“Desperate Housewives meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Read on for the full verdict on last night’s TV.

True Blood

True Blood, FX
“The love story is the show’s weakest point, those romance novel origins seeping through as what’s meant to be hypnotically sexy just comes across as melodramatically creepy. But the rest is definitely promising.”
Andrea Mullaney, The Scotsman

True Blood, FX
“True Blood is slick, sexy and likely to be a ratings hit over here as it has been in the States, but it’s popcorn drama – Desperate Housewives meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer – rather than anything else.”
Pete Naughton, The Daily Telegraph

True Blood, FX
“So far, True Blood isn’t deep, it doesn’t have the undertow of mortality and loss that made Ball’s previous hit, Six Feet Under, such a distinctive addition to the American television landscape. But its take on contemporary gothic does have a knowing connection to a dark side of American life. It’s not surprising that HBO’s executives declined to drive a stake through its heart after series one.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

Young, Dumb and Living Off Mum, BBC3
“As the recent apathy around this year’s Big Brother shows, we’re all becoming bored with watching idiots dance for coins, and this series is just a waste of time.”
Andrea Mullaney, The Scotsman

Young, Dumb and Living Off Mum, BBC3
“It’s obvious they’re all totally playing to the cameras and the whole thing has more to do with how they act than who they are. It’s a disgrace, then. And yet there’s just something totally irresistible about horrid young people, even if they’re not really as horrid as they’re pretending to be. It’s wrong I know, but I’m quite involved.
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

Revelations: The Exhumer, C4
“It seemed natural, then, to come to The Exhumer (Channel 4) last night with expectations of at least a few chills and thrills and voices from the beyond. What turned up instead, though, was a serious documentary about a mild-mannered, efficient chap called Peter Mitchell who wears the same kind of glasses as Sven-Göran Eriksson and runs his own exhumation business. No hooded figures; no family curses; hardly even a thunk.”
Pete Naughton, The Daily Telegraph

Revelations: The Exhumer, C4
“Revelations last night trod difficult ground in The Exhumer; the ground beneath which we are buried.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

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