Friday, December 31, 2021

2021: A Year In Review

While 2021 might not have been the greatest of years, there was still that I managed to watch during the year and while some shows I probably should've watched (Line Of Duty, Succession) but didn't get into. I still did manage to watch a variety of stuff. Here are some of the highs and lows I had for 2021.

In terms of Ryan Murphy, I quite enjoyed current seasons of 911 and 911: Lone Star with the latter showing a marked improvement on it's first season. I did however miss Halston, which didn't seem to have any following at all and despite enjoying the first episode, I found myself not sticking with Impeachment: American Crime Story. Then there was American Horror Story: Double Feature, which started well and dove off a cliff within it's second half while spin-off series, American Horror Stories had one genuinely gripping episode while the rest felt sorely underdeveloped. As for Pose, the series might have ended too soon but it definitely went out on a high note.

This year was also a year for continuing the sequel series trend. The L Word: Generation Q added Rosie O'Donnell to the cast but did very little to warrant any interest while And Just Like That has somewhat been divisive with fans while at the same pulling in strong numbers for HBO Max. Gossip Girl upped the raciness and LGBT content while Dexter: New Blood gave a little more life into the title killer. None of these shows have successfully recaptured the magic of what came before but none of them have been out right disasters either.

Then there was Doctor Who. The year got off to a strong start with festive special, Revolution Of The Daleks while Series 13 introduced us all to John Bishop's Dan Lewis, hinted at the final days for the 13th Doctor and Yasmin Khan, saw most of the universe decimated by the Flux and gave us a campy sibling act in Swarm and Azure.We were also introduced to Karvanista, Bel and Vinder, had the return of Kate Stewart and with three specials for 2022 and Russell T. Davies back from 2023 onwards, this show isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

In terms of dramas, nothing came close for me than Russell T. Davies miniseries, It's A Sin. The five part series starring Olly Alexander and Lydia West to name a few was an incredible piece of television that got all the award love, broke streaming records for Channel 4 and tackled the AIDS crisis issue from a poignant point of view. One of the most sublime pieces of television and easily Davies most important work he's done in his career.

As for crime related material, Mare Of Easttown cemented a career high for Kate Winslet but my favourite crime series was of course, Only Murders In The Building. Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez truly delivered as murder solving, podcasting trio Charles, Oliver and Mabel while The Long Call gave us a gay lead detective in Ben Aldridge's Matthew Venn, and though the show itself didn't stray too much from the trusted ITV format, it was still massively enjoyable.On the non crime front, I finished up the likes of Bridgerton, Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, Schitt's Creek, Friends: The Reunion and even found both The White Lotus and The Nevers pretty enjoyable.

As for the MCU, this year they definitely dominated in both theatres and on Disney+. Keeping with the latter, both WandaVision and Hawkeye were the best ones for me. I personally found What If to be the weakest of the bunch while both The Falcon And The Winter Soldier and Loki definitely had their moments too. Let's see if the next batch of shows can match the mostly high standards that these first five (or four out of five) have set up.

Meanwhile while HBO Max have yet to debut any of their own DC shows yet, they did give us the third seasons of both Titans and Doom Patrol, with the former being a mixed bag and the latter as enjoyable as ever. Pennyworth also pulled in a stronger second run while Netflix had both the last run of Lucifer as well as the debut of Sweet Tooth. CW wise, there was the endings of both Black Lightning and Supergirl while Batwoman debuted a new version of the title character and changed the show's whole dynamic. The Flash resolved the Mirror Monarch storyline, tackled the Forces and Godspeed before going all Armageddon on us with Despero and Reverse Flash. Legends Of Tomorrow played around with aliens, magic mushrooms, stranded our team in 1925, ditched some characters and added others while Stargirl tackled both Summer School and Eclipso. However the DC highlight of the year was of course the debut of Superman And Lois, which more than lived up to it's expectations.

Last but not least, some other LGBT highlights aside from shows I mentioned earlier in the blog. Legends Of Tomorrow might have seen Matt Ryan retire the role of John Constantine but having remain as gay scientist Dr Gwyn Davies continued to highlight why he's one of the best actors on the show while fans of Sara and Ava got to see them getting married. Then there was the second season of Love, Victor which ended with a triangle between Victor, Benji and newcomer Rahim while the main love story in the Chucky series was of course between Jake and Devon. 

Okay, those were my highlights of 2021- what were yours? What are you looking forward to in 2022?

Thursday, December 30, 2021

DCEU Blog - Batgirl Adds Keaton's Batman, Blue Beetle Goes To Cinemas And Much More

It's certain been an interesting and rather busy December for DC. Upcoming projects are in full swing as we close the year with some interesting reveals. Here we go.

Michael Keaton will not only reprise his role as Batman for The Flash movie but he will also reprise the role for Leslie Grace's Batgirl movie for HBO Max, which has now begun filming.

The Flash will also see the returns of both Michael Shannon and Antje Traue reprising their roles as Zod and Faora.

An animated Crisis On Infinite Earths movie has been rumoured for a future release.

The WB released a final trailer for The Batman while Empire magazine has released several new photos and details about the movie. We're so close to it now.

Peacemaker will release it's first three episodes on HBO Max from January 13th with the remaining episodes being weekly releases. A UK broadcaster hasn't been confirmed yet though it's likely it'll go to Sky.

Both Amy Jo Johnson and Elizabeth Henstridge have directed recent episodes of Superman And Lois. The second season premieres on the CW from January 11th.

Jennifer Holland's Emilia Harcourt will appear in Black Adam. Henry Winkler is also rumoured to be playing the original version of Atom Smasher (Al Pratt).

Gal Gadot has been rumoured to be appearing in Shazam! Fury Of The Gods as Wonder Woman. This hasn't been officially confirmed, so take with a pinch of salt for now.

Legends Of Tomorrow and Batwoman's current seasons will air their finales on March 2nd. Both shows return to the CW from January 12th.

Blue Beetle will now be a theatrical release and is heading into cinemas from August 18th 2023. Filming begins in early 2022.

The CW are in early stages of developing a Gotham Knights series, but although it'll be from the writers and producers of Batwoman, it'll be set in a different continuity.

The Metal Men will now be an animated movie, instead of a live action one.

And that's it for DC News in 2021. How you enjoyed it and here's to seeing what will be on the horizon during 2022.

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

My Review of Crawl (2019)

 


Written by Michael Rasmussen And Shawn Rasmussen
Directed by Alexandre Aja 

Haley: "Apex predator all day."

Sometimes you just crave something a little different in the horror genre and every once in a while, a movie like this will come along. It's something different alright. No masked murderers. Just mother nature and a certain group of water based predators proving they're every bit as dangerous to all and sundry.

This movie focused on swimmer Haley (Kaya Scodelario) who has something of an estranged relationship with her father, Dave (Barry Pepper). Haely's sister, Beth (Morfydd Clark) wants the two to reconnect. Reluctantly, Haley agreed to her sister's wish and went to the old family home in order to try and recpnnect with their father.

Of course Haley picked the worst day for a reunion as the place her father was living in was not hit by a Category 5 hurricane but  also the house became flooded, her father badly hurt and on top of that, both Haley, Dave and the family dog, Sugar spent the majority of the movie being chased by alligators and these guys seriously meant business.

The threat of the alligators within this movie was something that worked far better than I expected. I have to admit there were moments that genuinely made me jump and while I was often more worried for the dog than Haley and Dave, the latter two definitely had their moments too. Before that though, I should add that the dog did make it out of this movie alive. 

As for Haley and Dave, some of the issue largely steamed from Haley's mother leaving them but as the two progressed, both of them were able to work through their issues. They also managed to work together, fending off the rather hungry gators in question as the whole town was ravaged by the hurricane. In the end, man just about managed to survive human nature. 

-  Both Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper worked together in the Maze Runner movies. The cast was largely made of UK actors for a US based movie.
- Quentin Tarantino  cited this as a favourite movie of his and Sam Raimi also has a producer credit to it.
-  Standout music: Rick Boston's Driving In The Car and Bill Haley And The Comets See You Later, Alligator.
- Chronology: Gonna assume around 2019 for this one.

Crawl was not a movie I had particularly any big expectations for, so as a movie, it was a pleasant surprise. The alligators /hurricane provided a different kind of threat and both Scodelario and Pepper were on fine form as Haley and Dave. I've hears rumours of a potential sequel but I'd be fine if this remained a one off. 

