Category: TV

TV

Yellowjackets (2021)

Where to find it: Paramount+ on Amazon
Length: Twenty nine 50-minute episodes
Synopsis: Mystery about a plane crash
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: drama and mystery (some of it good), acting, music
What I don’t like about it: sometimes resembles Lost, often unbelievable, confusing start

Review:
Showtime’s latest drama hit is crafted with a confident coolness and features mysteries and characters that will get their hooks in you if you give them chance, but it remains to be seen whether that is worthwhile. As is common these days, we see two timelines at once: the distant past of the late 90s where a girls’ soccer team suffer a plane crash in the famously-filmable woods of Vancouver, and the present where four of the survivors try to get on with their lives despite great trauma. The present timeline provides some great roles for actors “of a certain age” – including the always-welcome Melanie Lynskey and creepily quirky Christina Ricci – but it’s the past timeline that proves most interesting. Mystery builds in an intriguing way as we get to know characters in the past who are not represented in the present (will they die or be revealed next season?) and the appeal is carefully constructed towards the archetypal husband-and-wife: gore for him, relationship drama for her etc.

Overall, it’s good but not great and could go either way before it’s done. They have an eye for a great visual but don’t linger, the plot is intriguing but ultimately not that interesting and the acting is good but may be worth nothing more than a few Emmys if they don’t pull it together.

UPDATE AFTER THREE SEASONS: It never has the firmest grip on where it’s going but I have a lot of fun with Yellowjackets. They have a unique vibe and a great theme song. It’s like the better bits of Lost combined with a twisted tale of trauma-bonded female friendship. Often makes me gasp and comment snarkily to the television and I recommend it despite its flaws.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sex, violence and horror, drugs, animal killing, psychosis, cannibalism

Severance (2022)

Where to find it: Apple TV+
Length: Nineteen 50-minute episodes
Synopsis: Workplace mystery
Recommendation rating: 1/5

What I like about it: a couple of the actors
What I don’t like about it: everything

Review:
It’s a puzzle box with no idea where it’s going, the characters are flat, the satire is weak, Adam Scott is not a good actor, it’s ugly and way too digital, I can’t understand how the severance procedure benefits anyone, it’s laughably over-the-top, doesn’t pay off often enough for the time investment, most episodes are incredibly boring and the dialogue is overwrought and laughable. I really don’t understand the appeal, it’s like all the worst bits of Lost but set in a series of white corridors.

Content notes (may contain spoilers):

Bet (2025)

Where to find it: Netflix
Length: Ten 30-minute episodes
Synopsis: Silly horny teen show
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: over-the-top campy fun
What I don’t like about it: unnecessary, incomprehensible creative choices

Review:
Netflix’s latest live-action anime adaptation is cheaper than One Piece but just as committed to ridiculous fun. Yumeko is a compulsive gambler sent to a high school whose curriculum is based around betting. Winners and losers have a dominant/submissive dynamic and the whole thing is horny as heck. Somewhere between the inexplicable pro wrestler cameo and the Japanese-language cover of Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley, you realise the whole project is a prank on the viewer but everyone is having too much fun to care.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence, sex references, lots of gambling

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: 2/5

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