Suspicion; Mary Beard’s Forbidden Art; Kate Garraway’s Life Stories; Reacher

“Suspicion is taut and tense and machine-tooled to make you want more. Unfortunately, things that are machine-tooled are by definition identical, and Suspicion is also exceedingly good at breaking no new ground whatsoever. Perhaps the greatest irony, though is that Suspicion, a series made by Apple, is undermined by the proliferation of screens and devices throughout. I haven’t seen a TV series based around cyber-espionage and infosec that solves this one yet, but thankfully it doesn’t sink Suspicion altogether because the characterisation is strong and the mystery holds.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“Suspicion is a loose, baggy thing that only begins to approach the necessary slickness a good quarter of the way through its eight-episode run. Things liven up after that, and it finds more of its groove. If it never becomes more than a jigsaw – done by others, you just sit back and watch the picture take shape – that’s OK. It never promised to be anything else.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“In execution, Suspicion doesn’t so much have episodes as reams of questions, exposition and occasional answers dispensed weekly. Few will make it past its first two instalments. It results in a series that endlessly evades the viewer, with characters who do little but act bewildered. Who’s lying? Who’s pulling the strings? Why should we care?”
Adam White, The Independent

“Beard struck just the right tone, bringing erudition but not pretentiousness to about as reasonable a discussion as you could hope for of what is ‘forbidden’ and why, and how, it changes across the centuries. Beard was the perfect compere, neither high-brow or low-brow but a sort of cheery, all-knowing all-brow.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“With a title like that I expected a barrowload of penises, torture and bestiality, but I didn’t anticipate watching two women defecate on a nice white studio floor while I was eating my All-Bran. This is a great, nutty subject, but unhappily (swaddles bosom disapprovingly), I’ll never unsee what was left on that shiny, white studio floor.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Some of the pictures were repulsive, and were created to be so. But the programme achieved a genteel tone, because Prof Mary’s disgust never rose above the level of a shopper finding a manky banana in the fruit section at Waitrose. It was left to artist Tracey Emin to make the most telling point: art can be ugly but it’s most dangerous when it is deceitful — like the edited images of fakely perfect celebrity lives on social media.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Taking over from Piers Morgan, she lacked the edge and the prickle of her predecessor. This interview with the former Liverpool footballer was no more than an hour-long tummy tickle. John Barnes is an articulate and thoughtful man. He could have been coaxed into a far more interesting discussion.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Though Garraway started as a reporter, the Good Morning Britain star has spent most of her career in lifestyle TV rather than in hard-nosed journalism. So it was perhaps inevitable that her Life Stories debut should be altogether fluffier and sweeter than was the case with Morgan. Garraway and Barnes made for pleasant company. However, neither came close to stepping outside their comfort zones. And Kate Garraway’s Life Stories ultimately told the all too familiar tale of a pair of celebs getting along famously.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“Amazon’s take on Reacher is as solidly made as he is and delivers the rollicking yarn as efficiently as the man himself can dispatch a Glock-wielding gangster. It is great, great fun and will come as a great, great relief to the Reacher devotees who will surely – at least at first – form the bulk of viewers. It will please them endlessly but is still drawn broadly enough as a crime drama to attract others.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“The narrative barrels along like Lee Child’s page-turners, with new episodes picking up precisely where the previous one left off. At times, it recalls 80s tea-time romps like The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider or The A-Team. I mean that as a compliment. Reacher is huge, pulpy fun and far classier than you might expect.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph