Irvine Welsh’s Crime; The Umbrella Academy; Love Is Blind UK

“There are a number of impressively twisted moments, with much of the police force being unabashedly horny and approximately 65% of the population of this fictional Edinburgh seeming to be some form of evil incarnate, but somehow the show still manages to feel a little inert. Pursuit of the killer and the many revenge plots move slowly, the sporadic narration seems to be happening in slow motion and the directorial choices show a strange lack of urgency.”
Leila Latif, The Guardian

“Between the wokery and the gore, it’s all quite joyless. The only reason to recommend this drama, which continues tonight, is its cast.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“I quite enjoyed this slightly mad addition to an overpopulated genre and a third season of Crime is apparently in development. But Lennox now faces a challenger in the troubled Edinburgh cop stakes. The BBC’s new Rebus reboot, starring Richard Rankin as Ian Rankin’s titular detective, has already proved far subtler at weaving social issues into the fabric of a police procedural. But then you don’t come to Irvine Welsh for subtlety, do you?”
Gerard Gilbert, The i

“Whether it’s Elliot Page’s angsty Viktor, Robert Sheehan’s addiction-prone hippy Klaus, Tom Hopper’s lunkish Luther, or their extended family (including Ritu Arya as Lila, an assassin-turned-frustrated mother who can shoot lasers from her eyes), they are a thrill to spend time with. The Umbrella Academy has achieved that rare alchemy of a show that works best when its protagonists are simply hanging out together on screen. Not that this extended farewell lacks for big set pieces. It is packed with explosive fights and zingingly droll dialogue.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“The Umbrella Academy attempts the same tactic as before – overwhelm with plot and gimmicks so we won’t notice just how thin and nonsensical it all is. That there are only six episodes rather than the usual 10 has turned out to be a blessing. When The Umbrella Academy first started in 2019, it felt genuinely fresh and conceptually exciting. Now it’s just another bullish superhero series that uses shock value to get attention.”
Emily Baker, The i

“Where is all the self-deprecating British banter that was promised? These people all seemed to be picked from the same reality TV clone farm. While there are, to be absolutely fair, decent, quite sweet moments when a couple has genuinely fallen for each other such as Sabrina and Steve, the other money shots are about human pain and humiliation as people are dumped in favour of a better match. But perhaps the most surprising thing about Love Is Blind is that so far, it is dull.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Everything is copied and pasted from the US edition, minus the accents. Rinse and repeat. The Willises are essentially reading from the same script as the Lacheys, delivering the same unimaginative one-liners with the same sing-songy intonation.”
Ellie Muir, The Independent