TV Critics: Arthur & George; Moone Boy; The Walking Dead

“Despite all the superficial similarities, this definitely isn’t Sherlock. Doyle may have courted the comparison, but Arthur & George wisely opted for a tone more Victorian ghost story than modern whodunit.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“Arthur & George was the based-on-true-events tale of how the author got over his loss — by taking on a real-life whodunnit. The case had been fictionalised in a novel by Julian Barnes — now it got the ITV period drama treatment. You know — string music, soft visuals and a script so keen to bludgeon its point home that it could be classed as aural assault. The sum effect felt like a heavy-handed advert, to sell Conan Doyle as a kindly and conflicted man.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“True story or not, this three-part drama couldn’t resist sending up the best-loved cliches of the Holmes canon. The heroes were forever leaping in and out of horse-drawn carriages while explaining the plot to each other.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“That’s my one little moan about this – that the shadow of Sherlock Holmes is everywhere, more so than in the book. Too much so, I think. Almost as if ITV looked enviously at Sherlock on the other side, saw how well it was going down and said: people seem to like this dude, we’ll have a piece of that.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“I can imagine the corporate backslapping at ITV headquarters after they commissioned Arthur and George. It comes with all the classic ITV ingredients. But, sadly, the executives overlooked an unticked box on the line that said: “Make it interesting, make sure the viewers actually care what happens.”
Terry Ramsey, The Telegraph

“Having not read Mr Barnes’s novel, I can only comment on the TV version and the TV version looks spiffing. Clunes makes a splendid Edwardian sleuth, decent but headstrong and clearly healing others’ pain in preference to dealing with his own.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“What a lovely blast of coming-of-age optimism this sitcom is, as we follow young Martin Moone — now in series three, and fictionally 1991 — on his first trip from small-town Boyle to Dublin. If only more people watched it, besides the awards judges who keep decorating it.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“When writing about Moone Boy, it’s very tempting to automatically say “the inexplicably popular Moone Boy”. But the reality is that its popularity is all too explicable. It’s because of its calculated cuteness. The result is a sitcom that appears to be the result of a laboratory accident involving Outnumbered and Mrs Brown’s Boys (and, if I was being harsh, a box of Prozac).”
Terry Ramsey, The Telegraph

“By now, long-term fans of The Walking Dead are probably used to the show’s penchant for unexpected, gut-wrenching deaths. This week was no exception: viewers were forced to say goodbye to yet another old friend, as Rick’s impressive beard finally got the chop. The beard might be gone, but everything it stood for – the hunger to survive, the ability to turn to violence if needed – was still burning bright.”
Rebecca Hawkes, The Telegraph

“For an episode that is light on blood and violence (by Walking Dead standards), ‘Remember’ manages to be one of the more unsettling of the season. As the countdown to the extended finale begins, ‘Remember’ will likely be recalled as the turning point of the season when it became much harder to tell the heroes from the villains.”
Alex Straker, The Independent