Television

This squid game-adjacent piece starts strong but soon collapses under the weight of mediocre and unbelievable plotting. A few compelling performances kept me watching, but I wished for something deeper.

A brilliant show; one that you should go into blind. Stylish, clever, human. More like this.

Not quite as sharp or enjoyable as season one (nor, I think as funny). Still, the things that made season one so wonderful are still present here, just perhaps in lesser amounts.

Stunning and harrowing. An important story that is rarely told: that while it happens far less, men are still victims of sexual abuse, domestic violence and other similar crimes (although, the perpetrator of violence towards men is likely to be other men). I was also blown away to see a romance with trans woman handled so well, and with nuance and love and care, while also acknowledging that modern life does not make it easy for trans people to be happy and to thrive. This is tremendous television which rises far beyond the usual garbage one finds on netflix.

A brilliant post-apocalyptic show that is darkly comic as well as frighteningly plausible. Whereas something like The Handmaid’s Tale television show only walks, this smart production from New Zealand runs effortlessly. I was so delighted to discover another season was ready and waiting for me.

Yes, it does appear to be mostly cake. The host, sadly, continues to be stubbornly not cake.

This was such a loving thing, done with great fondness and respect for the source material. I have a few quibbles—I wasn’t convinced by Aaron Clifton Moten’s acting, and I found the whole thing, like the game I suppose, to be very violent and gory—but on the whole, I had a lot of fun and I am excited to see where they take the show in season two.

This had so much potential but the end result was often quite silly: poor acting, too much exposition, ham-fisted attempts at being emotionally relevant; bad pacing. I love the amount of sci-fi being made these days, so it’s just a shame I don’t think this one is a particular successful example.

Uneven, yet with some really strong moments and excellent performances by most of the cast (and in particular Noomi Rapace and the actors—twins, I just found out—that play Alice!) My only complaint centers on the overall plot: it feels confused and I’m not entirely sure if I have confidence that there’ll be a satisfactory narrative conclusion when the show is all said and done. Another of Apple’s ambitious sci-fi shows, Invasion, has burnt me. I sure hope, however, that there will be.

Seemingly the anime everyone is watching—and loving—this season. And I can see why: this utterly charming, gentle, and beautifully illustrated show is the best of the very best of what anime offers. Finishing the 28 episodes of the first season left me longing for more, but also comforted by the show’s existence and themes. A must watch.

A really confident season of Midsomer: from weddings to explosions to small town magazines to the spooky occult. I just enjoy spending time in Midsomer with Tom and Ben. I think it’s neat.

A smart, witty series told with verve and through a bunch of talented young actors. Some of the overall plotting was a little shallow, but I enjoyed this season tremendously.

This sucked me in completely and utterly. Held together by a delightfully arch and stylish Claudia Winkelman, this show leans in on what makes reality tv often so delightful to great effect. Warning: this show will have you looking for real estate in the Scottish highlands.

After a strong first season, I had high expectations for the second season—always a bit of a trap. I thought this season was very inconsistent: I suspect the central problem is it simply tried to cover too many topics and as a result felt patchy, uneven and that it didn’t do any one of the plotlines the justice they deserve. As a cultural study, I still think it is worth watching: both for the exploration of what it is to be a young woman in Jordan society, but also to be a young women in today’s social-media hellfire landscape.

I am a sucker for this sort of gentle, warm slice-of-life/light-romance type anime. I found this one, though, especially charming and loveable. It allows its characters to be imperfect, it shows growth, and it has trans-representation. The art work is just wonderful, too: warm soft pastels. It hits familiar beats (trip to the beach! culture festival! choosing a school club!) but has enough new to say to make it a real delight.

I was initially quite excited about this—I thought it was going to explore what life would be like in a world where monsters have not only arrived, but made themselves comfortable—yet I was quickly let down by ChatGPT levels of plotting and exposition and some younger actors who struggled to convey anything other than pure petulance. I sincerely hope they get a second season and can improve upon a rocky foundation.

A real triumph of story telling, art, and philosophy. It also feels incredibly timely given the modern explosive growth of AI tools: no matter how advanced we may become technically, we remain, in many regards, angry, confused, scared primates. Pour one out for North No. 2, a real one.

A lot to like about this show—yes, aside from the transcendent Michelle Yeoh—but sadly really let down by crummy writing, peak performances from others in the cast. Still, more Asian-American representation please!

A refreshing and novel way of exploring mental health. Some of the suggestions and parts of the approach feel a little dogmatic, or at least contrived to fit into the houseboat metaphor, but nonetheless I imagine for a lot of people this would be a useful way to  begin exploring their mental health. 

This started off really fun—an intriguing blend of spy hijinks with slice of life goodness—but the back half was uneven, a little rushed, and unconvincing. Glover and Erskine are perfectly cast, and their house will feature in my dreams. I’m torn between wanting more and feeling reasonably content with how things ended.

The single best thing to come from the world’s most valuable franchise since the first iconic games. Incredibly charming, thoughtful, warm and just delightful. When was the last time a piece of corporate IP branded media left you wanting more? Perfect.

A confident season, let down only really by one episode I did not particularly enjoy (an episode which seemed really quite dark in a way that Midsomer, despite its premise, often is not). As they take away, they also give: this season had one of my all time favourite protagonists: a retired Russian spy. I’ll say no more.

more from the very special mind of Nathan Fielder who is one of the most interesting voices in TV. I found this show really unusual; it was certainly confident in its decisions, only I was not always sure those decisions landed for me. The ending blew my mind. It’s a slow, lingering affair that sticks with one and I find it hard to rate as a result. But as I’m still thinking about it days after finishing it I have to then recommend it.

On paper, Demon Slayer is not the sort of anime I’d naturally gravitate towards, but this kinetic show just works for me. The character art and animation are both strong, although the show uses this sort of early CGI (think Alex Mack-tier) type effect for the demon sometimes and it just throws me off. I’ve already moved on to the Entertainment District arc and am enjoying it. 

A lot of fun. It is testament to the animation and art direction that I’ll happily watch a four episode fight when usually my eyes instantly glaze over in quick fight scenes. It’s violence for adults but story telling for kids.

This is definitely a “give it a few episodes” to get going type of show. Once it does get going, it delivers a mesmerising and thoroughly modern exploration of faith. I will always try to support art that takes risks and big swings, and this show does and they mostly pay off.

Watch this and be prepared to develop very strong feelings about how evil the Post Office is. The series tackles a real crisis that is so symptomatic of the weaknesses of modern society: a reliance on the private sector to deliver essential public services; a reliance on the infallibility of computers over humans; and the failure of justice.

This lost me. It was a little more action heavy that I have the stomach for and although I found the world spectacularly interesting, the worldbuilding wasn’t enough for me. I kept watching out of hope and because the art was rather mostly good.

This series continues to be so incredibly charming you almost forget the show has seemingly abandoned its overarching narrative. Sometimes more of a good thing can be okay but not forever. I’m giving it a recommendation but they better not try to get away with this again.