The Iron Claw to Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F – the seven best films to watch on TV this week
Jeremy Allen White and Zac Efron are terrific in a bone-breaking wrestling biopic, and Eddie Murphy resurrects the wisecracking Axel Foley!
June 2024
Observer TV reviews
The week in TV: Douglas Is Cancelled; The Bear; Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials; BBC Prime Ministerial Debate – review
‘It isn’t hard to see where things went wrong’: how The Bear went off the boil
‘Hot rodent boyfriend’ is the latest trend reframing men’s looks – why can’t we extend this generosity towards women?
Rebecca Shaw
Pass notes
The hot rodent boyfriend: why gen Z has gone wild for ‘sexy rat’ guys
March 2024
The Bear is The Boss: Jeremy Allen White tipped to play Bruce Springsteen
White will star as the musician in a biopic centring on the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska
February 2024
Wendy Ide's film of the week
The Iron Claw review – crowd-pleasing wrestling saga grapples with toxic masculinity
A career-best turn from Zac Efron, plus a tide of true-life triumph and tragedy, power director Sean Durkin’s bone-crunching drama
Going out, staying in
From The Iron Claw to Zara Larsson: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment
A heavyweight drama tells the story of wrestling family the Von Erichs, while the Swedish pop singer finds the love alongside David Guetta
The Iron Claw review – bulked-up Zac Efron amazing sight in tragic wrestling drama
Efron, Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson play the Von Erich brothers, the wrestling superstars who were battered by trauma, in and out of the ring
January 2024
‘That show deserved to be encased in gold!’ The biggest shocks from the Emmy awards
Emmys: the winners, the losers, the red carpet outfits – as it happened
Succession, Beef and The Bear win big at delayed 2023 Emmy awards
Emmys: full list of winners
Jeremy Allen White looks great in the Calvin Klein ads – and that’s a lesson for us all
Coco Khan
‘One of the greatest actors on Earth went home empty-handed!’ All the shocks from the Golden Globes
December 2023
2023 in TV
‘Like an unsupervised chip pan’: how The Bear caught fire worldwide
2023 in TV
The 50 best TV shows of 2023: No 1 – The Bear
November 2023
‘I’m eating my words’: owner of shop that inspired The Bear retracts his doubts
Christopher Zucchero says after friend created hit TV show, his Chicago sandwich shop sells more than 800 sandwiches daily
October 2023
‘Yes chef’: why the restaurant kitchen is a new hot spot for onscreen drama
US-based The Bear and BBC1’s Boiling Point lift the lid on a culture of hierarchy, addiction and abusiveness. But how do real chefs rate behind-closed-doors TV portrayals?
September 2023
Fremont review – utterly delightful Jarmuschian drama
An Afghan translator who has escaped the Taliban for a California bedsit searches for connection in Babak Jalali’s black-and-white charmer