Rating: 8 out of 10

Friday, December 24, 2021

And Just Like That .... Another TV Jumble Blog

Also my last TV Jumble blog of the year. You know the drill, stuff I've been watching over the last few weeks. Let's get into it.

And Just Like That: It's somewhat odd to think of Sex And The City as a franchise but it is one. It was a popular book, then TV series that ran for six seasons, spawned two theatrical movies, a prequel series that ran for two seasons and now a sequel series, sadly lacking Samantha Jones. Still, the first four episodes have seen Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte navigate their social circles in lieu of their former friend's absence while also dealing with widowhood, getting older and learning more about the world around them. Four episodes in and there's no denying this sequel has lacked the magic of it's original series and some of it's attempts of presenting more diversity has been dicey at best. Hopefully the show will get it's groove for the remainder of the season.

Chucky: For a movie franchise that has spawned six sequels and an unnecessary reboot, taking the most evil doll for a cable series could've been easily been a mixed bag. After watching this eight episode first season, I can definitely say this series was an overwhelming success. Chucky works just as well on the small screen as he did on the big and straight to streaming. Te uses of classic characters such as Tiffany, Andy, Kyle and Nica along with new protagonists such as Jake, Devon, Lexy and the unfortunate Junior worked brilliantly. This show was a joy to watch from start to finosh and I'm really pleased that it will be returning for seconds.

Dexter: New Blood: With only three episodes left, this show definitely feels like it's shaping up to be a mid-tier season/series for me. It's not quite recaptured the heights of the first few seasons but it's also managed to avoid the lows of the last few seasons as well. It was nice having appearances from both Angel and the Trinity in episodes along with Angela becoming more aware of who her boyfriend really was. Less good has been Harrison, who has become somewhat annoying to watch while Kurt definitely could be a more compelling antagonist for Dexter. He's become rather underwhelming, in spite of his efforts to come between Dexter and Harrison.

Hawkeye: It's been a mostly good year for the MCU's debut with Disney+ shows and ending this year was this delightful six part series, focusing on Clint Barton and new protege Kate Bishop. As a pairing the two of them were excellent to watch, Lucky the Pizza Dog was obviously adorable too. The use of the Christmas worked in the show's favour, Maya was set up well for her own Disney+ series and it was nice to see Yelena again. Minor quibbles, would be Eleanor's painfully obvious villainy and perhaps Wilson Fisk being a tiny bit underused. Other than that, I still had a really good time watching this series.

Pennyworth: I wasn't a huge fan of the first season of this Alfred Pennyworth based series but upon learning that it had been renewed for a third one, I decided to give the second season a go. I'm glad I did as I actually found myself enjoying this season a lot more than expected. Like Gotham before it, this show found it's strength by reveling in being utter batshit crazy and became more enjoyable as a result. Whether it was the gang working together against the Stormcloud plot, Thomas and Martha getting to be parents to a girl, Alfred's reunion with his father or even the oddball romance with Bet and Katie, this season definitely hit it's stride. I'm looking to seeing what next year's time jump brings for this show.

The Flash: After the last two seasons being sadly poor, a part of me has felt ready to bail on the show. Fortunately this five part event has managed to breathe some life into things. It's not quite as good as crossover events from series past but both Reverse Flash and Despero certainly gave Barry the ring around. Not to mention some welcome returns from Ray Palmer and Damien Darhk, hints of future events for other characters and of course, other characters about to return. It's a good start and here's hoping the quality can be maintained when the show returns in March.


  • Netflix have cancelled Cowboy Bebop after one season.
  • David Tennant's Around The World In 80 Days has been renewed for a second series. It will premiere on BBC1 on Boxing Day.
  • BBC3 will relaunch as a terrestrial channel again from February.
  • American Dad has been renewed for two more seasons.
  • Turner & Hooch has been cancelled after one season on Disney+
  • A prequel series for Walker is in early development from the CW.
  • UK viewers can see The Resident on Disney+ from next month.
  • The third season of Atlanta will premiere in March on Starz.

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

My Review of Single All The Way (2021)

 


Written by Chad Hodge
Directed by Michael Mayer

Peter: "This is the best present ever."

