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Mark Lawson

Mark Lawson's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
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Reviews

Movies TV Shows
The Sopranos: Season 1 (1999) 98% EDIT “It is an acute piece of social commentary on end-of-century America but, like so much in this series, feels self-referential. Like the nation it portrays, The Sopranos sweats with the fear that there is nothing truly new left to do.” – Guardian Apr 8, 2021 Full Review The West Wing: Season 1 (1999) 96% EDIT “Now, though, you wonder if this brilliant political fiction will suffer here from the intervening realities. Channel 4 may have needed a Gore victory.” – Guardian Mar 30, 2021 Full Review Futurama: Season 1 (1999) 82% EDIT “Groening again shows his talent for split-level wit which caters alternately to adults and children. Futurama will never match the international impact of The Simpsons, but shows a remarkable talent darkening and deepening.” – Guardian Mar 17, 2021 Full Review Spitting Image: Season 1 (2020) 44% 4/5 EDIT “Admirers of the franchise will be relieved that the revival has lost none of its savagery or willingness to shock.” – Guardian Oct 28, 2020 Full Review The West Wing: Season 7 (2005) 95% EDIT “Striking for its prescience...it demonstrated what can come from trusting a writer-creator's vision: in this case, Aaron Sorkin.” – Guardian Sep 25, 2020 Full Review The Paradise on Masterpiece: Season 1 (2012) 64% EDIT “Television drama risks becoming not a department store but a one-product shop.” – Guardian Jul 16, 2020 Full Review Killer Ratings: Season 1 (2019) 80% EDIT “[A] jaw-dropping story compellingly told.” – Guardian Apr 24, 2020 Full Review Lovesick: Season 1 (2014) 95% EDIT “An infectious concept that ingeniously allows a wide range of embarrassing social situations to be examined.” – Guardian Mar 24, 2020 Full Review EDIT “Smuggled doesn't come near to meeting that criterion. Tense and revelatory, the show hid important reportage beneath its flashy chassis.” – Guardian Nov 18, 2019 Full Review Coupling: Season 2 (2001) EDIT “These new episodes are a perfect example of the more benevolent form of second-season syndrome, in which the talent is given ever greater confidence and invention by success and the audience gains further rewards from familiarity with the character.” – Guardian Nov 7, 2019 Full Review Joey: Season 1 (2004) 50% EDIT “Both Joey Tribbiani and Matt LeBlanc feel too much like coasters and background clowns to carry a format.” – Guardian Oct 2, 2019 Full Review Vis a Vis: Season 2 (2016) 100% EDIT “This is impeccable second-season plotting, injecting the fresh tension of whether the escapees will be returned to jail.” – Guardian Aug 22, 2019 Full Review Cold Feet: Season 3 (2000) EDIT “The strength of Cold Feet is that it's willing to make the mirror a distorting one. Highly naturalistic acting is combined with the non-verité scenes.” – Guardian Jul 24, 2019 Full Review The Hollow Crown: Season 1 (2013) 96% EDIT “The Hollow Crown feels as good as TV Shakespeare is going to get.” – Guardian Apr 23, 2019 Full Review EDIT “Car Share will stand as one of the highest achievements of 21st century TV comedy, containing a combination of warmth and cleverness, social observation and romance, originality and nods to TV comedy history that only Kay could achieve.” – Guardian Apr 23, 2019 Full Review Padre Brown, detective: Season 1 (2013) EDIT “The tone of gentle rural mayhem is reminiscent of Midsomer Murders, although Father Brown has the excuse that it is set in the 1950s rather than the supposed present-day.” – Guardian Apr 15, 2019 Full Review Wolf Hall: Season 1 (2015) 98% EDIT “Avoiding the babying devices of voiceover or expositional speeches, Wolf Hall pays viewers the compliment of treating them as grownups...” – Guardian Apr 9, 2019 Full Review Episodes: Season 3 (2014) 58% EDIT “To the credit of creators David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik, most of the comic situations in this run of the sitcom would have been impossible in earlier episodes because they depend on the accumulation of history between the characters.” – Guardian Mar 29, 2019 Full Review Midsomer Murders: Season 14 (2011) 67% EDIT “Now that the row has opened eyes to this issue, it's difficult to watch Midsomer innocently.” – Guardian Mar 27, 2019 Full Review The IT Crowd: Season 4.1 (2013) 88% EDIT “This valedictory special is a masterclass in how a hit sitcom should have the last laugh.” – Guardian Feb 4, 2019 Full Review Smiley's People: Season 1 (1982) 90% EDIT “As a portrait of a man whose professional and personal life have taught him the protective power of silence, it is compelling television.” – Guardian Dec 3, 2018 Full Review Fresh Meat: Season 3 (2013) EDIT “so successful has it been that Bain and Armstrong can surely be certain of a happy televisual version of the fate that seems to lie in store for many of their characters academically - being given a third.” – Guardian Nov 9, 2018 Full Review The Wire: Season 1 (2002) 86% EDIT “A drama with a depth and complexity which few novels, never mind TV series, have achieved.” – Guardian Nov 5, 2018 Full Review Derek: Season 1 (2012) 53% EDIT “The drawback of Derek is not that it is cruel about disability but that it is often soft on a character whose identity remains too vague.” – Guardian Sep 25, 2018 Full Review Miranda: Season 3 (2012) 67% EDIT “Fans of Miranda - including me - would argue that retro done well is preferable to edgy done badly, and that each of the old-fashioned elements - pratfalls, signature sayings and love story - is handled with panache.” – Guardian Sep 11, 2018 Full Review
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