Critic Reviews

It’s awfully tempting to sum up this addictive, funny and scary Irish six-episode series as “Scream” set on a cruise liner. But that sells it short. ... The plot and the execution make you want to sail right through all episodes.

[Writer Ryan J Brown's] method – throw everything at the canvas, from high comedy to bloody gore, and see what sticks – has been taken up with gusto by director Chris Baugh, who employs a hard-candy colour palette coupled with a hyperkinetic camera to make the whole thing precisely as unrelaxing as I imagine a cruise holiday to be. ... But like a punk band at their first gig, Wreck’s energy is infectious.

Wreck has got charm, it’s got a little bit of wit, it’s got youthful exuberance and energy, and even if it never develops much more than that (only one episode was available for review at time of writing), it will justify its place in the schedules.

With its original premise, game approach to genre-bending and admirable sense of silliness, Wreck certainly stands out, if not always for the right reasons. Nevertheless, this is exactly the kind of telly that BBC Three should be making: ambitious, audacious and, if not always entirely perfect, then bold enough in its convictions.

I'd guess it needs more funny characters and a more intriguing mystery to make most people last the full stretch, but if you want silly escapism it's here.

We just have no F’s to give when it comes to any of the characters in Wreck. Well, maybe we root for the killer duck to show up, but that’s not a good thing.