Murderbot; The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives; Forever Home; Welcome to Wrexham

“For at least the first five of its 10 half-hour episodes, Murderbot does little but tread water, and the comedic conceit of a stony-faced cyborg secretly hating its human overlords and wishing to be left in peace is soon played out. There is only so much non-eyerolling at a throuple situation you can watch before the joke is no longer even as minimally funny as it was. The pace picks up a little when the hippies feel duty bound to investigate the massacre of another group of research scientists nearby. Then, the wall between the security unit and his humans begins to break down and we can all start to ponder the usual questions about what makes us human, how we should treat the soulless and the ensouled and what our choices say about us. And so on.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Despite having all the trappings of yet another dystopian sci-fi series – a genre at which Apple excels – Murderbot quickly proves the shiny, happy opposite. This winning dose of cosy escapism will warm the cockles of any heart, artificial or otherwise. The uplifting effect is achieved via a gag-filled script, more Seinfeld than cyberpunk. To that is added an optimistic message about the importance of human connection.”
Ed Power, Telegraph

“Where to begin with the coiffured car crash that is The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (Disney+) Perhaps with the title. “Secret”? Ha! Chance would be a fine thing. You can’t get some of these women to stop oversharing every detail of their carefully contrived and marketed existences. Worse, most do it in the whiney, self-obsessed tones of princessy prom girls even though most have children and are in their twenties and thirties.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“From start to finish, what with knocking down walls, ripping out fireplaces and building a glass-walled extension, the work took three years. Before we were halfway through, it felt as though Forever Home was going to drag on — well, for ever. Property shows, as other Ch4 formats such as George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces have proved, work best when they feature several projects. Rapid editing and plenty of soundbites hold our interest. This programme lacked all that.”

Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The places where the camera can’t lie are on the pitch, in the stands and on the streets. That’s where Welcome to Wrexham truly bursts into life. Match footage is electric. Fan passion is immersively conveyed. Profiles of locals prove how the club’s revival has benefited the entire community. The women’s team gets a tokenistic amount of screen time, yet that’s also sanitised. Star striker Rosie Hughes scored a metaphorical own-goal on a pre-season tour by insulting the city. Once she returns home, this is forgotten. Unavoidably, the show lags behind the events it depicts. Wrexham secured promotion a fortnight ago – a historic feat that will take two months to appear in the series finale. Such flaws are minor niggles. Less a leg-break, more a manageable knee injury. Welcome to Wrexham remains an irresistible ride, full of heart, humour and scrappy charm. “Up the town” indeed.”
Michael Hogan, Telegraph