TV Critics: Downton Abbey; Doctor Who; The Mekong River

“Bloody hell, after a super-tiresome series of Downton Abbey in which almost nothing happened, suddenly everything happens. Old flames, wicked stunts, entrapment, divorce, underground gambling clubs, stag parties, ladies of the night … it’s actually quite good fun.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“The episode raced through so many storylines. There was Anna’s arrest, Atticus’s stag do and the unveiling of the village war memorial, all dispensed with in scenes that barely lasted a minute. On Remembrance Sunday, that memorial scene in particular might have achieved some real pathos if we’d only been allowed a few moments of reflection.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“One of Downton’s great strengths is the speed at which its plots move. By doing so, it showers us with new story-lines. Let’s just hope the easily muddled Lord Grantham can keep up.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Is Downton Abbey comedy, tragedy, melodrama, a satire of itself? It’s increasingly hard to tell. There was so much going on in the last series that a plot summary would be the size of a telephone directory.”
Ceri Radford, The Telegraph

“This was a more or less satisfactory episode with the Green murder plot finally ending in the arrest of Anna, boring Lady Rose married off, a dim bulb lighting in Robert’s head as to baby Marigold’s provenance and Mrs Patmore’s deserter nephew getting his plaque next to the war memorial.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Death in Heaven is unlikely to leave a dry eye in the house. It’s a fantastic, emotionally-charged, action-packed close to Peter Capaldi’s first series as the Time Lord.”
Neela Debnath, The Independent

“The world-saving felt suitably epic for a finale and it had emotional heft: heart-rending without being mawkish. This has been a cracking series, with the show back to its darkly compelling best and Capaldi - clever, complex and unpredictably otherworldly - making the role truly his own.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“It had its disappointments – the zombie-cybermen weren’t scary enough, the ‘love conquers all’ resolution was a cop-out and the full-on Thick of It reunion snog between Peter Capaldi and Chris Addison never quite came to pass. It also had its triumphs, namely Michelle Gomez as Missy.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“For older children, such as me, the two-parter could be appreciated as a disquisition on both mortality and militarism. None of this stuff has any place in a kids’ show, but it all landed with deliberate weight in the refashioned series finale.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“As slebalogues go, this one is about as good as it gets. It’s serious and interesting about the places, and about the past, and now, and their futures, and the massive impact that planned dams will have. Journalistic, sensitive but not hand-wringingly worthy, a lot of it is jolly and amusing too.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“She doubtless doesn’t mean it to sound that way but even when interviewing genocide survivors, even when filled with joy over a Buddhist ceremony, I’m afraid Perkins just sounds as if she’s taking the mickey. It wasn’t helped by the fact that she did sometimes quite genuinely take the mickey.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express