Beaver Falls is the latest comedy from the E4 stable that has previously brought us Skins, The Inbetweeners and Misfits. On the evidence of this first episode, they have another homegrown winner on their hands.
Probably the best of cult 1960s TV producer Irwin Allen’s shows, The Time Tunnel is perhaps best known for its much-lampooned opening title sequence.
Last week’s opening episode of BBC Two’s latest foray into quality original period drama featured a lot of set-up. That’s not to say it was dull – far from it – but at times the exposition threatened to overwhelm.
No, Angela Lansbury fans, it’s not that Beauty And The Beast. But, in its own way, it is a tale as old as time: district attorney city girl falls in love with subterranean lion-human hybrid. We’ve all been there.
You could guarantee the existence of Doctor Who in the seventies, come strikes, droughts, changes of government or comedians defecting to ITV. And usually, like ‘The Sun Makers’, it was pretty damn good.
For lovers of slow-motion jiggling everywhere, it’s the fourth season of Baywatch; a quite remarkable confection of sea-based melodrama, intercut with soft rock video montages and lots (and lots) of running. Made at a time before David Hasselhoff discovered irony, the Hoff takes the lead with a dewy-eyed conviction in the homespun American values of … >
Bored To Death is one of those shows where you almost wish it was bad, just so you could use the title itself as a cheap gag review. Unfortunately, that isn’t possible in this particular instance.
And so along comes the much-touted Jane Espenson (Buffy, Caprica, Game Of Thrones) and her first episode for Torchwood: Miracle Day. But will the incredibly experienced genre TV writer come up with the goods?
‘The next six hours is going to be filled with boredom, followed by monotony,’ CIA agent Rex Matheson remarks at the beginning as he boards a transatlantic flight with the manacled members of Torchwood in tow, but the subsequent episode is anything but dull.
Nobody ever said that cop shows had to be realistic to be effective. Okay, they did, and in some cases they were almost certainly right, but the maxim doesn’t apply to BBC One’s Luther.