Pete Messum Reviews...

With a premise like 'Arachnids in the UK', Doctor Who can go down the route of terrifying creature feature or make a big old silly B-movie monster flick, and for some reason decides to blend the latter with important character drama central to the rest of the series... I mean, it worked for 'Aliens of London', so why not? Despite having very little to work with in previous episodes, Yaz finally gets some more character background in this episode with the introduction of her family, but it all feels a little bit tacked-on. Its as though Chibnall realised that Yaz had nothing to work with and so decided to work in a family sub-plot (and it really feels like a sub-plot) into this episode because it was the only present day one for a while. Now, on the one hand, that's fine, but after a while I started to wonder if Yaz's mum and the scientist-whose-name-I-really-can't-remember were almost entirely interchangeable exposition machines with the only difference

Last night's episode of Doctor Who has been acclaimed as the greatest the show's given us in (at least) a decade, and potentially one of the best ever. It's a huge risk for the BBC and the series itself, and it seems to have paid-off as the most acclaimed episode of Who in recent memory. So, when I came out of 'Rosa' thinking that it wasn't perfect, I don't mean to say that the episode was terrible. Or average. Or anything like that. It was a great episode, but I felt that it was a little underdeveloped in some areas. Perhaps tackling themes of time travel, racism, segregation and Rosa Parks in one episode overwhelmed the story. With so many directions one could take with it, what do you choose to do? Upon re-watching the episode, I understood that writers Malorie Blackman and Chris Chibnall endeavoured to emphasise the companions' stories in this episode as opposed to Rosa Parks', or anyone else's. Ryan really suffers the harsh reality of se

Please note that this review has been written shortly after viewing the episode, so my opinions may or may not change with multiple viewings and a fresh perspective. Wait for it...wait for it...BAM! New title sequence, baby! Oh, and what a title sequence it is. That new time vortex looks incredible, and the effects work looks so much sharper than Peter Capaldi's. While it is much more minimalist by the standards of 21st Century Who, I do appreciate that element - even if I am curious to see whether or not the TARDIS will show up in next week's titles. Speaking of the TARDIS...I have opinions. Firstly, the exterior Police Box looks lovely. Really nice new paint scheme, cool to see the darker door sign return, and the blue lamp is much more striking somehow. The shape looks a little strange to me, and I can't help but wonder if it should be slightly thinner, but given our larger TARDIS crew, I suspect that that encouraged the production designer to make a larger box to

Somehow amidst everything that's happened over the past month I completely forgot to finish reviewing Marvel's Iron Fist: Season 2, so here goes... Looking back over the season as a whole, the biggest problem with Marvel's Iron Fist as a show is that is seems to be in constant contradiction with itself. It's a superhero show, but Danny Rand rarely uses the Fist and doesn't have a superhero costume. It's a street-level vigilante show, but Danny Rand has a superpower that can take out almost anyone trying to attack him, and can also fend-off any financial issues because he's the son of a billionaire. It's a martial-arts show, but the series tries to stray away from the cultural influences of traditional martial-arts stories and incorporate the superhero and vigilante elements. A series like this needs a certain amount of focus to really work, and Marvel's Iron Fist just doesn't do that. What would I do to improve this season? Firstly, give Da

Doctor Who rocketed onto our television screens last night after (yet another) eighteen month hiatus with...a guy trying to ride a bike. Chris Chibnall's opening episode, 'The Woman Who Fell To Earth', is filled with subtle, small-scale character moments like this. Ryan talking about "the greatest woman [he's] ever met"; Graham's heartfelt speech at the funeral; Grace recognising Yaz from Ryan's school ("hello Ryan's nan!"); and the Doctor's little speech about her family near the end. Amongst all the alien shenanigans you expect from Doctor Who, there are these smaller moments built on character in a way I haven't really seen the show do for a long time. Whilst Bill and Nardole were unique and likable characters, neither of them had character arcs, while Clara's character arcs never felt fully-formed or were contradicted at the last second. Even Amy's character journey seemed to have concluded by the end of Series 5