Mark Kermode stands in front of a blank white set and names the ingredients of a romcom like a recipe: meet-cute, obstacle, grand gesture, kiss in the rain. Each 60-minute episode of this BBC Four documentary does the same for a single genre, listing tropes in kinetic captions then illustrating them with perfectly chosen clips from When Harry Met Sally to Spies Like Us. Co-written with Kim Newman, the show began as a five-part summer run in 2018, added three specials, then returned for two more three-part series before ending in January 2021.
The format never varies: Kermode introduces the genre, counts down its narrative building blocks, and ends with a montage that proves every film you thought was unique is obeying the same hidden rules. Newman told Den of Geek they deliberately kept the word “genre” out of the title because television had never built a series around the mechanics of categories themselves rather than around directors or stars.
Criticians welcomed the lesson. The Observer called it “an endlessly refreshing delight” that could have run three hours, while The Herald joked about Kermode gate-crashing living rooms with his “lucid, funny, fascinating” lecture. Even a sceptical Independent critic admitted watching the disaster-movie episode felt like “sitting through a lecture from the world’s coolest professor”. All fourteen episodes now rotate on iPlayer whenever BBC Four repeats the series.
Production Details
BBC Four / 3 Seasons / 11 Episodes / 2018 - Present
Created by: Kim Newman Mark Kermode
Showrunner(s): Richard Bright, John Das
Writer(s): Kim Newman, Mark Kermode
Producer(s): Nick Freand Jones
Main Cast
Mark Kermode as Himself - Presenter
