In a dystopian Istanbul, as an epidemic spreads through verbal communication, a tyrannical institution pursues a linguist immune to the disease.

I’ve done more than my fair share of reporting from the apocalypse in recent years as every kind of terminal disaster has been thrown at humanity via our TV screens. Climate breakdown, asteroids, insomnia, pandemics, zombies, solar flares, nuclear war – we’ve even had the Apocalypse on Ice, complete with some rather lovely skating. So, I was intrigued by the set-up for Hot Skull. In this dystopia, people are afflicted with an irresistible urge to spout complete nonsense – branding them ‘Jabberers’ – at which point the security forces are called and they’re carted off to an unknown fate.

Sign me up! This isn’t the apocalypse, this is a long overdue reform!

After watching the opening episode, I sent my esteemed editor a bemused email. I suggested that it was ‘tonally unusual’ and that I’d have to watch at least one more to form an opinion about it. Having staggered to the end of episode 2, I’m not sure I’m much the wiser. It may be, for its Turkish audience, Hot Skull has a deeper allegorical significance, but for me it was hard to see it as anything other than a satirical riff on the disinformation zeitgeist. The idea of carting off everyone who starts talking rubbish is fundamentally amusing, at odds with the jeopardy the programme makers clearly want us to feel.

The production values are perfectly fine, there’s some lovely acting, but by the end of the second part – despite a major, if predictable, plot reveal – I was struggling to maintain my concentration.

Verdict: It might be a case of ‘lost in translation’ but while I’d have been interested to see the idea played out as a single ninety-minute satire, Hot Skull presents as dystopian drama at its most earnest, and I’m not sure I can face another six hours of that. 6/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com