Must Watch reviews: Young Sherlock, Rooster, and Vladimir

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 ‘Young Sherlock’, ‘Rooster’, and ‘Vladimir’.

What do the Must Watch reviewers make of them?

Guy Ritchie directed two Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey Jr 15 years ago, and now he's giving Sherlock his own origin story, with the help of a series of novels by Andy Lane. Young Sherlock begins when a wayward young Sherlock Holmes is sent to Oxford to keep out of trouble, but he soon finds himself the prime suspect in a police investigation that threatens his entire future.

Scott thinks Young Sherlock is a Must Watch but Hayley disagrees.

Scott says, “I think this is a Must Watch. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I had a lot of fun and I didn’t expect this.”

“Young Sherlock doesn’t really fall into Guy Ritchie’s usual trap because it’s a little bit more family friendly”

He describes the pacing as “quick, quick, quick, quick, quick.”

“It doesn’t take itself too seriously. It knew it wasn’t historically accurate but it was just having a bit of fun.”

He adds he “quite liked the fact that Sherlock doesn’t know when to shut up. He gets himself into quite a lot of trouble.”

However, Hayley’s first question is “why do we need another Sherlock story?” and says “I glaze over when Sherlock comes up.”

“You will already know what this show is like without having watched it.”

She points to “a scene with Sherlock and Moriarty running away” and says she predicted a freeze frame before it happened.

“I think this is fine. I know when the problem is me and not the show. I think this is silly geezer fun where there's punch-ups with loud punk songs playing.”

Hayley says she was “just a bit bored. I wasn’t interested enough in the characters. I won’t be watching it.”

All episodes of Young Sherlock are available to watch on Amazon Prime now.

Rooster is a new comedy starring Steve Carrell. From the creator of Scrubs and Ted Lasso, the comedy follows a trashy novelist called Greg Russo who returns to university after hearing what his daughter Katie, played by Charly Clive, is going through after her partner has an affair with a student.

Hayley says she “kind of likes this” but does not think it’s a Must Watch.

“It’s funny in a gentle way, like the Ted Lasso way. It gets more gentle as it goes on.”

Her favourite episode is the first one and she notes that “it does get a little less funny and a little bit more sweet as it goes on” but says “it’s still worth a watch.”

“If it didn’t have this cast we probably wouldn’t have heard of it. Steve Carell is always great. Charly Clive is excellent. John C. McGinley is funny no matter what he’s doing. And even Alan Ruck turns up.”

She describes the show as “a lot of people walking around drinking hot chocolate in a pretty little New England university town while talking about feelings with an occasional joke thrown in”.

“You're not going to have a bad time, but I don't think this is like a huge laugh out loud comedy.”

Scott finds the show to be “a lost opportunity because of the names attached to it”.

“I was thinking to myself, “Wow these stars! There is some real comedy opportunity here”. And it just felt a little bit flat.”

He thinks that “some of the comedy feels a little bit obvious. I could sense about a minute before it happened that one of the characters was going to burn the house down.”

“There’s a lot of slapstick, a lot of falling over, and a lot of wrong person at the wrong place.”

Scott likes “Steve Carell’s character” and says it feels like “a return to comedy” for the actor.

“If you want to have a bit of a half-hour comedic, light relief at the end of the day, this is for you. But I just think there’s a lot of good TV on at the moment, and this is not for me.”

You can watch all episodes of Rooster on Sky and the streaming service NOW.

Vladimir is an adaptation of the Julia May Jonas book with the same name. The eight part limited series follows M, played by Rachel Weisz, who becomes obsessed with Vladimir, played by Leo Woodall, an assistant professor who has joined the faculty.

Scott and Hayley do not think Vladimir is a Must Watch.

Scott believes the show is “a bit miscast” and that “the chemistry between them doesn't feel that believable.”

“I quite like the Fleabag-esque style when you have a lead character that does things that really irritates you and you hear them break the fourth wall.”

He says it “gives an interesting premise looking at the different values between the older generation and the younger generation coming through.”

“Having 30-minute episodes makes it hugely digestible but after a while I just started to go, ‘this is all a little bit silly’.”

Overall he thinks “it was a show that thought it was better than it actually is.”

Hayley says she “really didn’t like this. I watched three episodes to try and figure out why.”

“On paper I should love this but all of this mixes up to make something that I didn’t like at all.”

She thinks it “has a lot to do with the casting. I think she’s too beautiful for this role, you just keep thinking, ‘you are Rachel Weisz. Men fall at your feet’.”

“I just didn’t buy the obsession.”

She does add that she gets the sense “that this story has a lot more going on in the book. This show just makes me want to read [the novel].”

All episodes of Vladimir are available to watch on Netflix now.

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.