The Abandons deploys its considerable advantages in service of something safely regurgitative, where characters’ emotions run only as deep as the dried-up banks of the Columbia River.
While The Reckoning is a well-crafted series about the rise and fall of Combs, it is relentless. .... It’s disappointing not to see more time spent on the 2025 mammoth legal battle that ends the series: United States of America v. Sean Combs.
But the Duffer Brothers have created something, in the beleaguered town of Hawkins and its luckless citizenry, that is admirably immersive. The danger now is that the desire to give it a spectacular send-off will undermine those charming, emotional moments where Stranger Things delved into one of the great cinematic subjects: finding your place in the world as you exit childhood.
Traitors diehards were fearful that a celebrity version would go against everything that made it so watchable. But, based on this opener at least, they don’t have anything to worry about – this new spin-off stays faithful to the show we know and love.
Pluribus is by no means bad. Seehorn is excellent, the premise is interesting, and Apple TV’s production work is as polished as ever. But it just isn’t gripping, feeling instead like a satire that’s unsure what, or who, it’s satirising.
While it’s garnished throughout with nice visual touches, Death by Lightning is not without longueurs: the first episode, in particular, feels a little like sitting through a fusty lecture on the politics of the Gilded Age. Not helping its cause is a script from Mike Makowsky that, on occasion, makes the whole thing feel like a belated PR exercise for America’s most unsung president.
King diehards will be impressed by how faithfully the show recreates IT’s atmosphere of fetid, rising dread. Even Derry Girls fans who have switched on in confusion might be convinced to stick around – at least until the geysers of gore get going and the body parts pile up.
