“Netflix’s Senna feels slow and underpowered, often struggling to get out of second gear”
Senna, Netflix
“This is a straightforward eulogising of the great sportsman that makes him seem more straightforward a character than he actually was, and relegates everyone in his life to a flat cartoon. The race sequences are thrilling and the narrative is too naturally exciting for the series to be boring, but whenever the roar of the engines stops, the dramatic momentum dies.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian
“The handsome, pin-up Formula 1 driver, revered almost as a demigod in his native Brazil, was famous for being fierce, brave, risk-taking and lightning fast. So it feels ironic that Netflix’s Senna, a six-part dramatisation of his life and tragic death, feels slow and underpowered, often struggling to get out of second gear.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“It takes some doing to make a story about a legendary race car driver, one renowned for his aggression and risk-taking, profoundly dull. So hats off to Senna, a new Netflix six-part dramatisation of the life of the Brazilian tearaway, for achieving something remarkable.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph
“While Senna the driver was a once-in-a-generation talent, Senna the drama is a ten-a-penny sporting biopic stretched out over six hours. Too long where its subject’s life was far too short, it seems to think the sheer romance of motor racing will carry it through. It doesn’t.”
Rachel Sigee, The i
Smoggie Queens, BBC3
“Smoggie Queens is very sweet and the world it builds will delight many, but it lacks the punchlines of a properly mainstream crowd-pleaser or the transgressive shock value of a cult hit. It is marooned somewhere in the middle, a place of impressive flamboyance, but too few actual laughs.”
Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian
“Even when a zinger misses the target, the series’ kinetic energy is infectious. The idiosyncratic northern dialogue reminded me of Victoria Wood – just with a waft of poppers in the air and a healthy sense of the absurd. These smoggie queens are a gaggle I’d love to hang out with – ideally in a gay bar where the pinot is cheap and chilled.”
Nick Levine, The i
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