TV Critics: Meth and Madness in Mexico; Ordinary Lies; Spotlight; Better Call Saul

“This same topic has been the springboard for much interesting public debate on, for instance, the nature of addiction and how racism informs law enforcement – not that any of these issues came up in Dooley’s film. It must be the most inexplicable combination of presenter and subject matter since Channel 5 chose Keith Chegwin to bare all for Naked Jungle.”
Ellen E Jones, The Independent

“Some people are fortunate enough to start their TV careers at an age when they can still grow, and grow Ms Dooley has, into a flak-jacketed journalist of note. Risking her neck in Mexico, the epicenter of an explosion in addictive, destructive crystal methamphetamine, she tackled local politicians, hitmen, grieving families, even one victim of the wave of drug crime so recent he was still covered in blood. If the odd, pompous cop or politician assumes she’s just a daft kid from Luton, then more fool them.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“It’s strength was access, access, access. Theroux, Ross Kemp and Dooley should make a documentary super-group, given their respective strengths of faux ignorance, seen-it-all strength and smiling innocence. Dooley’s youthful openness got us into astonishing places.”
Alex Hardy, The Times

“The episode as a whole doesn’t match the high standards of previous weeks. They’ve been packed with unpredictable - and dare I say it a little bit exhilarating – drama. It’s a shame really, tonight is a little too ordinary for Ordinary Lies.”
Neela Debnath, The Independent

“Sometimes though drama has a duty, not to show people just as they are but people getting just what they deserve. If there was a moral in Rick’s tale, I’m not sure what it was.”
Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“Bradby asks the right questions without going all Paxman. It’s actually quite refreshing, evidence that if you treat people – even politicians – as human beings, you might get more out of them.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

“It was a dark conclusion to a series that had blended comedy and melodrama with unusual acuity. But Better Call Saul had earned its starkness, the Coen brothers-esque madcap trimmings never fully obscuring the sadness in Odenkirk’s eyes. While tonally very different from the bludgeoning, restless Breaking Bad, the two shows were finally confirmed to be companion pieces, each chillingly enumerating the ways in which the exigencies of everyday life can corrode human decency.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph