Lucy

This is absolutely the best version of Masterchef! The challenges are inventive and exciting, changing things up every week with new tests to really push the contestants and made them better chefs. The hosts are very knowledgable and give masterclasses, tips and support to all the chefs to help them progress in their new careers, rather than act as a game show hosts. The whole show has a lovely family feel and the support between professional chefs and amongst the contestants is great to watch. I've even learnt some cooking tips which is a bonus!

Love the cheesy theme music and titles sequence too, I'm not ashamed to say I sing along with to each episode!

I enjoyed the first 5 seasons of the show, but then it started to get a bit tangled in its own mythology and a wee bit full of itself. Seasons 6-7 were very over complicated with their series arcs and less enjoyable for it. I stopped watching early in season 8 purely for the lack of a focus on exploring time and space (which was much more interesting to watch than the huge numbers of tie-ins to the series finale).

However, although I have gripes with the plot, I cannot fault the acting of everyone in the show. All the actors who have played The Doctor and his companions have been excellently cast and acted their socks off giving some amazing performances. The special effects are second to none too, I have no idea how they do all the CGI and stunts so seemlessly!

Lovely to see the zookeepers' reactions, their knowledge and genuine love for the animals in this show. The baby animal episodes are always the best as the keepers look after the new arrivals, and get to name the offspring! Really like the mixture of happy/sad animal stories and the behind the scenes look at how a zoo works.

An idepth look at a much more 'wild' China than we're used to seeing on tv. Great cinematography all round, capturing the wilderness and beauty of the Chinese landscape and all its inhabitants. Really loved all the scenes on the rivers, showing just how little life has changed there for communities.

Luke Cage is another solid effort in Netflix's Marvel tv-verse. Full of spirit, grit and soul it follows Luke as he journeys from quiet, thoughtful do-gooder to high stakes defender of Harlem. The tone of the show is warmer and more intimate than DD or JJ and I liked the smallness and the community feel of Harlem that was an important character in the show. The music too was wonderful, it created such a suitible mood and gave Luke Cage a strong identity right from the start. I watched the entire season in a weekend, so I can safely say it was definitely a captivating show!

Luke is different to Netflix's other Marvel characters in that he's reluctant to get involved with conflict at the start of the season. He wants to quietly do a good job and live a good life without using his abilities. However, the shock attack at the barbershop where he works changes Luke's agenda from loyal worker to a more dynamic server and protector his community.

Luke works with resisdents at Pop's barberhop, detective Misty Knight and Claire Temple to clear his name, right the wrongs of his past and protect the city from the gangs and dark political agendas that threaten the community of Harlem. The plot is a wee bit slow at times, and only once we'd had a few flashbacks/ glimpses of Luke's backstory in episode 4 was I truly hooked on the show. As with all Netflix's Marvel heroes, 10 tighter episodes would have worked better, but the season has enought momentum and strong character driven performances to keep the show driving towards the finish line.

In particular, Misty Knight and Claire Temple provided some badass female companionship and intellect to the proceedings was a warm welcome. Although we've seen Claire before in a reoccuring role, in Luke Cage she's a main character that uses her medical background as well as fighters instinct to get the team out of tricky situations, and provide plenty of heart to heart moments for Luke too. Misty is excellent as a detective, and demonstrates the tireless work of many loyal cops with an open heart and desire to succeed against all odds. Certainly good to see some gutsy females on tv right now.

Luke faces many adversaries including Cottonmouth (played impecably by the brilliant Mahershala Ali), Shades, Mariah Dillard and Diamondback (the weakest of the four). Although nothing will ever compare to Kilgrave in Jessica Jones, Cottonmouth and Dillard are a force to be reckoned with and they emulate a dark, heartless gangster ambience in every scene they're in - a great contrast to Luke who's full of heart and hope. The club where Cottonmouth and Dillard spend most of their time is a wonderful set, full of great 70s music and enough light and shade to embrace its range of grey characters.

