Barbara Ellen

3 weeks ago | observer.co.uk | Barbara Ellen

Three seasons in, can Sex and the City’s reboot get any more excruciating? Elsewhere, the terrifying genius of Nathan Fielder; the brazen rise and fall of disgraced Tory peer Michelle Mone; and a cosy Welsh whodunnit with Timothy Spall What is the deal with And Just Like That… – why isn’t it better? With the arrival of the third series of Michael Patrick King’s Sex and the City follow-up (Sky Comedy/Now), there’s no pretending any longer that the concept merely has to bed in.

1 month ago | observer.co.uk | Barbara Ellen

The edgy comedian behind absurdist hit series The Rehearsal uses surreal role-play to take improv to elaborate, deranged extremes Illustration by Andy BundayWho or what is Nathan Fielder? Genius or sociopath? The counterculture “king of cringe”? His acclaimed HBO US show The Rehearsal – returning this week for a second Sky Comedy series in the UK – delivered a potent visual image of Fielder as a brooding obsessive figure, standing with a laptop in a harness.

1 month ago | observer.co.uk | Barbara Ellen

Julianne Moore stars in a sharp new satire with more than a whiff of White Lotus; the year’s second Lockerbie drama is heartfelt if overloaded; an ambitious film tracks the global fallout after George Floyd’s murder. Plus, Stanley Tucci in gnocchi heaven Sirens NetflixThe Bombing of Pan Am 103 BBC OneBacklash: The Murder of George Floyd BBC TwoTucci in Italy Disney+What would modern television do without the twin entities of wealth and wellness to take a swing at?

1 month ago | observer.co.uk | Barbara Ellen

Channel 4’s intimacy reality show is one big turn-off; Chris Packham enlightens on neurodiversity; and a rogue security bot makes for dark comedy. Plus, the unremitting horror of Fred and Rosemary West Virgin Island Channel 4 Inside Our ADHD Minds BBC Two Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story Netflix Murderbot Apple TV+Watching the new Channel 4 series Virgin Island, you wonder what it’s trying to achieve.

1 month ago | observer.co.uk | Barbara Ellen

Laura Bates’s disturbing study of AI, cyber-brothels and online porn exposes the age-old power dynamics of a parallel universe The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution Is Reinventing MisogynyLaura BatesSimon & Schuster, £20, pp320Something new and disturbing is wriggling in the pan-cultural petri dish: a degrading in male-female relations masquerading as technological progress.