Fool Me Once: Episode 8

 "Oh noooo!"

And so it ends, as any good melodrama should, with a proper full-on confrontation between Maya and the Burketts, in which- of course- she is shot and killed. As we established last episode, protagonist she may be, but she's a war criminal. Karma demands she die. But she dies for a purpose, with the livestream and killing livestreamed by Corey. It's a neat way to end.

There's a lot of non-linear filling in of gaps, as we flash back to Joe's mudder of Claire, Maya's killing of Joe, the revelations that Joe murdered... well, everybody else who has died during the course of the series.And Kierce, no longer a cop, gets his own revenge, of sorts, by letting Maya go and confront the Burketts.

I'm not sure what purpose the coda accomplishes, other than to establish that Kierce in fact goes on to survive for many years. There's the full circle thing of Lily's baby being called Maya but, well, that's a bit superficial. Still, all in all, this is a highly satisfactory end to a highly satisfactory melodrama.

Fool Me Once: Episode 7

 "You're not fit for work, Kierce."

"No, I'n not."

Wow, That final bombshell in thedying seconds of the episode has left me reeling.

It's not the only bombshell to explode in this deeply satisfying penultimate episode, of course. We realise the cause of Kierce's blackouts... and it's the Birketts' fault. We learn what really happened to get Maya dismissed from the army. We learn how Maya came to see Joe on the "nannycam". Oh, and we learn what happened to Theo and Andrew all those years ago... teenage Joe murdered them both. Lovely.

Most mind-blowing of all, last few seconds excepted, is that the person we thought was Kierce's AA cult counsellor (less dodgy addiction treatment is available) was always a hallucination of his late wife, in a devilishly clever bit of misdirection.

It is, as ever, all about the revelations: this is a melodrama and doesn't pretend to be more. But there's nothing wrong with that, and this is a melodrama of the first rank. Both Michelle Keegan and Adeel Akhtar are deeply impressive. They even say "lift" and use the proper British version where Kierce reads Corey his rights. Shame about "Get in the trunk"...

Fool Me Once: Episode 6

 "You keep sytumbling over dead bodies, don't you, Maya?"

A grumble, before the praise begins. I know I've whinged a lot about Kierce getting called "Detective Kierce" rather than "Detective Inspector", but this time his boss gets called "Captain Proctor" rather than Detective Chief Inspector Proctor". I don't mind a bit of adaptation to a largely American audience- this is Netflix- but things like that really take away the realism.

That aside, this episode is superb. The plot twists and turns like a twisty-turny thing yet again, and in a hugely entertaining manner. There are shocks and bombshells all the time, not least at the very end- did Joe really kill Andrew? But that's not all. What's Corey really after? Did he kill Tommy Dark? Is Judith, as I now suspect, a red herring?  Is Joe alive after all? There's a lot to uncover, I have no idea whats happening, yet we're really quite close to the end.

Yet, despite all this, this is all about Sami Kierce and his coming to terms with things, along with the help of his loving, lovely fiancee. Adeel Akhtar is once again sublime in a role that really showcases his talents. This is all about the shocks and the plot equivalent of jump scares, it's got no deeper subtext I can discern, but I'm loving the ride... and the characters feel very real.

Fool Me Once: Episode 5

 "The rich protect each other..."

The plot continues to be splendidly convoluted. Corey knows the Burketts are mixed up in some seriously bad criminal stuff, possibly involving Joe. The plot thickens, too, around his late brother Andrew andthat sinister public school. Another kid, a working class outsider turned popular achiever, dies of "alcohol poisoning" shortly before Andrew's apparent suicide. And yeah, the headmaster is definitely hiding something. 

In support of the "evil Burketts" theory is Judith's continued creepiness. She's a psychiatrist, making veiled threats to institutionalise Maya, having altready renfdered her daiughter Caroline a madwoman in the attic. Brr. Meanwhile, Eddie continues to be decent and his daughter has her own fascinating plot thread.

Oh, and there's a storage place. With at least one frozen body in it. Literal Brr.

But the real emotional core here, of course, is with Inspector Kierce and the sublime performance of Adeel Akhtar who, cruelly, as he's about to become a husband and father, faces a truly horrible fate. 

Again, this is perhaps not exactly oozing with subtext. It's a whodunit-cum-melodrama.But it's bloody good melodrama.

Fool Me Once: Episode 3

 "Life-ruining rat!"

Deep breath. Lots of rabbit holes here. So...

