TV Critics: Flowers; Game of Thrones; Horizon

“Bloody hell, The Good Life this is not. Flowers is dark. But not just shockingly dark, gloriously dark, rich and imaginative, bold, challenging and startling, with a worrying hint of truth about it. It’s a bit like … nothing else at all. Genuinely original, it’s going to be an interesting week.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Flowers is not afraid to be properly sad as well as funny. In retrospect it was a slightly curious decision to screen such strong meat on consecutive nights. It might be better watched on catch-up: this is a show to be consumed in small, powerful doses.”
Ed Potton, The Times

“By the end of the hour Flowers had blossomed in to that rare thing on TV: something original. It was as if The Royle Family had been directed by kooky Wes Anderson, visually innovative yet at heart humane. Weird then, yes, but really rather wonderful and as a tributary to TV’s general flow entirely welcome.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“After seeing the first episodes of this dark comedy, I’m wondering if the ‘every night this week’ thing is a way of getting a grim obligation over with as quickly as possible. Moments of honesty are swallowed up in the forced wackiness and the general pong of an idea that should have been left to rot in the wastepaper bin. Sorry but Flowers stinks.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“This was a busy series opener that began where the last left off – Jon Snow’s lifeless body – then galloped breathlessly around Westeros and Essos and between subplots. I know, that’s what GoT does, serious plot overload, but it seemed more frenetic than ever. Nice twist at the end of the episode, though.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“Early days admittedly, but the same sureness of touch that has always been a hallmark of Game of Thrones was evident in the madly anticipated first episode of the new season. The plot strands unfolded as calmly and deliberately as ever and while it could of course all go horribly wrong, for now Benioff and Weiss seem to know what they are doing.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“If you haven’t bothered with it till now, resist the hype. Game Of Thrones, which felt unmissable for its first three years, has lost all energy and purpose and become a repetitive round of formulaic scenes. The only engaging women in Game Of Thrones are the ones who behave like men — proof that this isn’t really drama, just pubescent noodling.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“This was an unusually moving instalment of the BBC science strand. The results were inconclusive though. The sophisticated science that dating websites claim to use can perhaps narrow the field. It can’t make a night in the pub go with the required fizz though.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express