I enjoyed the action elements of the show, Luke being bulletproof will never get old and his ability to demolish his opposition was very cool! However, I wouldn't catergorise this as an action show - there are plenty of slower moments, lots of discussion and talking scenes, and tbh I didn't care for Dillard's election campaigning talks much. However, the mixture of origin story, flashbacks, action scenes, drama and chase scenes certainly provided a wide range of fun moments for all the cast to shine.

The final showdown Luke vs Diamondback was probably one of the weakest points to the season, the whole fight scene in basically a boilersuit was a bit silly and lacked the drive and drama of previous action scenes. Diamondback was a second rate villan compared to the others on the show and the series had only introduced a way to make Luke uninvincible a couple of episodes before, it felt a little more like an afterthought. Never the less, thanks to the strong characters of Luke, Misty and Claire, the finale ends on a partially resolved cliffhanger, and I cetainly can't wait to see where Luke Cage goes next!

Sprawling with a great blend of hip hop, rap and disco tunes, The Get Down is the 70's music filled, star-crossed-lovers, polictical, gangster drama you never knew you needed in your life. It's a fond (if slightly rose tinted) view of the emerging music and arts scene, heavilly focused on the South Bronx and the diversity of people who call it their home.

The first episode, is a movie in itself and Baz Luhrmann stamps his mark all over it, BUT it is a fantastic opening to the three main storylines: Zeke, his friends and his talent for rapping, Mylene and her dreams of becoming a disco star and the political battleground of the Bronx is a focus of the mayor elections. I didn't care too much for any of the political storyline, it was a bit dry but did serve as context for the hip hop and disco art scenes.

Zeke is a likeable guy, trying to survive in the Bronx not dreaming of anything big until he means Shao, who's the series 'bad boy with a good heart' who introduces him to "The Get Down" and the different DJ crews of the Bronx. Together with 3 similarly artistic brothers, they form the Get Down Brothers and aim to start their own hip hop, rapping crew and make it big in the music world. By far the most interesting of the three storylines, over the series we see Zeke take charge over his life, follow his music dreams and stand up for what he believes in through a solid character arc of growing up and speaking out. Shao is on the cusp of the music and gangster world and has the 'street smarts' to pull off just about anything. I was really glad he wasn't a full time gangster, but saw gang life as a means to an end rather than join in with Fat Annie fully and put his love of music above everything else.

Mylene's journey is parallel to Zeke's in some ways as she too wants to make her own music and get it out to the world. However, she's more 'clean cut' and tries to go through a record producer etc etc... I get that it's hard to get a music deal but really the show could have cut out some of the struggles with Mylene getting a record contract and just had more of her singing, she is an AMAZING singer and can really belt out both gospels and disco music.

Zeke and Mylene's relationship goes back and forth, but like a typical Luhrmann drama, they overcome challenges, see the best in each other and fall for each other nicely (if quickly). Mylene's supportive friends and Zeke's crew are great supporting characters in their own right, and it was a shame not to get to know more about them. (Apart from Dizee's sub plot about being graffiti artist and experiencing the growing art and LGBTQ scene, which really would have been nice to be expanded on a bit, or at least not been quite such a solo effort).

Although the episodes were a uneven in terms of pacing, and any scenes about the gang violence or upcoming election were sluggish, the music of the series shone out and the parties and DJ battles where Zeke busts out his rhymes were really entertaining. Loved the final Get Down DJ battle, some great music and collboration there!

I’m so sad that The Get Down has been cancelled, it had good acting, lots of current themes explored and some really catchy music. Although there were obvious plot lines that fizzled out, there was plenty of good stuff to keep writing about.

Anyway I did enjoy watching part 2 of The Get Down, the kids are much more grown up and able to make informaed choices that will determine the course of their futures. Zeke has to choose between education and music, ultimately realising that he needs to find where he fits into the world, and join his family rather than be the token minority. Myleene goes through a journey of being ‘used’ by her record company but emerges stronger because of her experiences of fame, choosing to go to LA and be a movie star. I was pleased that the ‘star crossed lovers’ theme from part 1 was still a key theme of Zeke and Myleene’s relationship and that for the most part they got through relationship troubles together in a more adult way than in part 1.

