Cancel culture has been "crying out to be skewered on telly", said Carol Midgley in The Times. "Now, Steven Moffat has done it with 'Douglas Is Cancelled' (ITV), a spiky satire about sexism, hypocrisy, confected outrage and stellar careers being toppled by a single tweet."
Hugh Bonneville plays Douglas, an "avuncular national-treasure anchorman" who gets drunk at a family wedding and is overheard making a "sexist joke". Someone tweets about it; then "the shit hits the fan".
Douglas insists he can't remember what he said, though it seems in character; then things get "spicier" when his colleague Madeline (an "excellent" Karen Gillan) weighs in on the row. The four-parter is sometimes rather "on the nose", but "mostly it is clever and sharp", and its denouement is unexpected, which is a bonus.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The series is being marketed as a "comedy drama", said Nick Hilton in The Independent, but the laughs are few and far between. And it's annoying, too, that Gillan and Bonneville talk in newsroom clichés, such as: "The truth is useful, but I'd prefer something a little more balanced." Douglas's Gen Z daughter (Madeleine Power), meanwhile, is given "clunkers" such as: "Dad, I believe you – hashtag: total confidence."
It starts out promisingly enough, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph, but the plot soon becomes illogical; and the two main female characters are terribly written. Madeline is forced to deliver "atrocious speeches about feminism", and Douglas's wife (Alex Kingston) is a "harridan who hates Madeline because she is younger and has 'blowjob eyes'". Overall, it's pretty "dreadful".
-
Magazine solutions - September 19, 2025Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - September 19, 2025
-
Magazine printables - September 19, 2025Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - September 19, 2025
-
Calls for both calm and consequences follow Kirk killingTALKING POINTS The suspected assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk has some public figures pleading for restraint, while others agitate for violent reprisals
-
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – a ‘comfort’ watch for fansThe Week Recommends The final film of the franchise gives viewers a chance to say goodbye
-
The Paper: new show, same 'warmth and goofiness'The Week Recommends This spin-off of the American version of The Office is ‘comfortingly and wearyingly familiar’
-
Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons – ‘riotously colourful’ works from an ‘exhilarating’ painterThe Week Recommends The 34-year-old is the first artist to take over Dulwich Picture Gallery’s main space
-
Born With Teeth: ‘mischievously provocative’ play starring Ncuti GatwaThe Week Recommends ‘Sprightly’ production from Liz Duffy Adams imagines the relationship between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe
-
Art review: Lorna Simpson: Source NotesFeature Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, through Nov. 2
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Book reviews: 'Baldwin: A Love Story' and 'The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces'Feature A loving James Baldwin biography and the drug crimes of two special ops veterans
-
'The Office' spinoff, a 'Mare of Easttown' follow-up and the Guinness family royalty in September TVthe week recommends This month's new television releases include 'The Paper,' 'Task' and 'House of Guinness'
