JENNIFER CONNELLY

Melanie Cavill in Snowpiercer How would you describe Melanie’s arc?

I feel like the person that you first meet in episode one is very different from the person you come to know by the end of the first season. It’s a gradual unfolding as you come to understand what she’s been hiding, what she’s been carrying, things she’s been compartmentalising. I think a lot of it is brought about by her relationship with Layton. She’s forced to confront choices that she’s made and who she is, and who she’s become.

How did you feel about the series’ new direction?

Talking to Graeme [Manson] and hearing his ideas, he’s done an amazing job driving the narrative forward… I thought it was really masterfully done. I loved what he was doing with my character.

What did you make of the Snowpiercer sets?

It’s all of humanity on this train. There’s great diversity and variety in the sets from car to car, whole different worlds as you move from the back to the front of the train. That was really the more surprising aspect; just how rich and complex the sets were. That was always exciting to see.

Tara Bennett

The characters are thin and one-note. Beth – or Alice (as in Adventures In Wonderland) – is yet another Gotham grotesque from the Joker school of wackiness, and her revenge schtick concerning her former family wears very thin over the course of 20 episodes. The usually reliable Dougray Scott, as Kate and Beth’s dad – and leader of Gotham’s private security boot boys The Crows – has little to do other than bad-mouth Batwoman and growl orders.

The weekly plots feel like Arrow hand-me-downs, the action scenes are visually incomprehensible and Gotham looks like every other city in the Arrowverse universe. Let’s hope the recasting for season two inspires the whole production team to move in a new, less predictable direction. Dave Golder

The first openly gay DC character is generally considered to be Extraño, who debuted in Millennium #2 back in 1988.