Industry; Millionaire Hot Seat; Beast Games

“Many dramas – especially good ones – don’t become major hits overnight. Think of the likes of Game of Thrones or Succession, which needed time to warm up, and some jaw-dropper episodes (namely the Red Wedding and Kendall bumping off a waiter, respectively) to really get going. Industry is one such show – the slow-burn HBO/BBC series that firmly hit its stride in season three. Good news: season four is even better, truly top-tier television that’s surely destined for end-of-year lists, a serious feat when we’re barely a week into January.”
Hannah J Davies, The Guardian

“The writers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay don’t seem interested in creating people you like or necessarily believe in, and yet you do want to find out what happens to them. Over the course of the eight episodes (many devoted to a single storyline) there is an undeniable energy to the propulsive plotting, helped along by the poppy incidental music.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“Millionaire Hot Seat is a version of ITV’s champion quiz, with everything that’s great about it shrunk, replaced or lost. We’re left with a bland, unsatisfying recipe in identical packaging, which can’t fail to leave a tacky taste in the mouth. Host Jeremy Clarkson calls it, ‘pure, concentrated Who Wants To Be A Millionaire juice’. I call it primetime shrinkflation dipped in chocolate substitute.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“I have always liked Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? but do you ever become very bored with the long pauses, especially when the dithering contestant asks to phone a friend when faced with questions such as (and I’m making this up but you’ll take my point): “Which one of these Davids did not become a famous singer?” and the choices are “Bowie, Essex, Gray or Cameron”? Well, in that case, Millionaire Hot Seat might have tickled your fancy. It is basically WWTBAM? with a rocket up its backside. It has a very similar stage set and music, but the pace is quick, there are no lifelines, only one pass is allowed per contestant and there is no mercy from Jeremy Clarkson as he dispatches losers without so much as a sob story about the new conservatory they had hoped to buy with the prize money. I am all in favour of this.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“More than ever, in its second series Beast Games also happens to be mindless, vibeless television, flecked with Squiddy sadism but also borrowing heavily from the Love Island playbook. As they stay up into the wee hours building improbably high towers from foam blocks or playing convoluted games of dodgeball, the contestants couple up, crash out and even seek to avenge fallen players. Take Luisitin, playing to defend the honour of his wife from series one, by badmouthing her former nemesis, Karim, to anyone who will listen (“he and his brother gaslit my wife on television!”) People say things like “be careful who you trust!” and “he’s backpack boy … his girlfriend is carrying him over the finish line”. You don’t get this sort of feuding on Ninja Warrior, that’s for sure.”
Hannah J Davies, The Guardian