The genre is no longer a boys’ club but what’s even fresher in The Abandons is the theme of motherhood. Constance and Fiona run their families with a strong hand, their protectiveness a hair away from lunacy.
There’s no Attenborough. For all his skills as a performer, the man who wore the green capes and horned helmet of Loki in the Marvel films will never match the gravitas of the great man, the passion and knowledge that informs his every utterance.
Maya Hawke, meanwhile, is a star and David Harbour and Winona Ryder’s Hopper and Joyce are one of the engagingly imperfect couples on screen — let’s hope it doesn’t end badly, and she makes a confessional album about him. Episode four features a set piece that would be the envy of most movies and a revelation that sets up the final chapters very nicely indeed. The big question is: who will they kill off? Roll on Boxing Day.
What really emerges, from the new episode and the reworked originals, is a portrait of ordinary men who experienced something extraordinary. .... The lack of women’s voices is glaring — to hear what it was like for Jane Asher, Pattie Boyd, Linda McCartney, Cynthia Lennon and Yoko Ono would have been fascinating — but beyond that omission Anthology stands up as the ultimate capturing of the Beatles story.
But even the exciting twist at the end as the runaway train set off, driverless, the remaining people on board effectively kidnapped, doesn’t change the fact that this is very schlocky.
It’s a classic thriller executed with such panache that at times you feel you’re in the middle of someone’s nervous breakdown. But you won’t want to look away for a second.
I will watch this because it’s already better than last year’s US celebrity version (that had John Bercow as a contestant) and for the hope that it will turn nastier.
Those on the fence won’t change their mind about this show after watching another season. However, for roughnecks who have been punching holes waiting for their next dose of Texas tea, the return of Landman once again drills deep into a different perspective on American life.
