The Lovers; Helping Our Teens; Love & Death; The Changeling

“The Lovers’ lack of sentimentality is very enjoyable. At times, it feels like a grownup entry to a genre that can seem whimsical and even fantastical. While there are plenty of coincidences that will have you thinking ‘really?’, it just about gets away with it, because the dialogue is pleasingly barbed.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“Episode one does just enough to cast a sly, subversive hook. But Northern Irish writer David Ireland drops enough quirky clues to suggest that things are destined to heat up between his two offbeat lovers.”
Helen Brown, The Telegraph

“‘Opposites attract’ is as old as the hills but the writing here is sharp and witty, and the performances of Roisin Gallagher as Janet and Johnny Flynn as Seamus are pretty much spot on, each having funny bones in their own way. Probably the biggest strength of The Lovers is the writer David Ireland’s ear for dialogue and his witty observations.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The 40-minute opener barely gives us enough to judge, but there’s an undeniable chemistry between the stars.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Elizabeth Olsen compels as a perky, sarky minx who, whatever happens later on, snags our sympathy as a neglected housewife to whom the American Dream brings no inner joy. Though pitched further down the social ladder, this is another high-octane dispatch from the pressure cooker of marriage and materialism that has become the specialty of David E. Kelley.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“Kelley is adept at handling the creeping sense of dread and has mastered the repressed violence of American domesticity. Yet Love & Death feels by the numbers. Humanising the adulterous Candy – a task that other representations of the story have skipped on – is a noble addition to the rote true crime story, but the lure of the salacious proves too strong.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“Love & Death doesn’t give any clue about how this woman came to kill – let alone in the ultraviolent way she did. It may be, of course, that there isn’t one. But in that case, it isn’t worth trying to make a story or any kind of art out of it. It doesn’t teach us anything. It doesn’t expand our understanding of anyone. It makes us voyeurs without a redemptive aspect. And it makes Betty – especially here, where she is notably underwritten – no more than a plot point.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“If being made to feel unsettled is enough for you, The Changeling will make you very happy indeed. So too if you are happy watching great performances hold a proliferating mass of material together. If the thrill provided by daring, innovative television (even if it doesn’t quite come off) is your jam, dig in. If you are seeking answers, narrative satisfaction or resolution – well, stay away, for this show is more full of loose threads than we can understand.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“It’s rare to hear complaints that a show has stayed too close to the source material – but that’s precisely the problem with Apple TV+’s The Changeling. Based on the 2017 novel by Victor LaValle and adapted by Saving Mr Banks and Fifty Shades of Grey screenwriter Kelly Marcel, the eight-part series is dense and self-consciously, overwhelmingly literary. It is packed with allusions to myths and legends, and there are books everywhere. LaValle himself crops up as the series’ narrator, speaking in aphorisms that feel written to be read rather than heard, and his characters are constantly quoting from stories. All of this probably makes for rich and rewarding reading, but it also ensures a disorientating viewing experience.”
Katie Rosseinsky, The Independent