Ah, Netflix. It only took you a year to get into the gay Christmas romance spirit and after rival studios gave us treats such as Happiest Season and Dashing In December to name the two obvious ones, the question remained: could this one deliver? Well, let's see, shall we?

Our protagonist of the piece was Peter (Michael Urie) - a social media guy who had more of an affinity for plants that he did with Instagram. Then there was his best friend Nick (Philemon Chambers), both a handyman and author of a children's book based on his dog, Emmett. We don't get to see a lot of Emmett in this movie, so that's a minus I'm afraid.

As for Peter and Michael, it's somewhat apparent that the two of them are in love with each other. Every other character can see it but them and every other character isn't afraid to point out the obvious. They're also not afraid to do their level best to push Peter and Nick together. Most of these people also being Peter's family.

Peter had the great idea of bringing Nick home for Christmas to meet the family. Pete's mother, the rather festive Carole (Kathy Najimy) also thought it would be fun to set Peter up with handsome personal trainer James (Luke Macfarlane). As a character, I did like James but even he could see that Peter and Nick were meant to be, so needless to say, James felt more of a diversion than too much of an obstacle for the budding couple.

As for Peter's family, well I definitely think they filled out some tropes here. You had his father, Harold (Barry Bostwick), sisters Lisa (Jennifer Robertson) and Ashleigh (Melanie Leishman) as well as their kids pushing for Peter and Nick in the way that you'd only see in a romcom. Not to mention, Peter's aunt Sandy (Jennifer Coolidge) who also brought the two together by getting them to work on her rather bonkers  Christmas pageant titled Jesus H. Christ. As a family unit, they were definite'y entertaining and fortunately not too overdone as supporting characters.

However, the main point of this movie was seeing Peter and Nick actually getting together and this movie didn't disappoint in that regard. Both Michael Urie and Philemon Chambers did a good job making me want to root for Peter and Nick as a couple and had rather strong chemistry together. Overall, the movie did what it needed to do with the two of them. 

- At the start of the movie, Peter was briefly in a relationship with Tim (Steve Lund) who turned out to have a wife. 
- We had influencers such as Kyle Krieger and Max Emerson more or less playing themselves for Peter's razor photoshoot. 
- Standout music: Britney Spears My Only Wish (This Year) and Dan Finnerty's Single All The Way during the closing credits.
- Chronology: Christmas 2021 I presume.

Single All The Way doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel for seasonal romance movies and it's tropes are too predictable but it's a likable movie with likable leads. It's also hopefully not the only time we get this type of movie from Netflix as well. I'm also hoping we get more of Philemon Chambers because of this movie.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Saturday, December 18, 2021

My Review of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) - SPOILERS INCLUDED

 


Written by  Chris McKenna And Erik Sommers
Directed by Jon Watts

Aunt May (to Peter): "With great power comes great responsibility."

Trilogies are an odd beast, aren't they? The third part might be a good ending, it might also be the weakest of the bunch. Then there's the possibility that it might be the best installment of the lot. Can you guess the category where this particular movie falls into?

Following being publicly outed as Spider-Man from the previous movie, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) has found himself to become a polarising figure among the residents of New York. It's also gotten to the point where both himself and Aunt May (Marissa Tomei) move in with Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and his associations with MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) have jeopardized their own futures. 

Because of that, it would make sense that Peter would try and fix things. However Peter's method to do that mean getting in touch with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in order to make the world forget about him being Spider-Man. A spell that Peter managed to mess up on Stephen and as a result, the Multiverse made it's introduction into the MCU on the big screen.

Specifically, Peter's bumbling resulted in enemies from at least two different universes landing in Peter's own world. The enemies in question being Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and a revamped Electro (Jamie Foxx). If they had added one more member, you would've had a Multiverse Sinister Six there.

The five baddies in question make their presence known to our Spider-Man and the latter teamed up with Strange in order to contain them. However it didn't take much for both Peter and Stephen to have different opinions on how to deal with the visitors from other worlds. Peter also learned the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished when the baddies predictably turned on him and as a result, Peter found himself losing the one important adult figure in his life and felt despondent.

