Kin, BBC One review - in Dublin's not-so-fair city
Superb cast and powerful writing fuel this gripping gangland drama
Folklore tends to depict Dublin as a convivial and picturesque city, with a bar on every corner full of revellers on wild stag weekends, but that’s not what we find in Kin. This is a chilly, menacing Dublin, full of modern but charmless architecture and gripped by organised crime.
Boat Story, BBC One review - once upon a time in Yorkshire
New Williams brothers thriller is violent, far-fetched and extremely watchable
It was as long ago as January last year that the prolific Williams brothers, Jack and Harry, delivered their absorbing Australian Outback thriller The Tourist. Hitherto, product seemed to have been pouring out of them almost hourly, whether it was Liar, The Missing and Baptiste or The Widow, Rellik and Angela Black.
Shetland, Series 8, BBC One review - same place but a different programme
DI Ruth Calder faces an uphill struggle to replace DI Jimmy Perez
The question they’re all asking is, can Shetland survive the loss of Douglas Henshall as DI Jimmy Perez? After all, it was Henshall’s shrewd and quietly anguished performance which gave the show much of its allure. And now there’s no Mark Bonnar either, who could always be relied on to add a soupçon of angst.
Who Is Erin Carter?, Netflix review - secrets and ultra-violence under the Catalan sun
Anglo-Spanish thriller is daft but addictive
One thing we know for sure about Erin Carter is that she’s played by Swedish-Kurdish actor Evin Ahmad, and it’s clear right from the start that she’s a woman with a complicated past which she’s trying to run away from. But you’ll have to get to episode four before the mysteries start to unwind themselves.
Harlan Coben's Shelter, Prime Video review - what the hell is going on in Kasselton, New Jersey?
High school confidential with a supernatural twist
Netflix scooped up the rights to an armful of Harlan Coben’s standalone novels for a colossal sum, and now Amazon Prime has nipped in and signed up Coben’s series of Mickey Bolitar books, which fall under the “young adult” heading. Shelter is the first one off the blocks.
Only Murders in the Building, Disney+ review - this comedy crime drama is a class act
Guest star Meryl Streep is the icing on the cake
Despite its cursory nods to new technology, there’s something deliciously old-fashioned about Only Murders in the Building. Now into its third series, it tells the stories of a trio of affluent Manhattanites who make true-life podcasts about the mysterious deaths that occur in their palatial Upper West Side apartment building.
Enemy of the People, Channel 4 review - murder and corruption in the age of digital media
Wolf, BBC One review - a load of old...
Credulity-stretching adaptation of Mo Hayder's Jack Caffery novel
Adapted by Megan Gallagher from one of Mo Hayder’s Jack Caffery novels (the seventh one, apparently), Wolf might be described as Welsh Gothic, spiced up with a splash of gratuitous sadism. Episode two, for instance, is titled merely “Torture”, which might apply to some of the acting as much as the dramatic content.
World on Fire, Series 2, BBC One - return of Peter Bowker's panoramic view of World War Two
Lesley Manville continues to shine as the matriarch Robina Chase
Writer Peter Bowker apparently had plans to make six series of World on Fire, but the arrival of Covid after 2019’s first series threw a spanner in the works. Anyway, here’s the second one at last, and it’s a little strange to find that this encyclopedic saga of the Second World War has only advanced as far as the autumn of 1940.