The red car belongs to Corey the Whistle, who had dodgy arrangements with both Claire and Joe, feeding him info to protect Maya... infor for whi they both deied. Info about the Burketts? They're certainly paying off a lot of person. And that Neil (the third Burkett brother?) certainly seems dodgy. Which probably, of course, makes him the red herring.

Of course, I'm sure there's a lot to be revealed about what truly happened with Maya's apparent war crime- we're certainly being teased a lot. Then there's Claire's kids investigating a tech bro ex of their mother's, whose firm has a weird, QR code-flashing robot thingy.  Oh, and one of the motorbiokes from Joe's murder is linked to that unpleasant football coach. and the cliffhanger... wow.

And yet... what really impresses is the characters. Michelle Keegan is great, of course. But Adeel Akhtar also impresses as the able but world-weary DI Kierce (again, stop calling him "Detective Kierce!: this is not America!), a very well-rounded character. I'm still not sure this is about anything beyond the thrills... but does it have to be?

Fool Me Once: Episode 2

 "Lying's never good policing."

No, DI Kierce. And nor is lying by omission to your fiancee about your blackouts while being open to them to yoiur dodgy Alcoholics Anonymous counsellor. You need to stay away from that semi-cult for a start, but at least on this occasion she gives good advice. Get tested. And bloody tell your fiancee, who miraculously failed to spot anything dodgy after your very well-shot breakfast blackout.

Meanwhjile, in some ways, the plot advances quietly. In other ways it doesn's, as Maya finds a lead to ploice don't suspect- Claire had a secret phone which she used only for talking to someone at a retro gaming arcade. Was she having an affair with Joe, as the police (and Eddie) suspdct? I don't think so. I think it was a very different secret, and connected to all the dodgy cult stuff.

Then there's the photos of a young Claire, developed by her kids- and, incidentally, her son doesn't understand why the camera doesn't have a screen. I feel old- in which shre's pregnant with another child from before she met their dad. We see the reading of Joe's willpostponed by the lack of a death certificate, and we meet KJoe's likeable sister, Caroline, who has her own suspicions that not only Joe but his brother Andrew may not be dead.

Oh, and one final bombshell: Joe's family are paying Kierce a load of money every month. Conflict of interest much? But I suspect eve this is not what it seems. Nothing is. This is quite the most twisty-turny bit of telly I can remember ever seeing. I'm not sure if it's all that deep behind all these whodunit equivalent of jump scares, but my God I'm loving the ride.

Years and Years: Episode 2

"This is a different country to the one I left..."

First episodes of new dramas are always, to an extent, set up, introducing us not only to the premise and the setting but also to the cast. It’s the sign of a great writer that, after seeing the first episode once, I started this second episode with a firm grasp of who was who, and feel that I know all the characters. And that’s important; a high concept, somewhat dystopian tour through the near future would be very dry without real humanity and character. Fortunately RTD has never been faulted with either of those.

So we really feel for Stephen and Celeste in the final scenes as a bank collapse robs them of the money paid for their house, and they become homeless and forced into an awkward dependence on Gran. The bank run scenes are a masterful marriage of writing and direction, with the policeman keeping order joining in at the end, a nice touch. And yet the world isn’t unremittingly awful in spite of everything as there is still booze, love and laughter, even in a world with s President Pence and where Putin is dictator for life. Yet the horrors are real; the immigration nightmare for Daniel and Victor, happy in their life until Daniel’s wanker of an ex has Viktor ruthlessly reported to a place where he is far from safe. It’s about time that serious TV drama showed us the barbarism of May’s “hostile environment”.

Edith is back, and back properly, with her characterisation quite a clever piece of writing. She’s had a huge dose of radiation, and probably has ten years before the cancer gets her, leading her to say “sod this” to a life of activism and just enjoy herself. As she says, it’s too late to sort the climate crisis and the mass extinctions; we must now deal with the consequences and they are brutal. So carpe diem. Not only that; she reacts to a creepy hustings with Vivienne Rook with “smash the world!” She seems not to care any more. Oh, there are flashes, as when she says “don’t do that” as Rook appropriates a superficial feminism for her own ends, but this is a terrifying cynicism.

Ah yes, the extraordinary Emma Thompson as Rook, propeller I to a by-election by a very RTD incident where the sitting MP gets decapacitated by a drone which is robotising Manchester’s workforce. Eat your heart out, William Huskisson. Her speech is utterly terrifying, as is her ignorance.

