Doctor Who returns, and my optimism has been vindicated.

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.

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