Gaia: A Death on Dancing Ledge; Electric Cars: What They Really Mean For You

“The recurring question in the first episode – “what was she running from?” – takes on an almost more terrible aspect than before. If you are in crisis, you are trying to flee something that cannot be outrun. You will run, perhaps, until you can run no more and the elements have you in their grip. Who caused that crisis? Who causes that death? Only the first two episodes were made available for review, but I hope that the third continues to ask that question. It’s an essential topic that has to be addressed, even as this documentary – presumably – covers the rest of the facts of the police search and Gaia’s family’s attempts to get changes made to the various systems that were supposedly in place to help her, so that others might be saved these agonies.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“As a programme, it was neatly constructed, slowly unpeeling the details, humanising a news story. Meeting Gaia’s loved ones and the use of voice recordings gave an immediacy to a familiar tale of gut-wrenching worry and panic, as did the slickly executed dramatic reconstructions of Gaia’s last days, hunched over her phone. And while I wasn’t entirely convinced by the editing, which occasionally flitted between sections by replicating the effect of one of those pay-per-view seaside telescopes, the coastal drone shots were eerily mesmerising.”

Ben Dowell, The Times

“It’s easy to imagine how the Netflix version of this story would be told. It would have been piled high with cliff-hangers and padded out to the point where it was both repulsive and dull. McDermott took a different approach. She was hugely compassionate towards Gaia’s mother, Kim, twin Maya and older sister, Clara. Maya had cut her hair because she could not bear to look in the mirror and see Gaia’s reflection looking back.”
Ed Power, The i

“There was no attempt to explain how HGVs or heavy construction vehicles can ever run on electricity, and after its zippy start in the electro-Herbie, the show ran out of energy. During a deadly dull interview with a Whitehall eco-spokesman, it slowed to a halt. There’s another episode next week — I hope that gives them enough time to charge up again.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail