Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema

Mark Kermode is my favourite film critic: he is passionate about cinema and has an incredible breadth of knowledge to bring to the subject. The first episodes - which he wrote himself - are excellent and I've watched them at least twice.

Sadly he has either run out of new things to say or the BBC tone police's insistence on him providing us with little snippets of wokeness and lectures on diversity, make the third series a complete bore.

In this series film critic Mark Kermode analyses the construction of films in five genres; rom-com, heist, coming of age, Science fiction and horror. In each episode he breaks down the standards of the genre under discussion; illustrating it with examples taken from the days of silent cinema right up to films made within the last year. These include many classic examples as well as a few less familiar works.

I found this to be a really interesting insight into genre cinema; of course he only looked into five genres so some viewers may be disappointed that he didn't look into their particular favourite... of course that means there is plenty for a second series at a later date; I'd love to see a discussion of police/detective films, superheroes, war films, westerns and action movies to suggest just another five possibilities. Mark Kermode certainly knows his subject and his passion for film comes across without getting overly bogged down in technicalities. The choices of films to illustrate key points is interesting; some obvious choices, some interesting choices and inevitably there are some surprising omissions... there are only so many clips you can show in an hour. Overall this is definitely something for film fans to watch.

The first season was absolutely brilliant. Kermode knows his stuff and provided a well thought out and witty structural analysis of various genres. The second season was less enthralling but still solid. The third season appears to have been scripted by the woke police and we get lectured about 1950s values existing in 1950s film as if we are naughty children - only allowed to watch Carry On.. with adult supervision of our values.

It's just a boring list of movies in a particular genre. The odd interesting fact about the production is given but the series is let down by its constant denigration of older movies in favour of its championing of similar, newer movies that have more women and poc.

What better company to view a whistle-stop tour of the structure of different genres of cinema than likable film critic Mark Kermode (ably script-assisted by his old friend and legitimate cult vampire Kim Newman)? These colourful jaunts through cinematic history aren't particularly definitive but act as a serviceable surface scratches or invocations for a deeper dive. A solidly authoritative and passionate series, always fascinating to watch and long may it continue.