“It looks as if this show has run aground.” Read on for the verdict on last weekend’s TV.

The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution

The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution, BBC2

“As Januszczak explained in this lively, often comic account, the unique style of the Impressionists…had more to do with practical, technical changes than any flash of mystic genius.”
Matt Baylis, The Daily Express

“This would be terribly revolutionary TV, a textbook example of form reflecting content, were we not used to such antics from Januszczak’s previous shows.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“It wasn’t the literal-minded simplicity of the script that made this so unsatisfactory, so much as its agenda: it was the kind of programme about art that people like if they quite like art, but what they really want to talk about is their shed.”
Zoe Williams, The Guardian

“It’s still preferable to the pompier style of more old-fashioned BBC documentaries.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

The Marriage Ref, ITV1

“Katherine Kelly makes inane side-chat, having signed one of those standard TV contracts in which a woman is required to be exactly as boring as her male counterpart is funny.”
Zoe Williams, The Guardian

Coast, BBC1

“Ahoy there shipmates, it looks as it this show has run aground.”
Matt Baylis, The Daily Express

Secrets of the Pop Song, BBC2

“The series has been quite revealing about the nuts and bolts of composition. In this case Shingai was the star.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

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