreat as the apocalypse...
Album: Duster - In Dreams
There’s a lot of anger at algorithm-driven music discovery around – a lot of it justified, as the big platforms push the already-big acts and...
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Ricky Gervais, Touring review - new show, not-so new gags
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'Tis the season for all manner of bugs, colds and illnesses. One had befallen Katy J Pearson, who struck an apologetic note after the night’s...