Of course the highlight of the movie and the elephant that has been in the room for a year now was the returns of two other Spider-Men. Yes, both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are in this movie and the moment they're in scenes with Tom Holland, everything elevated to pure cinematic heights. Seeing these three actors together could be dismissed as fanservice but it's far greater than that.

There's history with both Maguire and Garfield's versions of the web slinger and it's respectfully honoured throughout here. Our Peter learns from his other selves as they learn from him and seeing the three of them band together in order to save the day definitely feels like a moment you'll want to witness on the big screen if you can. It's comic book history made on screen and the joy in seeing it play out truly felt unbridled. 

However there are lingering consequences to Peter disrupting the spell that Stephen tried to initially do and it's our Peter who will feel them for a while. It's like the MCU not only acknowledged certain criticisms regarding their handling of Holland's Spidey and felt this movie was the perfect place to deal with them head on, by setting up an interesting new status quo for Peter to set up his next trilogy. Even I didn't expect it to play out like it did.

- Charlie Cox might not have put on a certain suit but we did briefly see him here as Matt Murdock, who represented Peter at the start of the movie.
- Of course Flash would write a tell all book about his 'friendship' with Peter Parker while Betty has a job at the dailybugle.com.
- J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) certainly went out of his way to antagonise Spider-Man that I really do hope they have scenes together in the next movie.
- Giving Aunt May that infamous line as well as having two Spider-Men say it too worked beautifully here.
- Chronology: We did get to see parts of Halloween and Christmas as time progressed throughout the movie.
- The mid credit scene gave us a brief cameo of Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and the Venom symbiote with a little of the latter remaining the current MCU. 

There's no denying that Spider-Man: No Way Home delivered and then some. Every single cast member brought their A Game with Tom Holland giving his best performance in the MCU so far. Seeing him with both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield was sublime and I cannot wait to see where the next trilogy will take this version of Spider-Man. An absolute triumph of a movie.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Sunday, December 12, 2021

My Review of Last Christmas (2019)

 


Written by Emma Thompson And Greg Wise And Bryony Kimmings
Directed by Paul Feig

Kate: "Why can I feel you?"
Tom: "Because I'm a part of you. Take care of my heart."
Kate: "Yeah, I promise."
Tom: "It was always going to be yours, one way or another."

It's the month for festive romances and this one from two years ago was on my list of ones to catch up with. Namely because of the lead actors and also because of the polarising reputation. Is this really that bad a Christmas movie? Not really. At least not for me.

Emilia Clarke when she's not using dragons to demolish King's Landing takes on the lead of Katarina 'Kate' Andrich, a somewhat selfish young woman, who when she isn't auditioning for her big break and alienating friends and family alike, also works at a Christmas shop for Santa (Michelle Yeoh) aka, Huang Qing Shin. Santa turns out to be a fair employer while Kate might not be the greatest of workers. However there's a lovely rapport between the pair and this film for it's credit has a few of those.

The main pairing of course being the one between Kate and charming volunteer Tom Webster (Henry Goulding). The latter doesn't take long to initially wind up Kate, before charming her and throughout the movie, it's easy to see how Kate becomes so smitten with Tom. Henry Goulding really does work wonderfully as a romantic lead and his chemistry with Emilia Clarke shines throughout the movie.

Of course where the movie earned it's polarising reputation was in it's reveal of Tom's actual backstory and the way it tied into Kate's own previous health problems. Looking at it objectively, I think the signs had been there from the start with Tom and while I don't actually hate the reveal itself, it's still a bit sad though. However, its also a mice subversion for this particular genre. 

Throughout the movie, Tom's influence on Kate turns out to be a positive. Kate's not a bad person. She's a refreshingly openly flawed protagonist  and she does have some great moments too. We get to see her set up Santa on a date and while she did out her sister, Marta (Lydia Leonard) to their parents Petra (Emma Thompson) and Ivan (Boris Isakovic), thongs did later resolve themselves as the movie progressed.

Kate's family are entertaining but Tom's biggest influence was getting her to help out at a volunteer shelter and organise the big Christmas event with the obligatory musical number. Not to mention the ultimate goal of getting Kate to open herself to the world. That's pretty good going for a guy who technically wasn't there to begin with.

