I was almost tempted to completely and utterly skip this one, due to my extreme arachnophobia. But I decided to power through it and watch. Admittedly, I had to look away and go on my phone/laptop during any scene with the spiders (as soon as I saw the first one, I knew I couldn't cope and watch normally) but I powered through the full episode!

Positives first: Graham's B-plot is genuinely powerful stuff and a great examination of processing grief. With an outstanding performance from Bradley Walsh, who's able to prove he's more than just comic relief as an actor. Yaz's family life is genuinely fun to see and all of her family feel fleshed out in their interactions with her, despite how little we get to see. And Jodie! She continues to just do a great job, especially with her dismissive and bored look at Robinson when he brags.

Unfortunately. The rest of the episode is. This. Even when the spiders aren't on screen, it's just boring (outside of the family life stuff and everything with Graham). And Jack Robinson is not only played completely flat and boringly, but he's not at all an interesting satire on Trump, and is a bit too on the nose without any of the joy or entertainment value a satirical character should provide.

Also, I'm sorry (and I know I'm nowhere near the first ever to say this) but it's absolutely criminal that the episode genuinely actually paints the idea of giant spiders suffocating to death slowly and painfully as much more humane than being shot and put out of their misery. And that our good ol' Doc is in favour of the former over the latter.

All I could remember from this one after watching it back in the day is that the spiders were too much for me, and nothing of the plot. And now I can see why. It's not unsalvageable, again the human B-Plot stuff saves it from being completely and utterly horrendous, but it's still really really bland and bad with a muddled aesop that feels distinctly out of character.