Must Watch reviews: Detective Hole, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair and The Miniature Wife

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan join Naga Munchetty to review ‘Detective Hole’, ‘Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair’ and ‘The Miniature Wife’.

What do the Must Watch reviewers make of them?

‘Detective Hole’ is based on the bestselling books by Jo Nesbo. It follows Tobias Santelmann as detective Harry Hole - an Oslo police detective who has to hunt down a serial killer.

Scott and Hayley say that this is a Must Watch.

Scott says: “Even though this is a soup of cliché after cliché, it’s come out quite nice.”

He adds that “overall, I’d say I enjoyed it, even though it is fairly unremarkable and unoriginal in what it’s trying to do”.

“It just does it well.”

Hayley says she likes “this kind of detective nonsense” and she loves “a Scandi noir”.

“It’s quite brutally violent but if you like this kind of thing, this is a solid one of those.”

She adds: “I’m going to be watching the rest because I do like this sort of nonsense.”

All episodes of ‘Detective Hole’ are available to watch on Netflix.

‘Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair’ is a four-part revival of the incredibly successful noughties’ sitcom. The sitcom, which depicted chaotic family life, originally aired on Sky One for six years. Many of the cast have reprised their roles, including Bryan Cranston as Hal, Jane Kaczmarek as Lois and Frankie Muniz as Malcolm.

Scott and Hayley both believe this is not a Must Watch.

Scott says: “I was a big fan of Malcolm in the Middle when it was on originally, it was like a mainstay of my weekday evening routine.”

“I found the gag rate a bit hit and miss but I laughed more than I thought I was going to, particularly when there were homages back to small scenes and little references back to the original series.”

Scott adds: “I felt that when Malcolm in the Middle was going to be rebooted in this way, a fair bit of cynicism [was justified] but I felt it wasn’t just the ‘oh my goodness, we’ve got the gang back together.’ There was actually a new plot that was a continuation from the original series.”

“It’s not a must watch for me. I just don’t think it was consistent enough for all of it.”

Hayley says that this isn’t for her, adding: “I have no interest in reboots in general. I think nostalgia is quite a bad thing.”

“I don’t think that digging up its corpse and pretending it still has the same life in it is any good.”

She adds that she was never a fan of Malcolm in the Middle but “the best part of both the revival and the original is Bryan Cranston”.

All four episodes of ‘Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair’ are available to watch on Disney+.

This is a ten-part comedy drama on Sky called ‘The Miniature Wife’. Matthew Macfadyen plays a scientist who accidentally shrinks his wife, played by Elizabeth Banks.

Scott says that “this is one of the weirdest shows I’ve seen in quite a while”.

“Only halfway through the first episode I realised it was apparently a comedy. I did not laugh once.”

He says: “I don’t mind when a show is surreal or wacky, but this show had none of that to me at least.”

Scott adds: “It felt like a show that they invented in 30 Rock, like Milk Island or The Royal Juror. Something so baffling that you wonder whether it’s a skit.”

“Absolutely not [a must watch].”

On the other hand, Hayley thought “it was fun”, saying she “enjoyed the oddness of it”.

She says: “It’s essentially a show full of Matthew Macfadyen having these little meltdowns and leaving post‑its everywhere saying that things are going to be fine.”

“It’s a must watch for me.”

All episodes of 'The Miniature Wife' are available to watch on Sky Q and the NOW streaming service.

Listen to the full reviews of all three programmes on BBC Sounds.

But before all that, why not contact Scott and Hayley with the shows you’ve been loving, loathing or both on mustwatch@bbc.co.uk.

We used AI to transcribe and summarise our Must Watch feature. This article was then written and reviewed by a BBC journalist. More on how the BBC uses AI.