The Boroughs; Under Suspicion: Kate McCann; The Boys

“Much like Stranger Things, the series is unafraid to take sharp twists and turns, delivering marmalade-dropping moments throughout its eight episodes as new layers of conspiracy are added while exploring the characters’ desire to have a purpose in their golden years. Part Thursday Murder Club, part Stranger Things, The Boroughs is an unexpectedly entertaining mix of adventure and wonder, drama and humour. Age is just a number — and it doesn’t matter what that number is when you’ve got a monster in your front room.”
Tim Glanfield, The Times

“It is, obviously, a fine cast and any fears (deriving from the presence of the Duffer brothers, famed for Stranger Things, as producers) that some of the best actors in the business are about to be wasted on hokum are soon laid aside by an intelligent, witty script and a plot that nods to all the most entertaining monster tropes without being slavishly devoted to them. There’s also an unexpected tenderness and wisdom underlying the whole, that befits the stage of life its characters are at. Creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews are relative newcomers as writers (they have The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance TV series and Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim under their belts). They channel the spirit of Spielberg as the Duffers did, though they manage to emulate not just his unerring instinct for storytelling but his emphasis on emotional truth.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Set aside the unanswered questions for a moment, the moral judgments and the media frenzy, and let’s start by concentrating on just one aspect of Under Suspicion: Kate McCann. The sheer depth of her grief, the rawness of her anger, all the frustration, disbelief, torment, disillusion and horror that poured out of her for an unrelenting 90 minutes, was awe-inspiring. Her portrayal of this shell-shocked, bereaved mother, still clinging to hope that her missing three-year-old daughter will be found even as the police accuse her of the child’s murder, was as powerful a piece of television as I’ve ever seen.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The McCanns did not provide any input, apparently, although they were reportedly kept informed throughout the production process and given the opportunity to “raise any concerns”. The writer Philip Ralph said the moral quandary had been whether this drama would make the situation worse. He concluded that it wouldn’t. Maybe that’s right. When you have been through what Kate McCann has been through, a one-off TV drama might be a drop in the ocean. But it did feel like a voyage through private pain that didn’t really have a destination.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Perhaps Under Suspicion could have worked if the case was over. Then this would be a shameful footnote arguably worth dramatising – the few months where two innocent people were falsely accused of doing something unthinkable, based primarily on vibes. But in 2026, with the Metropolitan Police still trying to bring German suspect Christian Brückner to stand trial in Britain for the abduction and murder of Madeleine, and little to no material progress in finding out what actually happened to her, Under Suspicion just seems icky – an unhelpful bit of true-crime Reddit-baiting that at best will be ignored, but also may kickstart a whole new era of “the McCanns totally did it, didn’t they?” conspiracy. It’s a pointless, arguably dangerous endeavour.”
Adam White, The Independent

“It’s a poignant ending, and even if the finale squeezes too much into a running time of just over an hour, it avoids a Game of Thrones-level meltdown. With several spin-offs in the works, The Boys universe is a long way from finished. For now, this is a respectable sign-off from the series that started it all. If the average Marvel film packed in half as much emotional punch by the closing credits, cinema-going would be in a much better place.”
Ed Power, Telegraph