Category: TV

TV

The Change (2023)

Where to find it: Channel 4
Length: Twelve 20-minute episodes
Synopsis: Forest-based midlife comedy-drama
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: righteous anger, rural setting, occasionally funny, Ryan, Tony
What I don’t like about it: attempts to build lore in second season

Review:
Linda, menopausal and aggrieved by a poor division of household labour, hops on her motorbike and leaves her husband for a life in the Forest of Dean. Features a number of carthartic and quite funny rants about suburban life, marriage, cancel culture. The characters are a mixed bag, some being broad satirical caricatures while others are surprisingly well-rounded. A solid, easygoing short show.

Content notes (may contain spoilers):

Star Wars: Andor (2022)

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Twenty four 45-minute episodes
Synopsis: Overcooked political drama and half a billion dollars add up to a wasted day
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: cool designs, relatively easy-to-follow plot, great VFX
What I don’t like about it: rigid formula and pacing, terrible representation, poor worldbuilding

Review:
Firstly, I watched Rogue One before this, thinking it would enhance the experience. It didn’t and it’s terrible.

This most-hyped and most expensive Disney+ show is probably the best later Star Wars I’ve seen. The plot feels grounded and the stakes are small enough to make sense through the first season. The (largely British and European) actors are good and the tech concepts are mostly well-realised.

Unfortunately, the whole thing is stretched and squashed with a formula of two episodes of set-up for every one episode of payoff and it becomes painfully obvious after the first three. Its worldbuilding is lazy, with locations amounting to “Space Morocco”, “Space New Zealand” and “Space France”. Because it’s such an investment, it’s shockingly regressive with representation – people of colour die first, gays can’t do more than hold hands (except one easily-deleted kiss) and all are buried, even just the queer-coded ones.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): overlong scene threatening sexual violence, violence and blood, bury your gays trope

Creepshow (2019)

Where to find it: ITVx
Length: Twenty three 50-minute episodes
Synopsis: Horror-comedy anthology show
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: fun, campy, does plenty with the budget
What I don’t like about it: most segments are pointless

Review:
Each episode of this anthology series consists of two segments of 20-30 minutes. Their commitment to practical effects and getting a lot out of their low budget is admirable and impressive; the sense of humour makes each segment charming even though many are silly and entirely pointless. Overall, the show is a fun waste of time and if you want to waste a bit less time, skip the first couple of seasons.

Of particular note are two segments, worth seeking out even if you skip the rest. “Drug Traffic” from the third season is an Asian-style ghost story with fascinating interplay between a Communist border guard and a self-interested Democrat. Has a very well-directed monster sequence that is a terrifying bloody mess. Season 4’s “Twenty Minutes with Cassandra” was my favourite segment by far – it’s hilarious and eventually goes way deeper than it had to. I think I said “I love this” after almost every line and it’s just a great short film.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): blood n guts, body horror, scary monsters and swears

Common Side Effects (2025)

Where to find it: Channel 4
Length: Ten 20-minute episodes
Synopsis: Mycologist has a cure They’re willing to kill for
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: humour, animation, themes
What I don’t like about it: ugly style, incohesive plot

Review:
The animation team from Scavengers Reign return with another imaginative anime-inspired adult cartoon in which a renegade Paul Stamets type finds a panacaea and fights against a deep state-big pharma conspiracy. Though the character design is bafflingly offputting, the visuals come into their own during the psychedelic trip scenes. The plot can feel perfunctory but it’s well-paced enough to go with it and the writing is psychological and satirical. Unlike Scavengers Reign, this has been renewed for another season and is well worth following.

MILD SPOILERS: My favourite touch, which I’m certain was intentional, is when the panacaea is given to an autistic child and he remains autistic. I held my breath for a minute there!