This episode has gone up a notch. This is more than “very good”.

Years and Years: Episode 1

"Don't know if I could have a kid in a world like this."

RTD is back, after last year's superb A Very English Scandal, with the start of a new six-part drama which seems to have the critics wowed but is, well, very good (this is RTD) but not quite up there with The Second Coming.

We have four Lyons siblings- Rosie, Daniel, Stephen and the globe-trotting polemicist Edith, all glued together by their irascible, politically incorrect gran, and it is through them that we are to experience the next few decades, beginning here and now in 2019- so contemporary that a cleverly last mo ute piece of dialogue references the death of Doris Day. All of these characters immediately come to life as RTD gives them very real and very relatable dialogue, as always. Yet the constant backdrop of ominous news, and the little soliloquy of Daniel (the author’s representative?) makes it clear that this is a world where the future looks anything but bright- and yes, he’s not the only one who feels that something has been very wrong ever since the banks buggered things up in 2008. And through all this we see the slow rise of the blunt populist politician Vivienne Rook, played superbly by the great Emma Thompson.

We then go through the next six or seven years, through Trump’s re-election, through a new king, through nuclear tensions between China and the USA, and through a refugee crisis caused by an, er, Soviet (what???!!) invasion of Ukraine. We also see such things as Snapchat filters moving to the real world and Stephen’s daughter coming out as “trans”- by which she means “transhuman”; she wants to go to a Swiss clinic, destroy her flesh and upload herself to live forever as data. Wow. This would, of course, be literal death; the data uploaded would just be a copy. You would be gone. But I’m sure there will be those who think this way and it’s a clever thing to include. And this helps us get to know bewildered father Stephen and his very middle class wife Celeste.

We also see the gradual collapse of Daniel’s marriage to his stupid husband Ralph, who embraces silly internet conspiracy theories and decries those who won’t consider that the Flat Earthers, 9/11 triggers or Moon landing deniers “could be right” as closed minded. This kind of stupidity is, it can’t be denied, the main bad thing about the internet. And these people vote, usually for populist bullshit. This sort of thing isn’t harmless. We also see some staggering ignorance about Ukrainian refugees- “I voted Leave.” Grr.

And then there comes a siren, nuclear war between China and the USA, chaos, family recriminations and Edith dying in Vietnam with a big mushroom cloud. And fade to black. This is very good stuff indeed, it’s just that RTD can do much better than “very good”.

Humans: Season 3, Episode 8

“I created life once before...”

Well, that was epic and eventful. This last episode had a lot to squeeze into its forty-odd minutes and just about explained any loose ends, although not without a massive cliffhanger pointing towards what looks like a fascinating next season.

There are two strands to what’s going on; the horrors of Operation Basswood being carried out and Niska’s quest, “a pilgrimage of faith, of belief” to the Synth Who Sleeps, which finally pays off and (hooray!) integrates with the rest of the plot.

This rather mystical subplot may seem out of sync with everything else, but something like this not only pays off the ongoing theme of faith but, more importantly, adds a modest and justified amount of deus ex machina which prevents the whole thing becoming overly dark, bleak and depressing. It provides balance.

Hence the object of Niska’s quest may look like Odi but is in fact V (remember V?) who took over the body of a suicidal Odi and has been pulling strings. Niska’s personal journey makes her the perfect person, apparently, to get purple eyes like V and intervene in order to nudge history in its proper direction, Hari Seldon-like.

Because things are otherwise very bleak indeed- Mia ensures that the synths at the Railyard survive the early parts of Basswood, but the mob still attacks and the horror escalated slowly, and then things happen which made Mrs Llamastrangler cry. Mia, who has been very Christlike all season, dies a pacifist, on camera, and incites spontaneous marches of support which seem to partly ruin the Government’s plans. But the Government enters proper dictatorship mode here, to Neha’s horror. And, for revealing the details of Basswood on telly, it seems that Laura is to be charged with treason for so embarrassing the powers that be, and we see the enormous effects of this on the family. But, to paraphrase Mattie, what matters is doing the right thing. Whatever injustice follows, you still did what was right.

As for Mattie, she points the way to next season which, given past practice, is likely not to be for a long time; having all but decided not to keep the baby, and with Leo out of the picture, it looks as though herbonly choice is whether to face prison and opprobrium on her own terms or not, but it’s here that Niska’s re-enters the main plot, sprinkles a little light deus ex machina and drops the big reveal: Mattie’s baby is a synth human hybrid, and the reproductive future of synths is linked with humanity. That’ll be another season then...

