The Trial; Poker Face

“The Trial was the first of 5’s new single-drama strand evoking, for those of us decrepit enough to remember, the BBC’s Play for Today, a kitemark for quality writing. It’s a great idea to revive a format that brought us such TV gold as Blue Remembered Hills, Scum and Abigail’s Party, and this was a strong launch for a bold venture using an ominously plausible concept: a legal statute that means parents can be tried in court for the crimes of their children. This is sharp storytelling from the writer Mark Burt, who ekes out the ‘reveals’ gradually in a clever, lean script.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“With just one episode to build things up and conclude them, The Trial is done an injustice by being too short, and the end comes far too quickly. Police procedurals have a habit of being stretched too long, convoluting their own mystery to fill the run time, so it’s a show of restraint to pack this story down into an hour and keep every minute interesting. But with just an extra episode or two, the suspense would have held out, and this world would have felt just that tiny bit more whole. Regardless, The Trial manages to bring together the kind of story that you can’t quite take your eyes off, from its too-close-to-home realistic concept to the mystery of what really happened as it unfolds piece by piece.”
Tilly Pearce, The i

“The drama veers into silliness and packs no emotional punch, but it’s an ambitious idea packed into an hour-long slot. In an era of box sets and series dragged out for eight episodes when they could be done and dusted in three, Channel 5 deserves credit for bringing back what is essentially a Play for Today format.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“As a setup, it’s knowingly ludicrous. Yet while Poker Face’s crimes are all archly odd – variously involving pilfered breast milk, clearly robotic alligators and five sisters all played by Cynthia Erivo – they are not quite wacky enough to qualify as pastiches of the vintage murder mysteries (Columbo, Magnum, PI, Murder, She Wrote) they pay homage to. The action is amusing rather than laugh out loud, yet too camply stylised to be dramatically absorbing either. This would be less of a problem if said mysteries were clever or complex or surprising enough to work on their own terms. Unfortunately, they range only from tediously predictable to moderately diverting.”
Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian

“It’s not a perfect procedural – armchair sleuths will become frustrated at the ease of solving some of the whodunits, particularly as the series goes on. But even though there’s always a murder and a new small-town sign to tell you you’re somewhere new each week, the format that TV jettisoned a few decades back feels, ironically, fresh and exciting.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“This show is irreverent fun with a big moral heart and a very human sense of chaos and jeopardy, and it never forgets to give us what we need. How much longer can the Barracuda keep rolling? With Charlie at the wheel, I hope we have a long road trip ahead of us.”
Phil Harrison, The Independent