Starring Tom Hanks, Caleb Landry Jones

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik

Apple TV+, available now

 

So who do you want to spend the end of the world with?

You could wander miserably through a cannibalistic post apocalyptic bleak-scape in the company of Viggo Mortensen. You could get your litter picker out and lend a hand to plucky robot Wall-E. How about tending the last forests with nervy Bruce Dern on a spaceship with three cute robots named after Donald Duck’s nephews? Alternatively why not take a trip to the Arctic and get down and dreary with regretful George Clooney in the extremely down and dreary Midnight Sky?

Or…

…you could do a bit of all of those, but with cuddly Tom Hanks and a soupçon of added Barbara Woodhouse, training your District 9/Rain Man robot to play ball with your dog while cruising across post apocalyptic America in Walter White’s RV but with fatherhood and (tinned) apple pie in place of crystal meth.

Think A Beautiful Day In The Post Apocalyptic Neighbourhood and you’ve pretty much got the measure of Apple TV’s Finch. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Hanks as Fred Rogers, but there is something slightly surreal seeing the same character dying of UV radiation on a desertified planet, teaching his robot the wholesome truisms of American decency.

At least Chartlon Heston got to shout at the crumpled remains of the Statue of Liberty.

Verdict: Finch has one or two good bits, but ultimately it’s a one-way trip to a slightly cloying, sugar-coated Apocalypse. It looks great, it’s well made, Tom is excellent as ever, but considering it’s about the demise of humanity it is frustratingly insubstantial. The occasional promises of jeopardy never amount to much, and in the end it’s a case of: ‘This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a meh.’ 6/10

Martin Jameson