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A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder has been renewed for a second season by the BBC and Netflix, with author Holly Jackson co-writing.
Posted in: BBC, Disney XD, Doctor Who, Review, TV | Tagged: bbc, disney, doctor who, Millie Gibson, Ncuti Gatwa, russell t davies, steven moffat
Doctor Who Ep. 3 "BOOM" Review: Steven Moffat's Angry, Intense Hour
Doctor Who Ep. 3 "BOOM" marks Steven Moffat's return to the series - possibly the angriest and most intense hour of television this week.
Steven Moffat's return as a freelance screenwriter on the new season of Doctor Who this week was, to put it mildly, highly anticipated. Russell T. Davies, Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson have all talked up "BOOM" as an instant classic that will be talked about for years to come. Your back might be up in defiance here. But guess what? They were right. The hype is real.
This is a spoiler-free review of this week's Doctor Who, so you can read it without fear of getting anything spoiled. The Doctor steps on a landmine in a warzone and has to figure out how to save himself without moving from that spot. That's the entire plot. For everyone who was afraid that the show being on Disney+ would become lighter and soft, you're not going to get an angrier and more political show on television right now. This might be one of the angriest episodes of the new series and one of Steven Moffat's angriest scripts. There are horrific consequences to what happens in "BOOM." If you think the series was going to be less political on Disney+ or because it's an episode not written by Davies, think again. The episode is an attack on War, War for Profit, and the soullessness of algorithms, with the ultimate villain here being Capitalism – just like in the last two episodes. You can feel the teeth in Moffat's writing here, and clearly encouraged by Davies. The Doctor doesn't get a break here. He gets put through the wringer and Ncuti Gatwa is pushed to act his heart out again.
It's the kind of thought experiment a writer like Steven Moffat loves to play with. All stories are thought experiments and Science Fiction is the ultimate thought experiment. Steven Moffat, love him or hate him, is one of the cleverest screenwriters on the planet, and "BOOM" is a masterclass in screenwriting lessons for how to set up a plot, then keep cranking up the tension and jeopardy, backing the hero into a corner right from the start and making it worse and worse – then figuring out how they're going to get out in one piece and save the day. Just as with The Weeping Angels, Moffat – to quote Davies – has given up millions of dollars worth of a high concept that could be a franchise and gave it to Doctor Who simply because he loves the show so much. And he knows he'll come up with a new one sooner or later.
For any fans of the harder edged version of Doctor Who, "BOOM" is a declaration that it's not gone. It's here to stay, and its teeth are sharper than ever.
Doctor Who is now streaming on Disney+.
Doctor Who Episode 3: "Boom"
10/10
"Boom" marks former showrunner Steven Moffat's return to Doctor Who, freshly regenerated into a freelance writing, and his writing is as sharp and clever as ever, with real teeth in the political commentary against war and capitalism. Some fans feared the show might become lighter in the Disney era, but this is the series at its hardest edge, and is the angriest, most intense hour of television this week.
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