TV Critics: Homeland; The Ottomans; Was it Something I Said?; Fool Britannia; Downton Abbey; Marvel's Agents of SHIELD

“It’s hard to say yet whether Homeland is back on track. But this opener is certainly intriguing. It builds not just in pace but in intensity and excitement too. Hell, I’m in.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“With all Brody’s secrets revealed and any sexual tension between Brody and Carrie long since dissipated, Operation Jump the Shark is clearly a go.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“This opener spent far too much time around the Brody family dinner table. Of Brody (Damian Lewis) himself, there was no sign. Which left it to Danes to carry the show. She did so magnificently.”
Sarah Crompton, Daily Telegraph

“We saw nothing of Brody (Damian Lewis) after last night’s opening credits. He’s fled to Canada, and long may he stay there — it’s Danes who makes this show compulsive.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“With war hero-turned-terrorist Brody missing, the action had to come from us watching an agent we didn’t really know or care about bumping off some key terrorists we’d never heard of before. A strategic point in the war on terror, perhaps. A defeat where the war on boredom is concerned.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“I love Homeland’s arid cynicism towards American institutions such as democracy and the family, but, like the discredited CIA itself, the series labours under an existential threat. Making Saul the enemy is the twist it needs.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“The entire thing felt more like a holiday travelogue than a historical study, relying on staple images – Rageh walking down modern streets; Rageh swaying on boats; Rageh gazing at sunsets – rather than insight… This was a great pity because when the programme actually did its job and got on with telling us its story, it was utterly compelling.”
Sarah Crompton, Daily Telegraph

“Although there are many positive things to say about the Ottomans, you did sometimes get the impression that Omaar’s account was trying too hard… At 16, we were thought quite capable of grasping that an empire could be two things at once: enlightened and savage. Pity the BBC didn’t have the same trust in its audience.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Rageh Omaar’s message was that the Ottomans could have been worse: they took the fittest of Sarajevo’s sons from their families but at least left them their spares; sultans murdered their brothers but by doing so avoided civil wars; and there was more needlework than sex in the harems.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“Basically it’s that Radio 4 show Quote Unquote on the telly, with David Mitchell asking the questions. And the questions being ‘who said this?’ and ‘how does this quote go?’ Not the most imaginative format then.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“It was an enjoyably daft half hour, as Dom Joly staged pagan rites in a surburban back garden and erected a checkpoint barrier across the north-south divide on a Nottingham street. The best bit was seeing how he obtains permission from his victims to screen the hidden camera footage. Flattery is the answer.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“When it came to it, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s brief performance merely served as a plot device for the most devastating scene in the series’ three-year history… Downton Abbey has been criticised in the past for portentous dialogue and emotionally over-wrought scenes. Here is proof that it can create incredibly powerful drama on a very small scale.”
Ben Lawrence, Daily Telegraph

“Much like last week, it remains frustrating that the potential of this little Marvel off-shoot isn’t being realised. Let’s hope that, once the plot lines pick up some steam, our characters will be allowed to flesh out their current two-dimensional constraints.”
Catherine Gee, Daily Telegraph