I'm officially obsessed with Mischief Theatre and their unique brand of comedy that is essentially messing things up on purpose. I've talked about them a couple of times before, but the joy of their Goes Wrong shows is how meticulously crafted it is to make it look so bad. The TV series that aired earlier in the year was a real highlight over Christmas and January, every episode had me …

I’m well aware that this blog has basically become an Apple TV+ review site, but everything I’ve watched on there so far has been really good quality. Okay, sometimes it doesn’t completely hit the spot (Truth Be Told) and some things just don’t look that interesting to me to even start (Servant) but what I’ve seen, I’ve liked. This time, it’s the turn of MythicQuest: Raven’s Banquet – a workplace …

Little America, the anthology series on Apple TV+, came at the perfect time in our household, as we’d just finished indulging in Modern Love and were in the right head-space for the ‘different story every episode’ style. Little America takes the formula and applies it to immigrant stories across a broad range of ages and lifestyles and all walks of life in the US. There were eight episodes and it …

I've long since been a fan of the Red Arrows, those crazy pilots that take to the skies for close formation flying and manoeuvres that quite frankly boggle the mind. The TV show that aired on Channel 5 this time last year was a great insight into the highs and lows of the group trying to get their display ready to perform. Injured pilots, new leaders and commentators, and a …

Having loved both For All Mankind and The Morning Show, I was expecting big things from the next AppleTV+ adventure – this time, a crime mystery with a podcast host at the helm. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite stand up to the competition even within its own broadcaster, let alone looking further afield. Let’s start with the good, though, the cast were great and they did the best they could with …

Stumbling across the TV show Modern Love was a weird experience – it was promoted on the Apple TV homepage and warranted further investigation. When we saw it was created by John Carney, who was also behind some of our favourite Dublin-based films, then it was a given we were going to watch this one. Anthology series’ aren’t always my favourite, but when they’re done well, like Black Mirror and …

The flagship offering of Apple TV+'s launch was The Morning Show, a complicated drama set in a network television morning show and featuring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston as sparring and unwilling co-anchors. The show came in for a lot of early criticism, being a bit corny, full of tropes and stereotypes and generally not telling the story well. I didn't get any of that. There were a few cliches, …

I don't know if it's just me, but Christmas television this year hasn't felt as special or as inspiring as it sometimes does. There's no Christmas Doctor Who special, and no superb films finally showing on TV, so that the only thing to look forward to seemed to be Gavin & Stacey. Wait a minute, Gavin and Stacey returning after a decade?? Yes! Many, many, many of us were looking …

When I first wrote about For All Mankind, it was out of duty rather than enjoyment really. This was a show about the moon with a sprinkling of feminism and couldn’t have been made more for me if it tried. I talked of how the first episode dragged and the second picked up and by the third I was hooked. Well, I should have sensed the pattern there because every …

As soon as it hit December, I restarted my Netflix subscription, because there’s no way I was going to miss out on all those cheesy Christmas movies. However, the bonus alongside festive treats is catching up on the big series’ that were released over the last six months that I have fallen behind on. Starting with the final ever series of Orange is the New Black, bringing to a close …

I knew I was going to love Dickinson because, from the trailer, it was a modern take on the early life of this infamous poet. I'll be honest and admit to knowing little about Emily other than her name, but as soon as I knew Hailee Steinfeld was in it, I was on board. And it was SO GOOD. Ten half-hour episodes of Hailee and her friends reinventing what a …

The US version of The Office has been off air for over six years, but it is barely out of the public consciousness and rarely a day goes by that I don’t see an Office gif fly by on my Twitter stream. The success of the Office didn’t diminish the brilliance of the original UK version but it certainly dwarfed it in popularity – spreading its wings to be much …

I recently discovered the podcast Robot or Not which is an audio show where: "Jason Snell asks John Siracusa to rule on the meaning of various words and concepts. It’s not just about robots anymore." I have been listening to the entire back catalogue, partly because the episodes are so short but also because they're so fascinating. As the title suggests, the concept started out solely about robots but has …

