TV SAVED OUR SANITY – AGAIN
TELEVISION, ONCE AGAIN,
turned out to be the friend who united the nation when everything looked bleak. Whether it was the luckless romantics of Married At First Sight and Love Island, the hilariously snide commentators of Gogglebox or the vampiric super-rich of Succession and The White Lotus,
the small screen filled the large gaps caused by the pandemic.
1. The lounger scene, episode 1, The White Lotus
Blighted honeymooner spots potential friends lazily reading in their five-star resort, approaches tentatively, is totally slammed down to size in the best pass-agg dialogue ever.
2. The moment everyone realises what they’ve signed up for in Squid Game
That super-fun schoolyard game of trying to keep moving then standing still when the leader turns around? Not so super-fun when elimination means actual elimination. Stakes raised by multiple gunfire. And yet they carry on…
3. Kate Winslet’s snacks in Mare Of Easttown
Doing her very best Frances Mcdormand impression and being really, really blue collar, Kate Winslet could not, alas, fall back on her face. So she ate really common food instead. Cheetos, beer from the bottle. She’s just Katie from the block, you know!
4. The fever dream that was Married At First Sight UK
Nikita’s honest and bluff opening gambit (‘I’m not shallow, but you don’t shag a personality, do you?’) turned out to be woefully prescient for the entire MAFS experience. You know what they say about marrying in haste, repenting at leisure? Here’s that, encapsulated.
5. Diana confronts Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown
Let’s be honest here, this was the moment we all sat through season four waiting for. ‘It’s harmless nonsense really,’ surmised Emerald Fennell, who played Charlie’s preferred partner. ‘Right,’ muttered a never better Emma Corrin as the People’s Princess. The eyes stored all of her armour for later.
6. Reese Witherspoon’s first lesbian pash-off in The Morning Show
Fact: season two was (whisper it) even better than season three of that other media empire drama, Succession. Mainly because Reese’s irrepressible Bradley Jackson gets to make out with the amazing Julianna Margulies’ Laura Peterson in the back of a fancy car. Beyond. That said...
7. Kendall and Logan try to woo Josh on the beach in Succession
Our warring Roy siblings attempt to win over a slippery investor – Adrien Brody in a beanie. He sees right through them. The comebacks are priceless. ‘The Beatles did some of their best shit when they were suing each other,’ is a particular A* from Kendall.
8. Hugo’s firepit moment in Love Island
Let’s face it, this was the pivot of the series, the drama crux par excellence as Hugo defended a freshly dumped Chloe and called out Toby’s womanising. Before: yes, business as usual. After: Classic LI duplicity, regret, tears.
9. Ritchie’s deathbed speech to his mum in It’s A Sin
The final showdown between Olly Alexander’s Ritchie Tozer and his repressive mother Valerie (Keeley Hawes) was not a single Kleenex moment, it was an entire box.
10. Alma’s first foray as a sex worker in Alma’s Not Normal
Sophie Willan’s amazing semiautobiographical sitcom was the pathos lolz of the year. Like Victoria Wood or Caroline Aherne, she had everything empathetic funnies require, including the inability to go into a posh hotel to meet her first client. ‘I’m just here to use the toilets,’ she told the doorman. A bit of the audience just crumbled, right there.