The Stolen Girl; Government Cheese

“It is all done with just enough chutzpah and style to get you over any niggles. The pieces of the jigsaw arrive and are slotted in at satisfyingly frequent intervals to keep the show on the road. It won’t linger in your mind for a second after you finish it, but you will have had five hours of a pretty good time.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“By the end your credulity will have been sorely tested and there are more loose ends than a string factory. But it is a gripping ride and you’ll definitely be saying no to sleepovers for a while.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The cast is The Stolen Girl’s ace in the hole. It elevates another ‘The Girl on the Train who Peaked from Behind the Net Curtain’-style psych thriller to a level of robust watchability. The tension in The Stolen Girl – and whatever else it is, it grips like duct tape – comes as much from these performances as from the plot. If only they could give the actors a little more to work with.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“The Stolen Girl could have been a nuanced exploration of the lengths mothers will go to to protect their children, and the ways in which they are judged when they are deemed to fail. Instead, it’s a forgettable – if gorgeous-looking – thriller that never surprises past its initial set-up.”
Rachel Sigee, The i

“Government Cheese looks beautiful: the cars, the dresses, the rotary telephones and chunky appliances, the hairstyles, the shoes and the panelled interiors. All are sumptuous, whipping us back to a time when objects were reassuringly weighty, the air was clear and hope for the future came in quarter-gallon cups. If you turn the sound off, the co-creator Paul Hunter, known for music videos and adverts, has nailed it. But, a little like Apple TV+ goofballs such as The Big Door Prize, Physical, Palm Royale and Hello Tomorrow!, Government Cheese lacks the storytelling substance to go with the attractive surfaces. It’s not even trying to go anywhere with purpose: it would rather just mosey eccentrically.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“This is a lot to take in over an initial 45-minute episode and it doesn’t help that creators Paul Hunter and Aeysha Carr are plainly Wes Anderson aficionados. The show leaves no surrealist flight of fancy unflown, and is as interested in aesthetics and that perfect shot as it is in story. But if you can stay the course, a few episodes in it settles into a worthwhile family drama cleaved to a likeable crime caper.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph