Must Watch reviews: Jon Snow: A Last Big Story, I Will Find You, and Scamanda

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 ‘Jon Snow: A Last Big Story’, ‘I Will Find You’ and ‘Scamanda’.

What do the Must Watch reviewers make of them?

This is a feature-length documentary about the Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow after his Alzheimer's diagnosis. In the documentary he rediscovers his purpose by doing what he's always done, exposing injustice as he fights for a Zambian community whose homes have been destroyed by a mine.

Scott and Hayley both think this is a Must Watch.

Scott says, “the bravery of Jon Snow being completely transparent and having a film crew follow him is incredibly important, and I felt I learned a lot.”

“He goes to Zambia to investigate and he still has the inquisitive mind, journalistic skill and empathy that he has always had.”

He thinks this shows what people with Alzheimer’s can do and “it is good for Jon to go and do that as well.”

“Not only heartbreaking, but a real testament to Jon’s journalism.”

Scott says that watching this show, “you can’t help feeling emotionally affected by it”.

Hayley says, “I thought it was really beautiful, well done and not at all sentimental”.

“It’s not a standard documentary, it’s a picture of where he’s at now, mentally, emotionally, medically, just by kind of quietly hanging out with him.”

Hayley finds the documentary “shows the effects of the disease” rather than "telling us”.

“The last big story is really himself and I think it’s incredibly vulnerable.”

Hayley explains you are able to “see inside neurology appointments" which is made all the more interesting as Jon Snow’s wife, Dr Precious Lunga, is a neurologist.

Jon Snow: A Last Big Story is available to watch on the Channel 4 website.

I Will Find You is a new Netflix series based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Harlan Coben. In this series, David (played by Sam Worthington) has been arrested for the death of his son. But years later David is shown a photograph of Matthew looking much older, suggesting he might be alive.

Scott and Hayley do not think I Will Find You is a Must Watch.

Scott says that because “there are so many big dramatic twists, after a while, it really does start to lose its effectiveness”.

“Of course the kid’s alive, because otherwise the show would be over very quickly, there wouldn’t be anything to go on.”

He describes the drama as “driving on the wrong side of the motorway, it’s quite anxiety inducing, but there are so many big plot holes”.

However, Scott adds that it is “not so bad that it’s dull.”

Hayley explains, “Netflix has made a deal with Harlan Coben to adapt 14 of his books, so if it feels like these are coming out every couple of weeks, I don't think you're imagining it.”

“I think you either like Harlan Coben shows or you don’t, and I don’t.”

She thinks Harlan Coben shows are “exactly what you think they’re going to be: basic, cliched, forgettable thrillers that you can binge on a wet weekend.”

“It’s the kind of brain numbness you get at the end of a long, long flight.”

Overall Hayley says, “I never really want to watch these. I don’t want to watch this one.”

All episodes of I Will Find You are available on Netflix now.

Scamanda is a four-part documentary series based on a podcast that exposed fraud. It's about a woman called Amanda Riley – a wife, mum, and devout Christian, who captivated thousands with her tragic cancer story. But it was all made up to scam money out of people.

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

Hayley says she would rather the documentary analysed the psychology of Amanda’s scam to better explain why she did it.

“There are just too many voices, dozens of quickly edited bits of interviews, and it’s just too crowded and therefore too annoying to listen to.”

She describes the documentary as “a reel on Instagram rather than something on the BBC, like one of those trashy Netflix documentaries”.

“The way this documentary has been made hasn’t convinced me that it’s interesting enough that I need to sit through four hours of another woman lying about being sick.”

Scott says, “it kind of gives the game away within the first two minutes because they say the entire narrative right at the top of the show, so any sense of suspense is gone immediately.”

“There’s just endless stock footage because there’s seemingly no footage that they can take, apart from talking heads, so you’re essentially just looking at very bland images done on the cheap.”

He describes the show as “one massive shrug”.

“If you want to go and see it, essentially a podcast turned into a video with stock footage and talking heads, you’ve come to the right place. I really thought this was beneath them.”

All four episodes of Scamanda are available to watch on BBC iPlayer 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.