- Emma Thompson who played Petra co-wrote this movie with her husband. She also got the director on board, even though he wasn't keen on directing another Christmas movie.
- The parallels between Tom Webster and George Michael are very apparent throughout the movie.
- Standout music:Well, this was a bit of Wham! fest with Emilia Clarke getting to sing a certain song to boot. 
- Chronology: It opened with a scene in 1999 Yugoslavia with the main action being set in 2017 London.

Last Christmas for me was something of a surprisingly enjoyable film. The script isn't perfect but it's enjoyable for the most part. There's also no denying that Emilia Clarke and Henry Goulding are a fine pairing and work wonderfully here. I actually don't get the hate for this one.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Sunday, December 05, 2021

My Review of Doctor Who: Flux - Chapter Six: The Vanquishers

 


Written by Chris Chibnall
Directed by Azhur Saleem

Time (to the Doctor): "Your time is heading to its end. Nothing is forever."

Well, this was something of a mish mash of things, weren't it? This six part series almost made the landing but ultimately things just fell apart. Chibnall's time might be coming to an end within the next year, but his divisiveness continues to be an unfortunate trend in his storytelling.

Following Tecteun's destruction, Swarm and Azure looked like they were about to take out the Doctor, only to spend the majority of the episode lording it over her. If you're going to be an actual threat to the Doctor, talk less and do far more. A lesson that this brother and sister should've learned if they want to stop the Doctor. And they were so close to it as well.

Instead they spent too much time going on about they can kill the Doctor, baiting her to open up a certain watch and wanting to put the final Flux event on a loop as an eternal punishment. In all that time, the Doctor found herself split in three and slowly coming up with a way to deal with the Flux altogether, in a very hastily done manner.

One version of herself caught up with Bel and Karvanista while the other version also reunited with Yaz, Dan, Jericho and met up with Kate and Williamson. Add Claire into the mix and some flirting from two Doctors and it turns out you've got a means for using the Sontarans to save the day. Not to mention rescuing Vinder and Diane from Passenger too.

Anyways, aside from one choice scene in a corner shop, Chibnall has made the Sontarans a bit more effective in this series than they have been so far. In this episode, they held the Earth prisoner, used both Claire and Jericho to pinpoint the final Flux event and even managed to trick the Daleks and Cybermen as part of a scheme to make themselves immune to destruction.

However their own arrogance, a lot of characters and essentially three versions of the same Doctor along with matter over antimatter and things sort of resolved itself. The Sontarans defeated, Flux resolved (though the universe ain't that in great shape), it was also time for both Swarm and Azure to be taken care of.

I have to admit, I thought the return to Atropos and introduction of godlike Time were handled badly. Swarm and Azure were promising villains wasted throughout this episode and given a rather unsatisfying exit. The Doctor also got a foreboding warning about her imminent demise and yet again, regeneration might not be on the cards for her.

As for the status quo, the Doctor had some nice scenes with Yaz and after what he went through this series, Dan also officially joined as a companion. These three specials almost have an impossible job in seeing out this era and having the Doctor open up that watch. It didn't surprise me that she chose not to do so here, but it was frustrating nonetheless.

- Bel and Vinder reunited and are now with Karvanista. The latter was implied to be a past companion and Division came up with a way to stop him revealing the Doctor's past.
- The Sontarans ranged from killing the Lupari to having one of their generals being a bit too partial to chocolate.
- What happened to the Ood at the end? Did we really need the Grand Serpent? Why did Jericho have to die? Will Claire team up with Kate and UNIT? Diane also chose not to go for a drink with Dan.
- I definitely sensed a near romantic moment between the Doctor and Yaz and I'm not sure there's a need for this plot, given that there's only three specials left. It also seems like the Master has been set up for the final threat for this particular Doctor.
- The next special will be Eve Of The Daleks, due to air on New Year's Day.
- Chronology: December 5th 2021. They really timed the airing of this series, didn't they?

The Vanquishers really had the potential to bring this all home. I liked that Chibnall tried to be ambitious with this series and I liked nearly all of the new characters. Alas, the plot came to a disappointing conclusion and it looks like we really will have to wait nearly a year before we can finally put this Timeless Child plot to bed. Just three specials to go.

Rating: 7 out of 10