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Marcella, ITV’s new crime drama, is created and written by Hans Rosenfeldt, the man responsible for Scandinavian hit The Bridge. With such an impressive pedigree, it would be rash to be too critical of its slightly lacklustre opening instalment. The episode is bookended by scenes of a shaken and bloodied Marcella (Anna Friel) waking up … >
If the devil has all the best tunes, then Howard Stark has all the best lines. Five minutes into Season 2’s finale and Dominic Cooper returns as Stark – ready to brainstorm, quip and flirt with the best of them. Which is just as well, because it helps distract us from a surprisingly sedate closing … >
Although the two lead characters have the moral absolutes of the Bible and the certainties of the law to rely on, the real drama in ITV’s Grantchester comes from the ambiguities inbetween. It’s one such grey area that is the cause of the ongoing coolness between our two leads, namely the death penalty looming over … >
They say we’re all the hero of our own story – in which case, whose story do the people in Agent Carter really think it is? Is it the tragedy of Dr Wilkes, the softly-spoken, mild-mannered scientist who wants nothing more than a quiet life, but who against his will and despite his best efforts … >
If we think of the second season of Grantchester as a book rather than a series, it starts to make more sense – and as we reach Chapter 4 we can see what it may actually all be about. It’s the story of Sidney; conflicted, flawed human Sidney (“I’m no saint” as he’s remarked more … >
I’m afraid that the cracks are beginning to show in ‘The Edge of Mystery’, this week’s episode of Agent Carter. I don’t just mean the eerie zero matter split across the face of Whitney Frost, but in the nuts and bolts of the storytelling as the season moves towards its climax. Unusually it’s an episode … >
In her introduction to Busman’s Honeymoon, Dorothy L Sayers makes the point that although for the reader it may seem like a detective novel interrupted by a love story, to the characters involved it is the other way around. Something of the same could be said for Grantchester, which continues to juggle Sidney’s detective adventures … >
For all the daredevil adventuring, the shady conspiracies and the Commie-bashing, it’s becoming more and more obvious that in fact what Agent Carter is really about is Peggy’s love life. It’s not quite ‘SSR & The City’ but nevertheless there is some definite action for her in ‘Monsters’ this week – of the romantic rather … >
In the twelve months or so since the first season I had forgotten that Grantchester is a curious mixture of series and serial, so although there is a brand new case this week there is also the fallout from last week’s tale. Early in the episode Sidney visits killer Gary in prison; and later on … >
In this week’s episode of Agent Carter Underwood, our hero Dottie finally escapes from prison, where she’s been ever since her capture by the SSR (way back in issue 1, true believer – Ed.). Forced against her will into aiding the evil forces of democracy Dottie overhears and oversees some extraordinary events before once again … >