I just wanted to write a couple of thoughts down in praise of the TV series State of the Union. It aired earlier in the year in the US, I believe, and has just been shown on the BBC and via iPlayer and I absolutely drank that show up. Written by novelist Nick Hornby, the show consists of ten episodes of only about ten minutes each dipping into the lives …

I'm behind the times on this, but I'm glad I waited to watch Aisling Bea's new comedy This Way Up. I bought the entire series to binge on the Apple TV and got through it in super quick time - it was wonderful and heartbreaking and genuine and lovely and inspirational and sobering all in equal measure. The two areas it particularly shines in are the portrayal of struggling with …

So the new trailer for Apple TV+ series The Morning Show looks gooood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA7D4_qU9jo I didn’t want it to be good because I have too much TV to watch as it is, but trust Apple to dive in with some quality TV straight from the off. It’s some of my favourite people and it looks dramatic and interesting and dammit… gonna have to clear some time in my schedule.

I've recently started catching up on podcasts again, and this time I've discovered Rene Ritchie's Vector. It's officially a YouTube show, covering the latest news and insights into the world of Apple and technology, but there's also an audio-only podcast which is my preferred method. As I'm a little behind, I was listening to the shows released around WWDC, and this episode about the new tvOS caught my attention. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky4lfo6GQNI …

You'd probably have to have been living under a rock to have missed that there was a docu-drama programme telling the story of the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor disaster and what happened afterwards. It has been very well received and widely considered one of the best things on TV so far. I'm not going to add too much to the overwhelming level of support this TV series has got, because I …

Game of Thrones spoilers within! Hey people, we did it! I mean, I can't pretend that I have joined you all on an epic eight year long journey to find out who would finally be sitting on the Iron Throne, but it has been a pretty intense ride for me too. I think the fact that I binge watched all eight series in about six weeks means that I've a …

Okay, Game of Thrones fans, look away now because I know you’re just enjoying some of the best episodes ever (apparently), but I am still miles behind you. Yes, that’s me, one of those people that gets caught up on the hype train at the very last minute and then has to watch seven seasons in about six weeks. I’m doing pretty well actually. I tried watching Game of Thrones …

The little gem of a show that is Travel Man returned last week, and it debuted a new four-episode run with the wonderful guest star Dawn French. In case the show has passed you by, it features Richard Ayoade taking a celebrity guest on a whirlwind 48 hour trip to various holiday destinations. Previous episodes have featured Aisling Bea in Budapest, Jon Hamm in Hong Kong, and Paul Rudd in …

If you pay any attention to TV and culture on the internet, you’ll likely have heard people raving about Fleabag. I’m sorry to say that I’m just going to add to the adoration here, because it really was that good. I have to admit, though, that I only caught on to the Fleabag bug recently, and revelled in the joy of binge-watching it. I actually have to go one step …

I recently finished watching Russian Doll on Netflix, the show created by Natasha Lyonne and Amy Poehler, featuring the former as Nadia who relives the same night over and over. It’s Groundhog Day-style drama and although it was a bit of a rollercoaster to get there, by the end, I really loved it. Here are a few thoughts: The good thing about reliving the same time period over and over …

Whilst I am up to date with The Good Place (makes a change!), I hadn’t realised there was a podcast from the makers that dated back to the end of series one. Recently I heard some chatter about how good the podcast was, and so I quickly subscribed and started catching up. The chatter was right, this show is really good. Obviously you should only listen if you have watched …

The BBC aired a one-off hour-long comedy this Christmas, starring Stephen Merchant and Asim Choudry as an unlikely duo travelling hundreds of miles to find a sought-after toy for the former's kid, and featuring plenty of humour and emotional moments along the way. I loved it so much, I wished I was Film Watching it as I went along - then I realised, I can sort of do that anyway! …

