TV Critics: A History of Syria; Panorama; Broadchurch; Food & Drink; Bomb Patrol; Shetland

“Dan Snow’s trek was like a dystopic travelogue: beautiful but pock-marked by bullets. And he hasn’t returned with good news. The complex weave of Syria past is leading inexorably to its future. Insofar as I understand it, there is little reason to be hopeful.”
Tim Dowling, The Guardian

“Snow’s film was a slightly odd affair, a bit like a country-house documentary filmed in a burning building… He had been smuggled into an anti-Assad suburb of Damascus and he talked to a unit of the Free Syrian Army at one point, but this was a history programme not war reporting. It was just that it was a history programme in which the rival experts, in some cases at least, were on opposite sides of a war.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“A History of Syria with Dan Snow was an excellent opportunity to tell a complex story. But while it provided useful background information, experienced Syria-watchers were likely to be exasperated by its simplistic analysis and reliance on Syrian government sympathisers.”
Sameer Rahim, The Telegraph

“The recent Newtown massacre lost none of its power to horrify in this brief, harrowing recap, but perhaps sadder still is the reaction of the one-third of Americans who are terrified the tragedy might lead to some form of gun control… Defending the right of every American to carry an assault weapon with a 30-round clip in the wake of Newtown is, you might think, a big ask.

Even the NRA – an organisation not known for its reticence – declined to speak to Panorama on the subject. How fortunate then for Tea Party spokeswoman Scottie Hughes, for whom the term ‘batshit crazy’ might have been expressly minted.”
Tim Dowling, The Guardian

“America’s Gun Addiction, Hilary Andersson’s report on the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, had already been postponed once and I can’t help hoping that it happened again because it was infuriating, spending at least half of its length on a prurient account of the killing and adding little new to our knowledge of the issue in the other half.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Just when you think you know where the plot might be heading, a clairvoyant phone technician pops up with news from beyond the grave. I didn’t see that coming. He would have.”
Tim Dowling, The Guardian

“The plot thickened in Broadchurch, which in one respect at least meant ‘got much stupider’. A psychic has turned up, treated as a nuisance by all present but eerily hitting home with a remark he makes to David Tennant’s troubled detective. A psychic? Please. You’re better than this.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“I didn’t enjoy the bit in Broadchurch where DS Ellie Miller told her boss to keep his ‘brooding schtick’ to himself… One character delivering a neat little summary of another one is a bit like saying ‘Hey folks, here’s the punchline’ before delivering the punchline. A pity becase the story’s working hard to balance the mystery with the reality of a child’s sudden death and doing darned well at it.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“One grumble. Food has moved on so much in the six weeks that Food & Drink has been on air – see all that meat d’origine uncôntrolée, those faecal-matter cake sprinkles – it’s a shame that the pre-recorded series couldn’t have moved with it. But I hope it does come back, perhaps more impish, more agile.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“It’s the bits that slip out from behind the mask that make this documentary so engaging.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Just as the sitcom Bluestone 42 is quite a conventional workplace comedy, despite its extraordinary frontline setting, so Shetland was quite a conventional detective drama. Even in the midst of a fire festival it simmered but never really exploded.”
Alex Hardy, The Times