The Baby; Black Bird; Ghislaine Maxwell: The Making of a Monster; The Undeclared War

“What was certain was that wherever this sprog went, dead bodies piled up. The idea that a cute, gurgling baby could be a malevolent force isn’t wholly original, but it was executed with wit and style by the creative team…Balancing horror and comedy is notoriously tricky — it’s a mash-up that can often end up being neither funny nor scary. The Baby managed to straddle both camps, helped enormously by the charismatic de Swarte and a disconcerting score from the experimental composer Lucrecia Dalt.”
Joe Clay, The Times

“Despite the seed of a good idea, it turns into a mess. Series creators Lucy Gaymer and Siân Robins-Grace take the experiences of new motherhood – the panic of the early days, when you have no idea what you’re doing; the isolation and sleep deprivation; the fiercely protective instincts that mean someone taking your baby for half an hour feels like losing a limb – and cleverly weave them into a horror scenario. Natasha (Michelle de Swarte) finds her life up-ended when the baby abruptly enters her life. Is he malevolent? Or is this just a mother losing her sanity? But what begins as an enjoyably dark and occasionally gory comedy with smart things to say about the myth of perfect motherhood ends up losing its way. There is one striking episode mid-way through”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph 

“It is very funny. Fooze is a brilliantly idiosyncratic character…Apart from him – and later sightings of Natasha’s extended family – most of the humour comes from the oh-so-recognisable frustrations of Natasha’s suddenly banjaxed life, or tremendous editing of the baby’s looks and actions into clear cogitations upon his next malevolent manoeuvre. The horror aspect remains drawn from the fairly non-grisly end of the spectrum. But Natasha’s fierceness – along with the clear-eyed honesty at the programme’s core – means it is never gentle. It is altogether suspenseful enough in already stressful times. The creators presumably didn’t know they would be launching their offspring into a post-Roe world, but, coming at a time of victory for forced-birthers gives the depiction of Natasha’s entrapment and enslavement by this unwanted, unshakeable presence an extra frightening dimension.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian 

“The Baby is ambitious, odd, sometimes stagey and occasionally distracted by its own cleverness. But if you’re looking for something different to watch, it’s definitely that.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Lehane is a renowned thriller writer and was a writer on The Wire but this allusive, switchbacking dialogue may be his finest work yet.Add to the central conceit a corrupt guard intent on extorting money from Jimmy, and assorted other prisoners out for what blood they can get, and you have plenty of action to keep things going. And amid it all is Liotta as the tough father who is broken by having failed his son, unable to pull him out of the mire and facing his own set of unwelcome truths in the sudden stillness forced upon him. He breaks your heart.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian 

“A muscular and conspicuously tanned Egerton plays Jimmy with a nasal twang and a superiority complex that fits like an expensive suit. It’s an astonishingly consistent performance. For every piece of dialogue he’s handed, Egerton finds the smuggest line reading possible. He nods smug. He wears a prison jumpsuit like he’s doing it a favour.”
Amanda Whiting, The Independent 

“None of the films has fully explained why Maxwell enabled Epstein’s paedophilia for so many years. In part, that’s because evil is inexplicable — and she is certainly evil. But we will never completely understand until the enigma of Epstein and his money is unravelled.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

”The most interesting scenes were the ones that starkly laid out the human consequences of waging an “offensive cyber response”.
Joe Clay, The Times