Masterfully constricted and emotionally devastating stuff. Top class telly. I’m just glad that not all telly is this intense..

Humans: Season 3, Episode 7

“It’s genocide!”

It’s the penultimate episode, full of foreboding for the finale, expertly constructed as ever, and the pieces are in place for what doesn’t look like a happy ending. On the other hand, though, there seems to be a theme of faith which may offer a little hope. Or not.

Leo, with daddy issues of his own, doesn’t react well to news of his impending fatherhood, and we also see him denouncing his own father to Anatole as far from a god. There are also serious questions s about what kind of future such a baby can have, as Mattie has a 24 hour ultimatum to be outed by that slimy journalist. At least this leads to a reconciliatory father/daughter hug between her and Joe, which makes me even more sure that Joe, who hasn’t generally handled himself well, is going to sacrifice himself for the greater good next episode. All the tropes point that way.

We get the surprisingly quick downfall of Anatole, at the hands of Max, his last words being that Max should have been open from the start. The threat from bad synths seems to be over before the finale; it’s human bigotry that always was the big bad. The most horrible moment is how Ne reveals to Laura the full horrific details of the oncoming synth genocide, a genocide that has already started.

Potential hope comes with Niska’s lonely and increasingly weird sub-plot, which is mystical and seems to present a more positive ideal of faith than that presented by Anatole, the religious terrorist fanatic who denies the facts in front of him. This sub-or is looking more and more like a potential source of a miracle, which I hope is handled carefully.

That ending, though- Odi? Apparently not quite. But things are set up for a very revelatory final episode. Humans is still the best thing on telly.

Humans: Season 3, Episode 6

"Social cohesion is our only hope..."

After having our hopes raised, this is where we start to see them dashed. We can tell right from the pre-credits sequence, with Laura narrating, which reminds us how precarious everything is. And then, after Mia’s positive speech to the commission, everything is destroyed by Agnes’ senseless suicide bombing, in one instant, in a superbly directed sequence full of juxtapositions.

So much happens. Mattie is pregnant! Unwitting father-to-be Leo discovers that his own father regretted saving him. Niska’s separate and rather plodding plot thread, the series’ only real misstep, continues to plod along. And there’s a terrifying sequence in which Laura discovers that “Stanley” is not what he seems. He’s creepy and terrifying; a superb performance. Yet Laura manages to persuade him not to massacre the Dryden Commission. For now, anyway.

But the truly devastating scene comes at the end, as Anatole enters the Hawkins residence to bring Stanley back, and cruelly proves that even Laura would instinctly save a random human over even little Sam. Devastatingly, this brings not only Stanley but also Sam to Anatole’s side. It’s a powerful scene.

It’s a tribute to the script that an episode such as this, largely functional and quite visibly putting all the ducks in a row for the end game, can nevertheless be so dramatic, emotive and devastating. More please.

Humans: Season 3, Episode 5

“He was talking to the ground, Joe!”

Another brilliant episode, obviously- this is, after all, Humans- but I get the sense that the sense optimism that we get here is doomed to be brutally punctured, and the outline of how it will happen is very, very visible.

We needed a less depressing episode, of course, after Karen’s death by mob at the end of last week’s, and most of the run time is taken up with Joe returning to the family home with poor orphaned Sam, who has nowhere else to go. We gradually see, as he interacts with the family, now Sam is learning about the emotions of grief he feels (“I don’t want my Mum to be dead. I don’t like it.”), and it’s heartbreaking. We also see Joe reconnecting a little with the family, except of course Mattie.

Elsewhere there is optimism. Laura succeeds in getting the Dryden Commission to ban violence against synths, although the script seems to behave as though it’s suddenly law already, before going through Parliament, but artistic licence and all that. Mia discovers that she has a lot of supporters online, many of whom are hiding synth loved ones, and dares to hope a little. Yet danger lurks; racism has not gone away, and as Max’s optimism runs ahead of him he alienated Anatole, who ends up freeing Agnes. Equally bad, Mattie is “befriended” by a journalist who is on to her. I suspect next episode will be much less cheery, especially as Mattie’s public excoriation will utterly undermine Laura and her cause. Why do I get the impression that Joe will somehow sacrifice himself to save Mattie?

That cliffhanger, though... Stanley has never been creepier. This series has bed. Consistently excellent, but I always await the next instalment with trepidation.