TV Critics: Horizon; Quick Cuts; Hollywood Me; Dates

“Horizon: Fracking – the New Energy Rush ought to have been a compelling insight into the gas extraction technology which is sweeping America, and which will soon arrive here. Yet from start to finish, it wasn’t. Even the explanatory science, which ought to have been manageable enough, fell short of being truly enlightening… By the time the programme finished, I was watching open-mouthed with vexation.”
Neil Midgley, The Telegraph

“The film certainly explained hydraulic fracturing clearly and whipped me up into as near a frenzy of geological excitement as I am ever likely to experience. But it lacked the killer leaked documents or specially commissioned experiments that would clear or damn the new industry. Instead, deep in the substrata of the film lay padding.”
Andrew Billen, The Times

“The subject of fracking is a complex and controversial one, in which what we know is fogged by what we fervently hope to be the case (those who stand to profit) or what we fear might be (those who don’t)… What most viewers could do with in this murk is something forensically exact, establishing at least a small foothold of factual ground. We didn’t get it.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“Practitioners of fracking have been strangely coy about what goes into the chemical cocktail although, as a complete science numbskull, I’ve a feeling that its ability to ignite a glass of water isn’t a sign of mountain-spring purity… Of course, as successive British governnments have valued the wellbeing and safety of citizens over the interests of greedy business people, we’ll all be fine. Won’t we?”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

The performances were strong, the comic timing impeccable, the direction sharp, the idea – a sitcom about a dysfunctional workplace family of hairdressers – a nice one. It just didn’t quite have characters. Unfortunately, without strong characters there is no sitcom.”
Tom Meltzer, The Guardian

“It’s not the most original idea in the world for a sitcom, but it is a robust one, with the turnover of customers giving you all kinds of opportunity for comic interludes that are a break from the ensemble dynamic… And it has a very good cast.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“It was half-sitcom, half-sketch show, reminiscent of Green Wing in style. In content, though, it was more Miranda-esque: female-led, warm, cosy, cartoonish and shamelessly silly… It was semi-improvised, giving it a slightly repertory theatre feel, but there were lots of neat lines.”
Neil Midgley, The Telegraph

“Makeover shows usually have the decency to acknowledge their pointlessness, but here dolling up a mum for an imaginary red carpet and parading her to friends and family was presented as some sort of cosmic justice. In the bizarre moral universe of Hollywood Me, Sharon Osbourne is our benevolent goddess, LA beauticians her angels and interior designers her prophets… It was routinely demeaning.”
Tom Meltzer, The Guardian

“Representing a return to the glory days of TV, when short films and one-off quirky dramas were the mainstay of Channel 4, these playlets are about people on first dates, snapshots of couple at moments of great intimacy and massive guardedness. They’re also sharp and funny. Above all else though, they’re done with great tenderness and insight into human frailty.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express