Available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and HBO Max in the US. It has just been announced that a series two is in the works and after the twisty machinations that brought series one to a close, it can't come soon enough. And while, inevitably, a lot of attention has been focused on all the drug-taking and full-frontal nudity that features, beyond the surface titillation, it is the pitch-perfect characterisation that keeps you gripped – from the skilful way it explores intersections of class, gender and race to the fact almost everyone is deeply morally compromised and yet no one is, simplistically, a villain.
What sets it apart though is a real interest in, and feel, for the politics and ecosystem of its toxically high-pressure workplace, which speaks to creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay's own background in banking. Available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Amazon Prime in the US.Įarly pre-publicity for this HBO drama about a group of young graduates trying to make it in London's financial world focused on Lena Dunham's involvement, but that turned out to be a bit of a red herring: she merely directed the pilot, and the show has far less in common with Girls' wry exploration of millennial life than it does with a particular 1990s/early Noughties sub-genre of British TV dramas centred on messy young professionals, chief among them This Life. The result is a truly singular achievement that is not only about history, but is itself historic. But equally to consider them as a whole series makes McQueen's endeavour all the more astonishing: from the vital courtroom drama Mangrove to the immersive party film Lovers Rock and Education's piercing school tale, what he has produced is a survey of black British experience that has hitherto been all too sidelined within both popular culture and education, realised with the visual mastery of a visionary. What is indisputable is that they are exceptional individual works of art that each deserve their own discrete appreciation – and in some cases, especially, would be transcendent when watched on the big screen. Certainly, there is a valid ongoing debate around whether this collection of five feature-length films by Oscar-winner Steve McQueen about London's West Indian community qualifies as TV in any meaningful sense, beyond the fact they have been made available to watch on the small screen. Meanwhile, here is an entry that should truly be filed under "Cinema", many would argue.
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