In case you weren’t here for my episode reviews of Chris Chibnall’s first series of Doctor Who, let me catch you up: I didn’t care for it. I thought the visuals were muddy, the writing painful, the exposition sludgy, and the Rosa Parks episode, although well-meaning, an enormous mistake. However, I did enjoy the New Year’s special, which though imperfect felt like an across-the-board improvement, and on that basis I maintained an air of cautious optimism for the followup series. Lord knows Jodie Whittaker wouldn’t be the first Doctor to have a rough first year on the job.
Well, it’s been a full year since Resolution restored my optimism, and at long last we have the premiere of a new series of Who: Spyfall. Or rather, Spyfall Part One, with part two coming on Sunday. This is a review of an incomplete story, and as such everything I say about it is a bit tentative. But I feel pretty confident saying that, unless Spyfall Part Two is a complete and total bomb, I was right to be optimistic. This series is off to a much stronger start than the previous one.