The Get Down Brothers have more funky beats to play this season and their dance/song routines are slick. Sad that the other brothers only had very minor storylines, it would be good to see more character development for Boo, Dizzee and Ra Ra as they were all set up to have interesting personalities but failed to develop beyond very set stereotypes. Although the disbanding the Get Down Brothers was a solid place to end the season, it felt very sudden and lots of questions are unresolved - we know what Myleene and Shao are doing but what about everyone else? I hope there’s a finale of some sort to let us know where the characters are all now.

There were only 5 episodes in this part 2 of The Get Down so very little actually happens in terms of plot. Lots of relationship drama, and growing up/moving on troubles. Shao probably has the biggest shift, after breaking free of Annie, he ultimately returns to his abuser by the series end - a really heartbreaking scene that undercut much of the emotional development Shao had undertaken over the season. The biggest plot point was a subplot about Myleene’s uncle actually being revealed to be her father and her ‘father’ shooting himself in a church. Very dramatic, but really aside from making Myleene a bit sad for an episode, it didn’t move the plot forward successfully.

My main reason for tuning into the show though were the musical numbers. Myleene is an incredible singer and her songs are great, as are the raps by the Get Down Brothers. Arguably the disco music that forms most of the background music is catchy too and with a bigger budget for musical/dance numbers, those moments are where the show really shined best. Oh and to see if Thor/Dizzee continued their relationship (yay they did) but it would have been so so good to see more of the LGBT and artistic community of the Bronx in the show. Ah well, so long, farewell, thanks for a fun few hours The Get Down!

After waiting for seemingly YEARS for this show to be televised, it has certainly been worth the wait! Great atmospheric dark comedy drama(?) with strong characters, interesting plots (and oh my gosh THAT subplot) as well as good casting and a stunning set design every episode. Seriously props to the designers/costumers and all those who contributed to the 'look' of the show, it was fantastically dark, dreary with a hint of steam punk and a timelessness that captured the same moodiness as the original books.

As a fan of the books, I was really pleased that the show followed the storylines so closely and lots of the narration and breaking the forth wall moments were presented in the show. At first I thought Lemony Snicket narrating would be annoying, but he has a great, intriguing voice and a real gift for storytelling that actually added a lot of depth to the plot lines and gave an insight into the subplots and story arcs not yet fully realised by the Baudelaires themselves which was exciting!

The casting of the show was superb, Violet and Klaus have the Baudelaire look and are fairly good child actors. I enjoyed how Violet's inventing ability, Klaus's reading and memory as well as Sunny's teeth were used to great effect across the season. Would be nice to see more of these abilities and how they develop next season too (I hope they remember to inlude Sunny's love of cooking!) NPH for Count Olaf was a great choice - he is certainly having fun filming the show! Possibly the most enjoyable cast members were each of the Baudelaire's eccentric guardians each episode, they certainly were all played to the extremes and did an excellent job of being utterly useless and kind hearted in their own way, just like in the original novels.

The excellent addition of the subplot about the characters known only as 'Mother' and 'Father' was superb as it gave us a brief glimpse into the VFD organisation which we don't find out about until book 7 (correct me if I'm wrong!). The Mother and Father's adventures to battle against foes, giving us an insight into their double life was drip fed to us each episode, until the HEARTBREAKER in episode seven, where just before it happened, I realised that 'Mother' and 'Father' were not the Baudelaire's actual parents. Thankfully they show the reunion between Mother, Father and the Quagmire triplets before yet another tragic fire (excellent world building and a great addition to the stories).


The series obviously had its moments, each two parter is quite long and sometimes the expositions/explanations are slotted in a bit of a clunky way. The obvious substitute of Sunny for a doll in some scenes and a few other small inconsistencies are present, but overall these don't detract from the show and each episode runs along nicely with clear end in sight.

