Yellowjackets; The Apprentice; Inside Taiwan: Standing Up to China

“This season improves upon the first by keeping the audience perpetually on its toes, allowing for jump scares, body horror and some wonderfully imaginative twists.”
Leila Latif, The Guardian

“The novelty of Yellowjackets has worn off for me – the parallel timelines have become a little annoying, as has Christina Ricci’s sociopathic busybody of a character. But the show has an army of devoted fans who gather online to share theories and sift through clues about the various mysteries. If you’re one of them, I’m sure this series won’t disappoint.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“There’s a lot going on in season two. It’s a mystery, a horror story and a coming-of-age drama all in one, managing to turn on a sixpence from laugh-out-loud funny to genuinely disturbing and back again. The first season of Yellowjackets was great. Season two is spookier, bloodier and just as funny. Strap yourself in for another wild ride.”
Neil Armstrong, The i

“Fine work by Melanie Lysnkey and Juliette Lewis, particularly, will always elevate Yellowjackets from much of the televisual pack, but there’s no doubting that this return to its dog-eat-dog world represents a loss of momentum. Pulpy and playful, Yellowjackets has a lot going for it, but viewers will find it hard to remain invested in a survival drama that seems to be playing for time.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“Every final of The Apprentice has exactly the same heavy ‘last day of school’ vibes. The headteacher relaxes the stern act and joshes with his teachers (Karren Brady and Tim Campbell) and the kids who have spent 12 weeks at each other’s throats start being nice and normal to each other, as if suddenly released from their ‘behave like annoying tossers at all times’ contracts. It’s obviously a winning formula, but it’s as wearily predictable as Sugar’s scripted puns.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“It’s always dull as ditchwater because the things that make this show entertaining – hissy fits, dunderheaded decisions, gibbering in the boardroom – are absent. We’re supposed to wipe our memories of the series in general, and last week’s episode in particular (when the business plans of finalists Marnie Swindells and Rochelle Raye Anthony were torn apart by Claude Littner and co), and pretend that these are two of Britain’s finest business brains, aided by some very efficient colleagues.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“The series is a very misleading advert for business. It gives every impression that running a company is all luxury hotels, smart cars, and power suits. Perhaps its greatest achievement has been to turn the office meeting, the most mind-numbing and dreary occupation in the known universe, into comedy gold.”
Roland White, Daily Mail

“The Apprentice is at its best when it embraces the comedy it’s become, letting its oblivious candidates run riot, dying each other’s skin green with their newly created skincare and gabbing on about the history of canons (miss you Gregory). But something has to change to keep us interested. A new prize? A new format? A new… host? No, contrary to some opinion, I think Lord Sugar still has many years of puns and finger pointing left in him yet. But one thing’s for sure: The Apprentice can’t keep treating its audience with as little respect as it treats its candidates. We’re smarter than that.”
Emily Baker, The i

“Reporter Jane Corbin’s gripping analysis of rising tensions between the People’s Republic of China (capital: Beijing; leader: Xi Jinping; population: 1.4 billion) and the Republic of China (capital: Taipei; current leader: Tsai Ing-wen; population: 23 million) examines the possibility of history not just repeating itself, but of tensions escalating so far as to cause the return to geopolitical discourse of that quaint old term, nuclear Armageddon. Sadly, Corbin couldn’t get face time with president Xi to set out his Taiwanese policy. Instead, she has the wonderful Victor Gao, fluent yet chilling media spokesperson for the Chinese Communist party. Gao only needs a stroked cat on his lap to truly perfect his Bond villain aura.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“Jane Corbin’s excellent Inside Taiwan: Standing Up to China contained, as one might expect, deeply depressing pronouncements. The Taiwan Strait was one of the most ‘dangerous flashpoints in the world’; Taiwan is a ‘cork in the bottle’; anyone who tried to stop China’s forced ‘reunification’ with Taiwan risked sparking ‘Armageddon’. But I didn’t expect to find it so encouraging too. Corbin did a thorough, serious job of showing how vibrant and quick on its feet this country is.”
Carol Midgley, The Times