Rivals episode 8 review | Back in the saddle for a sizzling finale

rivals episode 8 review
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Rivals pulls out at just the right time for a barnstorming finale. Here’s our Rivals episode 8 review.


Now this is more like it. After suffering a notable case of the mid-season blues, Rivals’ riotously dramatic finale returns to what the series does best: affairs, gossip, and a bunch of people caring far too much about a local franchise agreement. Oh, and a bit of sex, obviously.

Opening with the somehow-still-commissioned How To Stay Married intercut with every other character enjoying some kind of affair, right from the off there’s a balls-to-the-wall wit and self-awareness here we haven’t really seen since episode four. Just compare Tony’s relatively flaccid workplace rant from the last episode (“don’t call in sick unless you’re actually dying”) to this one (“you double crossing little shitbag… I’m going to make sure you can’t get a job selling televisions at Rumbelows”) and the venom factor has gone up tenfold. This is the show at its most operatic, most ludicrous, and most entertaining yet.

This is all the more impressive because there’s a lot to fit into the season finale. With sex-crazed chickens coming home to roost left right and centre, the first half hour is packed with revelations and uncovered dalliances ahead of the most erotic of all set pieces: a regional television franchise public meeting. Oo, baby!

Because the meeting has to go on the evening news, of course, it’s happening on the Corinium soundstage. Do you have any idea how heavy those cameras are? They couldn’t move them, obviously – and besides, where would the audience sit?

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The result is a franchise consultation which looks like an insanely flustered edition of Question Time. In another blow to my own understanding of the regional TV bidding process, we’re told the purpose of this meeting is to see whether Venturer are allowed to submit their application to be considered for the franchise some time in the future – presumably season two, because there will almost certainly be a season two.

So none of it really matters then, but that’s ok. Once again we’re back to the sizzling dialogue and absurd human drama that comes with a dozen people all having affairs in various directions. When TV is as confident, sexy and smartly made as this, who could say no to more?

All episodes of Rivals are streaming on Disney+ now.

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