Ed Power

As pretty as a painted marionette, The Doll Factory ultimately lacks the qualities all good telly demands: a heart and a soul.

You have to admire the sheer chutzpah that the producers have displayed in taking a respected sci-fi text and turning it into a sort of George Orwell version of High School Musical – a potentially disastrous gamble carried off with style and assurance.

The story moves at a decent clip, but it ought to feel much more plausible considering its roots in reality. It would seem that all the series’ good ideas have been defused long before it reached the screen.

It’s when it tries to be grown-up and deep that Daredevil is unmasked in all its shallowness. Cox and D’Onofrio have crackling chemistry, but Daredevil is ultimately not daring enough to do justice to their electrifying performances.

Was it a crime against comedy – as the original Saturday Night Live often is nowadays? No – and by any reasonable measure it was off to a flying start.

This gripping show is proof that the Yellowstone universe still has a few more surprises under its 10-gallon hat.

Nothing here matches the jaw-dropping “it’s a bunker” reveal of series one, but by the standards of the modern bingewatch, this subterranean thriller remains a cut above.

The Feud has soap opera levels of dialogue and acting, with everyone from Emma’s overbearing solicitor to paranoid Nick portrayed in the broadest strokes. But it nevertheless paints a fascinating picture of an outwardly blissful middle-class neighbourhood that is, in reality, a hotbed of illicit affairs and passive-aggressive parking.

Bean gives it his all as the merciless head of the family – nobody growls quite as menacingly as the former Ned Stark, and he is reliably sinister throughout. But, with its dreary script and inane plot, This City Is Ours ultimately makes an offer that is all too easy to refuse.

A programme that, despite its literary origins, never amounts to much beyond a ham-handed Ludwig pastiche, minus the comedic charm.