Sleepin_Dragon

Natalie is unlucky in love - so much so that her failed relationships have a huge following online. She has struck up an online romance with Josh and decides to travel across the country to spend Christmas with him, unfortunately, Josh isn't all he seems.

It's a Christmas movie, complete with snow-capped rooftops, the single girl, unlucky-in-love tropes, and the handsome love interest, but everything is a little twisted, and it's that chaos that makes this one interesting.

There's a lot of messaging: the case of someone having eyes bigger than their belly, piling a plate full of food only to find it's not what they wanted. Natalie has the same issue with Tag - on the surface he's hot, but underneath, he's vacuous.

It says a lot about online dating too: you have to trust pictures, but all is not always as it seems. Some jokes are genuinely funny, primarily thanks to grandma, and some don't quite land. The love story...requires squinting a little; it's a bit like wanting to take home a dog that bit you at the pet store.

I expected another lame Christmas movie, but it's actually pretty good. The Christmas theme feels almost secondary to the love/catfish story.

7/10.

Grace has the opportunity to land a huge project for her interior design firm, but it comes with strings - she must reconnect with her childhood crush, Ryan, who's back in town sorting out his mother's estate. Everyone, naturally, tries to convince them they're destined for one another.

I'm convinced this studio has three bags filled with scraps of paper: one for actors, one for plots, and one for female job titles. Among the actors would be Nick Bateman, among the job titles "interior designer," and they just draw one from each bag and call it a film. These tropes are repeated more often than Only Fools and Horses on UK Gold.

She's an interior designer, he's back in town, she has glossy lips, he looks like a catalogue model. They don't hit it off but obviously fall in love because of the magic of Christmas. The whole thing is agonising.

All Canadian entertainment should come with a hazard warning. If they truly think this is what Christmas is about, someone's definitely been at the eggnog.

I also refuse to believe anyone in this universe orders hot chocolate. It would be an extra-skinny soya chai latte with dairy-free whip, minimum.

Grace is horrid, stringing along poor Quinn - granted, he's dull as dishwater - and the Mayor should be behind bars for blackmail, forcing Grace into whatever suits her festive agenda.

Yes, there are bows on kitchen cupboards, 55,000 Christmas lights, heart-warming piano music, and more plaid and soft woolly blankets than a national emergency requires. Not a cushion out of place, cookies produced on cue. If you've ever wondered what life is like for those painted figures trapped inside a Christmas snow globe, this is it: forced to live and love the perfect, meaningful Christmas... *rolls eyes.*

All the sincerity of a set of teeth from Turkey.

3/10.

1884: Katrina Grant and her child are taken at gunpoint, a ransom note issued-one that's never answered. Forty years later, Inspector Karen Pirie finally gets a meaningful lead on the case.

After a long break, the series returns with a strong, absorbing mystery. Karen's moved up in the world, and so has the storytelling. We get glimpses into her life, but the episode never lingers on the regulars; the focus stays firmly on the case.

Karen's juggling the usual dynamics-her no-nonsense boss, her boyfriend, her hopeless colleague, and the eager new protégé who's there, but reluctantly so.

I have to mention the period detail: 1984 is recreated perfectly. When you think of dramas from the time, there's normally a token secretary who didn't know what day it was, as long as she smiled sweetly. Here, we have Murray; one wonders how he manages to tie his shoelaces.

There are a few neat jokes along the way-Karen commenting on the sun being bright, conveniently forgetting she's in Scotland.

James Cosmo adds real gravitas as Brody, while Frances Tomelty brings her usual class. Their younger counterparts are perfectly cast.

8/10.