Living Next Door to Putin; Welcome to Wrexham; The Other Black Girl; The Morning Show

“Living Next Door to Putin is an insightful, delicately handled portrait of eastern Europe’s anxieties and the ramifications of existing on the potential frontline of Vladimir Putin’s westward expansion.”
Leila Latif, The Guardian

“As BBC current affairs series go, Katya Adler’s Living Next Door to Putin, on BBC1, has already admirably fulfilled two thirds of Lord Reith’s mission statement. It is informing us how Russia’s neighbouring countries are feeling as the Ukraine invasion starts to feel endless (answer: anxious), and it is educating us in recent and lesser-told Baltic history.”
James Jackson, The Times

“It’s well known that the illegal migrants crossing the English channel every day in overloaded dinghies are being sent to Britain by criminal gangs of people smugglers. But this was the first suggestion I’d heard that Russia is actively promoting the human trade, as yet another way to undermine Western democracy. This documentary could have spelled it out much more clearly.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“If it is not clear whether Welcome to Wrexham is a TV show about a football club, or whether Wrexham FC is a football club that provides material for a TV show, it is certainly a break from streaming TV’s many other behind-the-scenes football documentaries, most of which are shimmering corporate success stories.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“Four episodes of 15 were made available for preview. They skilfully interweave the team’s fortunes with those of its devoted supporters. It’s a vivid portrait of a working-class region’s worries and dreams, and how this footballing fairytale has restored its pride.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“Based on the bestseller by Zakiya Dalila Harris, The Other Black Girl dissects the horror of insidious racism in white workplaces. But its mechanisms for exploring workplace anti-Blackness can feel divorced from a complex examination. The adaption competently defines the panopticon of whiteness facing Black employees everywhere, splashing in its absurdity. But the logic of how and why Black employees are forced to tiptoe in white workplaces gets lost.”
Gloria Oladipo, The Guardian

“There are rich ideas here, like whether you can change the system from within, make sacrifices for your company without losing yourself, and whether pain is a motivator or just wears you down. Zakiya Dalila Harris also includes specific cultural touches, like the significance of haircare to black women. But the clumsy insertion of derivative genre tropes winds up muddying her individual voice, making this just another thriller with ‘girl’ in the title.”
Marianka Swain, The Telegraph

“To expect anything other than mindless entertainment from The Morning Show is an exercise in certain disappointment. It hasn’t jumped the shark; it never got in the water to begin with. Instead, we should treat it with a sigh, an eyeroll and a misplaced but undying dedication to watching every single episode.”
Emily Baker, The i

“The Morning Show has never been top-tier drama, despite being heaped with Emmy nominations – it needed to either to be funnier or more vicious. But it was always watchable. Now the programme has lost its mojo – Aniston seems barely present, either physically or mentally, and Witherspoon has nothing to offer.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“The show has always been overwrought, and the pleasure has been watching fine television personalities like Aniston, Witherspoon and Carrell going toe-to-toe, fighting each other for another mouthful of scenery to chew. The addition of John Hamm, alongside newcomers like Stephen Fry and Tig Notaro, adds star power but little refinement. Increasingly, the show feels like it is moving away from a serious, if silly, drama and becoming a satire, and not a very effective one at that.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent