Big Brother; House of Kardashian

“The new show has found a diverse, faultlessly representative sample of Britain’s squawking self-publicists. Everyone’s different, but everyone’s still a textbook reality-show eccentric. It feels like we’ve known them for too long already.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“Do we really need Big Brother back? Of course not. Raw and real? Obviously not. But this was fun and is at least striving for a degree of authenticity while also knowing it has to entertain.”
James Hall, The Telegraph

“It seems like ITV has wisely decided to take the original reality juggernaut back to basics. But compared to opening nights of old, it feels pretty tame. Perhaps they are saving the big twists for later in the series, once viewers have had a chance to get to know the housemates, in order to raise the stakes more authentically.”
Katie Rosseinsky, The Independent

“I can see that ITV wants to replicate the success it has had with Love Island because this is one of the few shows which young people watch in the old-fashioned, nightly way. But this feels tired. It feels like a Noughties fossil. It’s early days and it might get better but on the strength of what we saw tonight, Big Brother has nothing new to tell us.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“For those who have put in the time and work, there probably won’t be many revelations. It is also missing a little frivolity and fluff. But for casual observers, those of us who have absorbed the Kardashian phenomenon simply because it is impossible not to, the film tells a persuasive story, asks smart questions and ends up being a series that you can interpret in whatever way you choose.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“The wealth of archive footage was expertly marshalled to tell the story of how Kris Jenner grasped (then monetised) the modern reality of celebrity culture. It was fascinating yet unedifying at the same time.”
Joe Clay, The Times

“The main issue is the lack of access. Caitlyn is interviewed at length, but she pipes up in the tabloids at least once a week, so who cares? What we want is Kim on the sex-tape and the breakdown of her marriage to Kanye; Kris on whether she encouraged her daughters to sexualise themselves for riches. Instead, we’re left with clips from other sources. Dramatic theme music aside, this is hardly revelatory stuff.”
Poppie Platt, The Telegraph