With the seventh episode of Ripper Street Series 2 tonight came both the first half of a thrilling two-part finale and – as we found out last week – the penultimate episode EVER.
Lawrence Rickard + sarcasm. That’s basically all you need to know about this week’s Yonderland. It’s time for Rickard and Jim Howick to get more screen time as the Chamberlain and King Bernard respectively.
After the dramatic events of ‘Pandora’s Box’ culminating in Medusa’s transformation into the snake headed monstrosity of legend, we had hoped Atlantis might maintain some momentum. Instead, tonight’s ‘The Price of Hope’ was a transitory piece, appearing principally to introduce two characters for later in the saga.
So far this series we’ve held off giving any episode of Misfits the full 5 stars. Partly because none of them have been perfect. Partly because we knew deep down in our tummyguts that there’d come an episode that would nudge just a head above the rest to truly deserve them. And guess what? Our tummyguts were right.
It’s Episode 8 of this ten-part cross-country endurance murderthon and finally we can start to see the light at the end of The Tunnel. It’s about time. We’ve been stumbling around in the dark for what feels like ages.
If the theme of last week’s Ripper Street was love, then this week it was faith.
In another brilliantly sharp and tragic episode, the second series of BBC One’s period crime drama continued to entertain on the one hand, whilst quietly investigating what it means to be human on the other – this time through the lens of religious faith.
A slight dip in laughs tonight is counteracted by a slightly darker tone (relatively speaking), with sinister undercurrents afoot in Elf’s behaviour and in the mysterious goings-on in Ennythingos. While there’s still a lot of imagination on display, there’s perhaps more reliance on bawdy humour here than previously.
After a two-week wait, making way for Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, Atlantis returned with its strongest episode to date.
No sooner had Medusa (Jemima Rooper) begun to respond warmly to Hercules’ romantic overtures, with the big man promising to mend his gambling and womanising ways, one of his creditors came calling. Taking Medusa hostage, Kryos demanded a descent into the underworld to retrieve a mysterious box.
Legacy is one of the centre-pieces of the BBC’s Cold War season, and, after An Adventure In Space And Time, marks the second one-off film in a row that BBC Two have absolutely nailed. Legacy is a wonderful piece of work.
When Misfits ends two weeks from now, we’ll all likely have to go sit in a quiet room with a joke book, a rubber chicken, and a Morecambe & Wise VHS, in order to recalibrate our sense of humour. Because over the past five years Misfits has been dragging our idea of what’s funny steadily off course – like a magnet fucking a compass – to the point where taste and decency have fallen off the map.