As Paul and Jay try to have a normal relationship, Neil and Mark face unexpected setbacks…

Firstly a warning – do not look ahead in next week’s Radio Times, as it gives away the ending of the episode. It quite deliberately comes completely out of the blue, wrong footing the audience and the characters alike.

This week’s instalment begins – possibly unconsciously – with the best pisstake of the “teenage years as metaphor” that was the basis of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Paul’s teenage masturbation fantasy has… shall we say, very surprising consequences. The relationships between all of the teens are tested – Paul and his sister, after she turns up at an inopportune moment; Paul and Mac, when the former’s self-centredness hurts his friend more than expected; and Paul and Jay as their relationship becomes more public.

We meet some more Angelics, and realise that they are more like Helen or Sarah than the obsessive Neil (a load of them like him would have been too much), while Neil reluctantly helps Sarah speak with her ex-husband, Mark – the man who believes that Neil and Sarah were having an affair. Throw in Mac’s father, a copper apparently out of his depth, and the web between the characters becomes more entangled.

And that’s before whatever features in the title sequence starts to become involved – as it does finally this week. It’s yet another strand for this already convoluted story, but hopefully, with many of the characters reaching a nadir at the end of this episode, things will start to unravel soon.

Verdict: If you’ve enjoyed it so far, you won’t be disappointed with this episode’s developments.  7/10

Paul Simpson

Check out our reviews of episodes 1 and 2

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