The second episode is often the hardest. Many seasons of Doctor Who have come racing out of the blocks with a strong opening episode that have emphatically put forward a change in approach, before a second instalment that slipped back into the familiar formula for very standard results. Look at ‘The Eleventh Hour’ into ‘The … >
An Emoji-themed episode of Doctor Who. That’s a gamble. Why write 500 words of review when you could just use a poop with eyes and call it an early night? Hell, let the rest of Twitter do all the work for you. Fortunately there should be no turds in sight from the critics after ‘Smile’ … >
A lot was riding on this final instalment of Broadchurch Season 3, from resolving the particular storyline at hand – the assault on Trish Winterman, the investigation into which has dominated the series since its opening story – to giving a satisfying sense of finality to the overall arc of the programme as a whole, … >
…Aaaaand breathe. Good news! After a week of worry, it’s with great relief that we learn Steve Arnott is not dead and that his wardrobe of snazzy-backed waistcoats will not have to be distributed among the local charity shops (there’s too many for just one Scope to handle). It’s the biggest Easter miracle since Jesus … >
“It means… what the hell.” One of the joys about Doctor Who is that it has an infinite capacity to reinvent itself, beyond even the sea change of bringing new lead actors in. In its time, the show has been a domestic drama with genre elements, an Earth-bound spy thriller, or an intricate puzzle box … >
This will be someone’s first ever episode of Doctor Who. For some kid – or maybe even adult – out there on their sofa, this will be their introduction to fifty-four years of adventure. Bear that in mind when you’re watching ‘The Pilot’. Because it’s easy to remember the first time you encountered Doctor Who, … >
The fact that Mark Latimer turns out to be alive after all, after the high drama ending of last week… isn’t actually a disappointment, somewhat to my surprise. Plenty of suicide plans don’t come off, for one thing, so there is a certain bathetic realism to it in that respect, but perhaps more importantly the … >
Wait. Did Steve Arnott just die? I genuinely have no clue, although all his head-blood taking a trip downstairs doesn’t bode well. Were this any other show I’d expect him to appear next week, sat up in a hospital bed, a big bandage wrapped round his head, and a bag of grapes from Ted Hastings … >
Having been a little underwhelming in recent weeks, this week’s Prime Suspect 1973 finale thankfully gives the show a good send-off. We pick up where we left off, reprising last week’s explosive climax to the accompaniment of Tubular Bells; and where we might have anticipated drawn out scenes of bedside vigils, to the beep-beep accompaniment … >
At least once a season, there seems to be an episode of Inside No.9 that is ‘for’ the writer-creators – Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith – more than for the audience. Not an act of indulgence, precisely, but certainly one where they unashamedly draw in on happy memories of watching old British horror movies as … >