Must Watch reviews: The Rapture, Furious, and Evolution

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan join Adrian Chiles to review ‘The Rapture’, ‘Furious’, and ‘Evolution’.

What do the Must Watch reviewers make of them?

Chris Packham traces four billion years of life on Earth through the evolutionary stories about animals. Combining location filming, CGI and expert scientific input, the series explores how life developed from a common ancestor into the diversity seen today.

Scott and Hayley think Evolution is a Must Watch.

Hayley says, “what I really liked about it is that it's so full of passion.”

“It never becomes dry science.”

She likes the fact “he's actually there in the wilderness” and that Chris Packham is involved.

“I really love the fact that he doesn't talk down to you, and it doesn't bore you by being too heavy on science.”

Hayley appreciates Packham’s enthusiasm and says in one part of the documentary, he is “more focused on the pure wonder of this creature existing at all.”

“I really love the fact that he doesn't talk down to you, and it doesn't bore you by being too heavy on science.”

Hayley describes this series as “Trojan horse learning” and thought as a whole this was “great”.

Scott says, “he has this complete and utter level of enthusiasm with explaining concepts, but also with the natural environment.”

“There is something that is really rather emotionally moving about this science show that I just didn't expect and it really got under my skin.”

Scott believes Chris Packham is a “fantastic, fantastic communicator and he has been, but this is some of the best work he's ever done.”

Chris Packham’s delivery is commended by Scott as he keeps it “in layman's terms possible of quite complex science that they go into without it ever sounding patronising.”

Scott likes how the CGI is used throughout as “you can have so much CGI that it can end up feeling quite cold.”

“It doesn't fall into that trap either.”

All five episodes of the series are available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.

The thriller follows FBI agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) as she pursues Catherine (Lola Petticrew), a calculating female serial killer who targets powerful men. As the investigation unfolds, the series explores abuse, trauma, sex trafficking and the blurred line between justice and revenge.

Hayley and Scott think Furious is a Must Watch.

Scott says “the first half an hour made me really think of Killing Eve.”

“I was thinking this feels like a copy-paste job.”

Initially Scott believed that “it was going to be one dimensional when it really wasn't.”

He says, “it taps into the violence experienced by women and the consequences and how that can spill out into different actions.”

Scott elaborates “There are some unsettling scenes in this, but it isn't gory in the way that you normally see in a lot of crime shows.”

“It purposefully treats it in a different light.”

Scott thinks “it's also very well acted and very well done”, praising the cast for their performance.

“I found the grittiness rather interesting as well.”

Hayley says, “It's not your usual serial killer story.”

“It's about the long-lasting effects of abuse by men on women.”

She says throughout the show “we see it in different ways.”

Hayley agrees with Scott and thinks the cast is “great” and feels “you should give it a watch if you like stuff like Killing Eve.”

In terms of characters, it’s “genuinely quite a female story” and she’s happy to see Petticrew in an American Disney show.

Furious is available to watch on Disney+ now.

This is a five-part psychological thriller set during an oppressive heatwave. Ruth Madeley plays forensic psychologist Gabrielle "Gabs" Fox, who begins working at a secure psychiatric unit and becomes fascinated by Bethany Krall (played by India Amarteifio), a teenager convicted of killing her mother who claims she can predict catastrophic events.

Both Hayley and Scott think this is not a Must Watch.

Hayley says “It feels like it's something for teenagers, like some kind of after-school mystery thing.”

She explains that everyone around the main character felt “like a stock character that I've seen before.”

Hayley praises Ruth Madeley’s performance for being “great” and is captivated by her character, “she's unusual.”

She says, “she is dealing with this altered life, which is physically and mentally different to how she was living before.”

Hayley thinks the thriller is packing too much in and “they're trying to talk about all sorts of things like guilt and grief and madness and religion.”

“To me it all added up to be quite annoying and too slow despite the fact that they're trying to cover so much stuff.”

Scott says, “there is so much here.”

“I just wish, from my own perspective, it was just a little bit more focused.”

He says, “these themes are really realistic. It feels very much like a drama reflecting the news at the moment.”

Scott feels the depiction of disability is “realistic” and notes it “doesn't go into some of the tropes you see on other TV shows.”

“It has its flaws. Some points of it aren't really for me, but it was ambitious.”

Overall, Scott feels the series is “reflecting the conversations that we're having currently in this country, but it's not a Must Watch.”

The Rapture is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

Listen to the full reviews of all three programmes on BBC Sounds.

But before all that, why not contact Must Watch with the shows you’ve been loving, loathing or both on mustwatch@bbc.co.uk.

We used AI to transcribe and summarise our Must Watch feature. This article was then written and reviewed by a BBC journalist. More on how the BBC uses AI.