When I read Not Going Out were doing a Christmas Special episode, I was very happy. Love this show, and any excuse for some more of Lee Mack's fun wordplay is good enough for me. When I read on to see it would be a live show, then I was in two minds. Live shows are good, the additional adrenaline of 'will they, won't they mess up' is an intriguing …

I was aware of the hype surrounding Netflix's recent horror offering, The Haunting of Hill House, but I wasn't sure I was prepared for it. I quite like a good horror but haven't watched anything in that genre for such a long time, I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous about my nerves. However, a friend recommended it and thus I was convinced to at least give it a …

The entire country went crazy for the recent BBC drama The Bodyguard, featuring Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes as a bodyguard and cabinet minister respectively. I came to this show late, as always, so was almost completely spoiled in terms of who did what, who died when, and what the outcome of it all was. That being the case, it wasn't quite as intriguing for me as I imagine it …

The second series of Hidden Britain by Drone aired on Channel 4 recently, and I just wanted to take a moment to say how brilliant this programme is. I watched the first series and loved the concept - Tony Robinson introduces film footage taken by drones that fly over areas that are inaccessible or, at the very least, not open to the public. Now, let's be clear from the start, …

Like many others, I recently finished watching Sharp Objects, the HBO mini series starring Amy Adams and based on the book by Gillian Flynn. I'll be honest and admit I only watched this because it has the lovely Amy Adams in it, I didn't particularly enjoy Gone Girl the book or the film, and whilst I did like Sharp Objects as a novel, I was worried how it would unfold …

I started watching West World after a recommendation from a colleague. The last time this happened, Mr C and I became totally and thoroughly obsessed with The Big Bang Theory and this time looked set to be no different. We both sat down to watch it and loved it. The intriguing concept, glossy visuals, great cast, musical puzzles, twisting narrative and never-ending feeling of wondering where it was all going, …

Recently, I discovered that NOW TV had six series of Gladiators available to watch on demand. I'm such a huge fan of Gladiators (bigger than I even realised, as a couple of episodes in, the theme tune made me a bit weepy!) and although I've seen clips and odd episodes over the last decade or so, this is potentially the first time I've been able to watch a concentrated batch …

So, I was in between TV shows, eagerly awaiting the arrival of series two of The Crown. I had a few days to spare and Mr C suggested, based on a random tweet he’d seen, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, available on Amazon Prime. I’d sort of forgotten I even had access to Amazon Prime content, but looked this one up. It only took maybe half an episode before I was …

I've been rallying for more music television content since they took Top of the Pops off the air, and the BBC have delivered somewhat in the form of Sounds Like Friday Night (half an hour isn't really long enough for that kind of show, but I'll take anything at the moment). Now I think we've got time and space on TV for the return of music quizzing as well, and …

Earlier this year, I wrote up some thoughts on Netflix original content, and having just finished up yet another fabulous Netflix series, thought I would post an update. One Day at a Time (series 1) I don’t know the original show that this was based on, and by all accounts it’s different enough to not matter, but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. The Cuban …

Recently, I’ve been trying to watch more educational television alongside all the more sensational Netflix stuff or traditional half-hour comedies. This desire has meant checking out a lot of BBC Four and BBC Two, and I really enjoyed the four-part factual show on the latter: World’s Busiest Cities. Presented by Anita Rani, Dan Snow and Ade Adepitan, the show delved into what makes four very different cities across the globe …

I was planning on publishing another update to my Adventures in Netflix series, but was waiting until I’d watched one more series of something. Unfortunately, any Netflix watching I had planned has been delayed as I’ve become totally obsessed with Red Rock – an Irish police drama that airs on the BBC during the daytime, the iPlayer whenever you want, and I believe on Amazon Video as well. It’s no …

