Scoop

The depiction of the hard, gritty work of journalism is believable, but it doesn't make for especially engaging drama.

It's very crisp and effective... You obviously know where it's going, but it's effective for what it does.

Scoop, which declares it a job-well-done simply to see a man stripped of honorary titles without ever having to defend himself in a criminal court, fails to make the argument for why any of this mattered beyond making good TV.

Scoop is agnostic about what Andrew did, but it sure makes him look as pathetic as hell.

Perceptive on the dynamics of a newsroom under duress, with Billie Piper terrific as Sam McAlister, the straight-talking producer who managed to land the interview to end all royal interviews.

Even as a modest letdown Scoop is nevertheless worth watching for that climactic sequence, as well as what it has to say about the current state of media as the circle-the-wagons mentality surrounding the Royals.

The script by Peter Moffat and Geoff Bussetil doesn’t offer any major revelations, especially if you’ve paid attention to the various Epstein documentaries and podcasts. ... That said, there are some nice details.

Handsomely mounted, this account of sordid recent history reminds how a senior British royal (terrifically well played by Sewell) was, because of bad behaviour and a startling lack of contrition, the architect of his own undoing

One must doubt whether treating this story as a triumph of journalistic tenacity really does it justice...while “Scoop” is interesting enough, especially for royal watchers, its take on what’s actually a tragic story seems awfully skewed.

This should have been a thrilling backstage look at one of the biggest stories in a decade. It's not. Flattening out this tale was close to criminal because it's not just the story that was squandered but a cast of phenomenal actors.