I'm not smothering, I'm just wondering

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 TV shows of 2025

#17 :  Film Club

Sometimes life simply calls for the TV equivalent of a warm blanket draped over you on a Sunday evening. Well, look no further. Aimee Lou Wood and Ralph Davis’s sweet tale of two friends, Evie (Wood) and Noa (Nabhaan Rizwan), brought together by a love of cinema, is exactly that. In an on-screen relationship that is intelligent, empathetic, and full of yearning – note to creatives: bring back yearning! – the series serves as a love letter to everything from Alien to The Shawshank Redemption, and even Bridesmaids. From your dad showing you his favourite action film to that cheesy rom-com you watched on your first date, Film Club understands the connective – and ultimately empowering – comfort of sharing films with one another, and it wears that heart beautifully on its sleeve.

I've heard this is good, but didn't watch it because I thought it might be a bit twee - but I like Aimee Lou Wood and Nabhaan Rizwan, so I'm happy to give it a go.

Well, it certainly is a love letter to film. At its heart, Evie and Noa show their love of film by watching them in Evie's garage. Simple, huh? Well - it's not a case of just watching them, they decorate the garage (and surroundings) to match the film and they also wear some fantastic costumes. Simple, huh? Welll...

Evie and Noa both have interesting character traits - I'm not going to go into any more details because they are slowly drawn out throughout the season, but they make things interesting (and, I believe, are portrayed sympathetically). It has a most unexpected twist in episode 4 which thoroughly discombobulated me (and the characters) resulting in a heart-breaking ending to the episode. But it has an interesting reverse twist in episode 5, which was also somewhat unexpected - and episode 6 certainly keeps you guessing as to how it's going to end. It's also very debatable what the ending actually means, but I thought it was a satisfactory one - particularly given there's not going to be a second series. Empire is certainly correct that it's full of yearning though - sooooo much yearning!

Aimee and Nabhaan are both very good in this and have a believable relationship which is enjoyable to watch as it develops. Suranne Jones is also good (of course) as Aimee's mother and the only other major cast members are Liv Hill as her sister and Adam Long as her boyfriend - ha, you weren't expecting that now, were you?!? I also recognised one of the minor supporting characters, but needed Google to remind me it was Owen Cooper, who we might possibly be seeing later on in the list in Adolescence - he also has a couple of nice scenes in this.

This is all very well written (co-written by Aimee - she's a talented lass) and and it has soooo many film references in it - I placed some of them, recognised some of them without placing them and probably missed a whole load more of them! And all in all, it's shot pretty well, with some of the film recreations being charmingly done - my only quibble would be that it was obviously very cold on some of the days because you could see the characters' breath, but their costumes suggested it was supposed to be a bit warmer (no-one had a warm jacket on!).

So it's well written, acted and shot and all perfectly charming, which means it is a recommendation but it is also pretty lightweight and maybe not as funny as it could be, so I'd struggle to say it's essential. I suspect Empire bumped it up because of their love of film and I can see that if I was slightly more up on cinema, things might have clicked more - I don't regret watching it but I'm pretty certain it's not going to stay with me.

#18 - A return to form