I’ve been catching up with BBC Two’s The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes – a programme hosted by Caroline Quentin and Piers Taylor that is kind of like Grand Designs, but the houses are already built and no one gets pregnant before the end of each episode. My dad first highlighted the show to me, because there was an entire programme dedicated to underground houses. The dynamic duo visit four locations …

This week, I just finished watching season four of Agents of Shield, and my word, it was an incredible ride. (Vague spoilers below, nothing major.) I’ve loved watching the trials and tribulations of these Shield agents since the show first began, but it has gradually been improving in quality to the point that this series was an absolute triumph. My affection for the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been wearing thin …

For the longest time, I’ve been wanting to buy Buffy the Vampire Slayer on iTunes, but I’ve held off because it’s not in HD. Plenty of older content is being converted into HD, but I understood that Buffy was a particularly tricky one to convert, what with it being all special effects and kick-ass movement. I hadn’t realised that the conversion had already been attempted a couple of years ago, …

Every time I finish watching a Netflix original show, I keep thinking I should write about it and then I never do. So gathered here are some thoughts on the things I have watched over the last few months, probably in reverse order. 13 Reasons Why Lots of fuss about this one and I can see why. It is surprisingly graphic in content, and tells a depressing story from start …

I'm so gutted by the news that Peter Kay isn't planning on any more Car Share. Plans change and things have a habit of being resurrected when you least expect it, but for the moment, Kay suggests the show is done. There's not going to be a series three so it won't ever happen. You've got to get out while the going's good. No Christmas special, no... There's only so …

Over Christmas, the 80s TV show Pop Quiz returned for a two-part special, and it was brilliant! I've never heard of this show before, but was keen to give it a watch as it looked just like Question of Sport only about music. It even features genuine music acts, including Toyah Wilcox, some guy from Spandeau Ballet and other people I don't know but who were a lot of fun. …

I started watching 11.22.63 a long while ago, and have just, finally, after such a long time, gotten to the end of it. I was so looking forward to watching this series, James Franco goes travelling through time in an adaptation of a Stephen King book? It couldn’t really sound more perfect if it tried. The first episode was massively intriguing, and I forgave its slow pace as it was …

I didn't realise I was eagerly awaiting the fourth series of Orange is the New Black, not until the Netflix Twitter account started to count down to its release date. Then I remembered how much I enjoy the show, and how long it has been since we were last allowed a glimpse of what was going on at Litchfield Correctional Facility. The release of series four coincided with a period …

Top Gear returned on Sunday, with the first episode presented by the new line-up airing over the bank holiday weekend. I've been waiting with anticipation for this moment, along with the debut of the Clarkson/May/Hammond Amazon adventure as well. Top Gear in its previous guise was brilliant but it was never quite clear if it was the format of the show that made it great (gorgeous HD photography, fun stunts …

I quite enjoy the BBC's seasons, where they focus in on one particular subject across a majority of their platforms. But the latest one, called Sitcom Season, has me scratching my head. I love a good sitcom, new or old, but part of these plans involve bringing back a whole host of classic comedies and revitalising them for the new generation. For example: "Porridge, the classic prison sitcom, returns nearly …

The fact that Peter Kay's Car Share was brilliant and received a lot of love is probably not news to many, given that the series aired in April last year. It was something that passed Mr C by, however, and whilst I watched it over and over and grew to love it more and more, I felt protective of it in that way that means you can't really recommend it …

I was super excited to watch the new Jessica Jones series on Netflix. I'd not got on board with Daredevil, but this was something different. The concept appealed 100% - Marvel expanding their universe with female characters at the helm? Bring it on. Netflix allowing us to binge watch the entire series at once? I'm on board! The trouble is, it arrived just before I got to my latest exam …

Browsing through the BBC iPlayer, I saw that the final episode of Miranda that aired over Christmas was about to time out. It reminded me that three of my fondly admired sitcoms came to their conclusion this festive period, and surprisingly, all three went out in style. It may be that LOST burned me and that I hold a grudge for too long, but it feels like most TV shows …