“A reminder that nobody in British telly does bonkers quite like Sky”

Curfew

Curfew, Sky 1

“Mario Kart, 28 Days Later, Ready Player One and Black Mirror are all shamelessly riffed upon and with a devil may care insouciance that’s hard not to warm too. It is a reminder that nobody in British telly does bonkers quite like Sky.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“Remake Death Race by all means. Put a new twist on the zombipocalypse as The Walking Dead finally lapses into terminal decline, do. But bolting the two together creates distractingly bizarre results. What happens from here is anyone’s guess. It could sputter and stall or roar all the way to the finish line in triumph. I think it’s worth going along for the ride.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“The dialogue clunked more than clicked, but it didn’t much matter, with the show clearly revving noisily to get to the racing. No one ever asked about Dick Dastardly’s motivations or demanded more sophisticated characterisation in the Ant Hill Mob, and there’s enough mileage in these archetypes to make me want to follow the carnage to the finish line.”
Gabriel Tate, The Times

Traitors, Channel 4

“Everything about Traitors sounded so good on paper, which has made the undercooked reality of how it’s turning out all the more disappointing. Neither the ever-watchable Keeley Hawes nor Emma Appleton’s engaging performance in a difficult role could pique my interest for long. Baffling and dull, Traitors is leaving me cold.”
Gabriel Tate, The Times

“There has not been a costume drama that teetered on the brink of self-parody so wildly since the horses-and-cads romp Flambards, and that was 40 years ago. One minute it’s brilliant, the next it’s brilliantly stupid. Either way, you won’t stop me watching.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

Baptiste, BBC1

“The plot didn’t so much thicken in episode two of as turn limp and soggy. The first hour of this spin-off featuring the enigmatic detective from The Missing laid an intriguing trail of clues through Amsterdam; the second part lurched into lurid revenge thriller.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“Every minute that Tom Hollander is on screen in this tense, violent crime drama has been superb. Even when we thought he was just a nervy type searching for his runaway niece in the Dutch capital’s red light district, he conveyed undercurrents of duplicity and possibly perversion.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

Jerk, BBC3

“Tim Renkow is my new hero. He is Larry David with a twist – nobody risks confronting him because he is disabled. He is cerebral palsy’s James Bond: he has licence, if not to kill, then to wound by being awful to all-comers. He is to political correctness what Boris Johnson is to statesmanship.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

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