Drive To Survive falls behind, Shōgun soars, and more from this week in TV
A look back at The A.V. Club's top TV reviews and features from the week of February 26
The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin review: Our Flag Means Death’s long-lost twin
If you’re anything like us, you’re still flying the Jolly Roger at half-mast for the untimely cancellation of Our Flag Means Death, David Jenkins’ singular period comedy about the not-so-real-lives of real-life pirates. But take heart: Apple TV+ is here to salve your wounds with The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, which premieres March 1, a show that shares so much DNA with Our Flag that it may as well be its long-lost twin. Read More
The Tourist season 2 review: Jamie Dornan’s thriller returns with a bang
It’s easy to assume the Jamie Dornan-led British drama The Tourist, which debuted in January 2022, was a one-and-only season affair. Its tale of an amnesiac Irishman who finds himself hunted by a litany of strangers in the Australian outback had reached a pretty conclusive ending: Dornan’s Elliot was, much to the dismay of lover Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald), an unapologetically shades-of-grey character. Dark grey, even. Charcoal, basically. The would-be hero was being hunted for stealing from a gangster for whom he commanded a drug trafficking ring that saw him slice and dice up human mules to stuff bags of heroin inside them. Great guy, that Elliot. A real prince. Read More
Shōgun premiere: FX’s historical drama kicks off with two brutal, skillfully woven episodes
At long last, a full six years after this project was announced, two years since it wrapped filming, and a couple of weeks since its big Super Bowl ad, Shōgun has finally made it to our screens with a generous two-episode premiere. Based on James Clavell’s Shōgun, his 1975 tome of a dad book (not to diminish it—it’s apparently really good), and following the Richard Chamberlain-led NBC miniseries that aired in 1980, this new version of the classic tale boasts a cast of high caliber Japanese actors actually speaking Japanese. With one of these actors (the great Hiroyuki Sanada, who captivates as Lord Yoshii Toranaga) serving as a producer on the show, Clavell’s daughter Michaela signing on as an executive producer, and a seemingly massive budget to get the historical and cultural details right, authenticity is the name of the game. And it shows. Read More
Netflix’s Drive To Survive is getting lapped by Formula 1 itself
For six seasons now, Netflix’s Drive To Survive has brought the behind-the-scenes stories of Formula 1 racing to new and old fans alike, coming out each year and covering The Story of the previous season of F1 racing. This caused some issues with the show’s previous season, which struggled to find a lot of interesting stuff to talk about after a year of racing where very few interesting things happened, and that problem is even more pronounced in the show’s newest season, which dropped February 23, but not because nothing interesting happened in 2023. It’s because too many interesting things have happened since filming ended last year, meaning the show itself can’t really acknowledge them. Read More