Make Me Prime Minster; Industry; Eat The Rich: The Gamestop Saga

”The whole thing is moderated, banterously but also quite kindly, by Alastair Campbell and Sayeeda Warsi. Their main message is that, before anything – ideas, charisma, a moral core – you need a rhinoceros hide to get anywhere in politics…Make Me Prime Minister shines a light on the basic practices and structures of a political operation, but never quite rises above cosplay. I’m not yet convinced it’s got my vote.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph 

“If we judge it on its own terms, it’s a hit. How could adding politics (the top-ranking love-to-hate subject in existence) to the basic recipe – and presenting us with possibly the only breed of people (wannabe politicians) we suspect and despise even more than young, thrusting corporate types – not compel? How could two unlovely, unsympathetic presenters not goad us into greater and greater engagement. Technically it’s worth five stars.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian 

”I am pleasantly surprised at how well the show works. Somehow it actually manages to make the political process look like God’s work.  A minor miracle. Basically, it’s a bit of a rip-off of The Apprentice”
Sean O’Grady, The Independent

“It’s a bare-faced rip-off of The Apprentice — even copying the sequences where the rivals stride in awkward slow motion to their next appointment. Each week, the candidates split into two parties and come up with a manifesto policy: this week, reform for primary schools. The show falls flat for two reasons. The players, competing for a £25,000 first prize, all appear competent and well-informed about politics. They’re egotists but not idiots.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It’s This Life if that show was icier, had sharper elbows and was more given to cocaine benders and thrusting, dead-eyed sexual hook-ups — almost as if this has been precision-tooled to become a hot-button thing among Gen Z-ers and the media chatterati. . It’s not something you get in All Creatures Great and Small. More often, the barbed exchanges were so snippy and snappy that even a trainee was rattling away with: “It’s a stellar capped-up trade if you missed the dollar sell-off…[etc]” It would help to have the subtitles on, except no one’s that fast a reader. And yet, as is the way with decent financial dramas, it says something that the baffling jargon doesn’t matter.”
James Jackson, The Times 

“The key to solving the mystery of Industry’s appeal. Somehow, no matter how terrible they are, I am rooting for Robert, Yas and Harper to succeed – or not even to succeed, but to somehow get out of there alive. Perhaps there is some catharsis, too, in watching such a nihilistic show, which burns through each episode in a rush of self-destruction and ego. Industry keeps two cogs of tension whirring. There is a smaller one, chugging away during each episode, in which the little dramas are turned over quickly.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian 

“The first sign that This England (Sky Atlantic) will go wrong is the wig. Perhaps Boris Johnson’s hair is so unruly that it simply can’t be replicated. But the dodgy thatch worn by Kenneth Branagh is an early portent of doom. This six-part political drama is a dud. Next, your eyes fix on the prosthetic make-up. Admittedly, it completely disguises the fact that you’re watching Kenneth Branagh. But it doesn’t look like Boris Johnson either. It makes him look weird and creepy, as if he might peel off the latex at any minute like Dr Kananga in Live and Let Die. Branagh does a half-decent job on the voice.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph 

“The stakes might be high but the narrative tone echoes the daft online memes that drove the fiasco. Disney animations and animal clips illustrate points. Even Mr Bean and the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Roll make fleeting cameos. It’s a wild story, told in pacy, pulsating style which refuses to take itself too seriously. Eat the Rich makes a refreshing change from the streaming service’s usual factual diet of ghoulish true-crime. It doesn’t bloat but barrels along, with the whole series coming in at under two hours. Did I fully understand the financial ins and outs? Nope. Did I enjoy the ride anyway? Heck yes.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph