This article is taken from the August-September 2025 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £25.
In the future, every citizen will be under continual surveillance and ranked according to their personal score. Those at the top will enjoy lives of comfort, privilege and access to the best healthcare. Those at the bottom may be expelled to the Outer World to fend for themselves in anarchy and violence.
But what happens when a father is caught doctoring the points system to protect those he loves? Catastrophe ensues. He is arrested and deported. His family’s score plunges. A once tight-knit unit fractures: one daughter becomes an informant, another joins the resistance and a third signs up for the border patrol.
The Belgian dystopian thriller series Arcadia, showing on Channel 4, is already a huge hit across Europe. In a real-life world where mobile telephones and CCTV track our every move and so many of our choices are decided by social media and powerful algorithms, Arcadia is a nightmarish — and terrifyingly plausible — vision of the future.
On Apple TV+ Prime Target opens with a bombing in Baghdad, then switches to Cambridge University. There, Edward Brooke is a world-class mathematician obsessed with prime numbers. A modern-day monk, uninterested in anything except mathematical formulae, it seems Brooke is on the verge of a breakthrough that could reconfigure global digital security.
Not surprisingly, the United States National Security Agency is one of many outsiders watching his work with great interest. Brooke is soon in grave danger. Take a dash of Good Will Hunting, add some Jason Bourne and an unlikely alliance with a would-be protector, and Prime Target hits the spot as a fun, stylish thriller with engaging characters.
Even hired killers eventually retire, but that’s no guarantee of a quiet life as Keeley Hawes shows in The Assassin, which launched on Prime Video on July 25. Hawes plays Julie, the killer in question, with her trademark verve and style. Julie is estranged from her son Edward. He believes that his mother is a headhunter, which is one way of describing her metier.
Julie’s bloody past soon catches up with her, and they are forced to go on the run across Europe. The chase thriller — a protagonist being pursued by baddies on a kill mission — is a classic of the genre, although two unwilling partners thrown together on a road trip is not the most original storyline.
But the tangled relationship between mother and son adds a new dimension as they flee, and Edward starts asking questions. Firstly, who and where is his father? Julie is not keen to answer. Then she starts wondering who wants to kill them.
“Have you got any idea who might want us dead?” she muses. Well, where to start? Expect plenty of action, gorgeous settings and an adrenaline-fuelled storyline in what seems sure to be a big summer hit.
The recent summit between Keir Starmer and President Macron showcased the tension that still bedevils Anglo-French relations. Hostage, a taut drama premiering on Netflix on 21 August, takes the ancient rivalry to a new level. Abigail Dalton, a British prime minister, becomes unwillingly entangled with a visiting French president when Dalton’s husband is kidnapped.
Meanwhile, the French president is being blackmailed, and somehow both the blackmail and the kidnapping are connected. “Forced into a fierce rivalry where their political futures, and lives, might hang in the balance, can they work together to uncover the plot that threatens them both?” asks the series pre-publicity. Well, probably yes, or there would be nothing to watch.
Nonetheless, Hostage promises an exciting mix of international intrigue and high-wire diplomacy, leavened with plenty of action. Suranne Jones and Julie Delpy star, whilst writer Matt Charman, who previously worked on Bridge of Spies and Treason, looks set to deliver another winner.
And don’t miss these previous recommendations: The Leopard, based on the classic novel, unfolds in 1860s Sicily as Italy unifies. Netflix’s lush costume drama is visually stunning with an engaging storyline as an aristocratic dynasty adjusts to an unsettling new order.
Now TV’s The Day of the Jackal, a modern remake of Frederick Forsyth’s eponymous thriller, is a fast-paced, intelligent spy thriller that roams across Europe as MI6 chases down a hitman for hire. Back in today’s real-life headlines, the recent 12-day Iran–Israel war is the latest round in a decades-old conflict.
The Ghosts of Beirut, showing on Paramount+, is a notably smart dramatisation of the lengthy hunt for Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese terrorist wanted by both Mossad and the CIA.
For spy story fans seeking a full-on summer binge, four seasons of Slow Horses are showing on Apple TV+. Mick Herron’s crew of losers and failures may have been put out to grass, but they can still gallop into action when needed — especially against their biggest rival: MI5, the British security service.
The French series The Bureau is often described as the best television spy drama ever made. The Agency, an English-language adaption showing on Paramount+, may lack the depth and nuance of the original but can still be compelling viewing as it steps inside the London CIA station.
Finally, a quick mention for the BBC’s Blue Lights, a gritty Belfast crime series. Some superb performances and authentic settings lift the two seasons far above most television cop shows. Roll on season three, which will hopefully arrive in the next few months. I’ll be watching.