After such a long wait for a decent adaptation of ASOUE (looking at you Jim Carey film version...) I feel that Netflix has done a great job with the adaptation, having the author onboard has certainly helped shape the show into an atmospheric serialized version of the books, complete with cliffhangers, sub-plots, character development and hooking the viewer in with more questions than answers about those mysterious spyglasses (please answer more questions next season, please please...)

As stunning and beautiful as when it first premiered, Frozen Planet provides us with jaw dropping cinematogrpay, amazing animal escapades and a thought provoking message about the future of our planet and life on Earth itself.

The acclaimed BBC drama, Life on Mars, is absolutely fantastic - even a decade on feels fresh and relevant as it was in when it premièred. Much of this is down to the fantastic acting, solid scripts and boisterous buddy cop duo of Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt. We need more of these types on tv!

The whole police team in the 1970s world has a great camaraderie, Ray, Chris, Annie, Phyllis, Sam and Gene all pull together, fight together and stand up for each other when the time comes - they each have unique relationships between them and this helps to build a solid team, as well as in interesting cast of characters to develop into a law enforcement crime drama.

Sam and Gene’s ‘friendship’ forms the cornerstone of the team and is often pivotal in solving cases. Their relationship grows from grudging respect for each other to mutual respect and trust for each other by the time we get to series 2. They both have the same desire to keep people safe and keep the city free from criminals, however their methods and ways of ensuring this differ greatly. It’s great to see them learning from each other (Gene learning more from Sam than vice versa) as the show progresses and backing each other up not just as police detectives but also as friends. The gruffness of Hunt’s character covers up an emotional and vulnerable side to his character and seeing Tyler help develop this was a joy to watch.

Tyler adapting to the 1970s and seeing all the references and nods to the past was fantastic - the world building was done very nicely over the episodes after the first one plunged us into this strange ‘new world’ of policing. I loved all the pop culture references Sam makes, much to the confusion of everyone else! The timely interventions of Sam’s younger self or his family were pivotal to help develop Sam’s emotional connection with the 1970s world and provided some interesting plot points and moral dilemmas for Sam - with often heartbreaking consequences.

Watching Sam open his heart up to Annie throughout the show brought up some interesting moments. Annie’s psychology background and her understanding of Sam’s possible conditions helped him adapt to the 70s and made him feel sane at times. Their friendship has plenty of UST and at many points they SO NEARLY got together it was painful to watch. But Annie holds her own and waits for Sam to settle permanently in 1973 before finally getting together with Sam :) Sam’s faith in Annie and unwillingness to push her aside for her gender or experience is refreshing to see in a crime drama and certainly still relevant to today’s sexism debate.

The ongoing issue of ‘why/where/how’ Sam is where he is, continues right until the last minutes of the finale. So many clues are dropped in throughout the seasons and it is possible to piece together why and where Sam really is - the finale may throw a few curve balls out there but ultimately resolves the issues and rounds off the series with an action packed, interesting and heartfelt goodbye to the characters we know and love.

I could go on about the interesting cases the team solve and the often hilarious introduction to modern police techniques but ultimately you should go and watch these excellent 16 episodes and just enjoy the brilliant acting on display.

About as British as you can get from a situational comedy, Black Books features a trio of misfits getting through life's struggles and somehow managing to run a bookshop at the same time. Great comedy moments come from the smallest of happenings, a cat, a lack of alcohol, noisy roadworks, book signings and many more things that only happen when you're waiting for the day to end and to close up shop.

Bernard is a great moody and antisocial character who is supported by his only friend Fran and the overly optimistic Manny. The disordered nature of Black Books and Bernard's anti-social tendencies towards everyone make for some solid plots each episode, and the resulting disasters provide plenty of comedy.

The show feels a little dated over a decade on, but can still amuse and it's a lot of fun. It also features a huge range of guest stars who go on to become British comedians (Simon Pegg, anyone?) - it's interesting to see them earlier in their career!