Content notes (may contain spoilers): body horror, violence, weapons

Fantasmas (2024)

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Six 30-minute episodes
Synopsis: Surreal queer sketch show
Recommendation rating: 5/5

What I like about it: artful, satirical, anti-capitalist, incredibly imaginative
What I don’t like about it: hit-and-miss (like all sketch shows)

Review:
Julio Torres’ comedy series follows him through a dreamlike plot, filmed on a soundstage with sets inspired by German Expressionism and Dogme 95, interrupted by surreal overlong sketches and amazingly considered characters. Torres is a fantastic comic actor, making us laugh with only his fingers. He gets the best out of all his collaborators and the outcome is a real work of art about compromise, modern society and growing up. Weird and often awkward but self-contained and fascinating, it’s the best thing I’ve seen in a couple of years.

Content notes (may contain spoilers):

Nobody Wants This (2024)

Where to find it: Netflix
Length: Ten 30-minute episodes
Synopsis: I certainly didn’t
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: easygoing
What I don’t like about it: irritating, cartoonish, pointless

Review:
One of my favourite tropes in Jewish comedy is that of the overzealous convert. Someone, usually from a WASPy background and converting for love, who is annoyingly keen to demonstrate their newfound knowledge of Judaism and far too eager to joke about stereotypes. Unfortunately, this show was created by such a person and she’s not self-aware enough to make it funny.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sex, swearing

The Day of the Jackal (2024)

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Ten 50-minute episodes
Synopsis: Unstoppable killer has an inflated stunt budget and lazy writers
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: acting, very occasionally tense or thoughtful
What I don’t like about it: no likeable characters, no stakes, no plausibility, terrible alt-rock soundtrack

Review:
Eddie Redmayne plays a sniper assassin being chased across Europe by MI6 while trying to kill a crypto-bro because his new app is going to make rich people poorer… somehow… don’t examine it too closely.

It’s no more than every other piece of spy fiction thrown into a blender; dry procedure from le Carré, torture porn from 24, pumped-up action from the Bourne flicks, murky amorality from modern Bond. Any early tension dissipates quick as you realise the Jackal’s plot armour prevents actual stakes. Still could be interesting to watch the opsec of this ‘unrivalled assassin’, except his consistency disappears as the writers attempt to make him relatable or possibly redeemable, either way it fails. It’s garbage, I’m sure it will be very popular.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence

Disclaimer (2024)

Where to find it: Apple TV+
Length: Seven 50-minute episodes
Synopsis: An emotive drama about the grey area between truth and lies
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: themes, acting, direction
What I don’t like about it: grim, belabours its point

Review:
The latest Alfonso Cuarón project explores the impact of narratives and of true stories’ obfuscation of truth. An upper-middle-class Londoner’s precarious marriage is overturned by a vengeful storyteller armed with an old secret. Like Netflix’s Ripley, it has good acting and great directing (if you like shots of the sunset) but its tiresome pretension and meandering pointlessness make it hard to recommend.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sex (too much), death by drowning, bereavement, protracted sexual assault in final episode

The Franchise (2024)

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Eight 25-minute episodes
Synopsis: Marvel movies make for easy satire
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: funny lines and actors
What I don’t like about it: inconsistent, tries a bit too hard, arrives a few years too late

Review:
In this sitcom, which Armando Iannucci is at least somewhat involved in and is definitely modelled after his work, a thinly-veiled Marvel movie is being made with many disasters and squabbles along the way. Has a lower hit rate than, say, The Thick of It but it gets better as it goes, deserves a second season it probably won’t get.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): inventive swearing

Penelope (2024)

Where to find it: Netflix
Length: Eight 25-minute episodes
Synopsis: Privileged girl runs away to commune with nature
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: nature scenes, casting, engrossing
What I don’t like about it: janky fucking ending, bad lessons for younger audiences

Review:
An enjoyable, low-budget series about a teenager who runs off to survive in the wilderness. Things go a bit too well for her at first, seeming unrealistic and irresponsible in how often she escapes danger unscathed. It’s fun watching her build campfires and try to fish and her happy dance when she gets it right is adorable, though things get worse as winter sets in. Lost a whole rating point in the last three minutes, deserved an ending with more finality.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): fish gutting and butchery, sex is alluded to but not shown, hardship and violence