"Body Banks" is what Max Headroom's second episode should have been: a gripping science fiction yarn with a cautionary twist, unexpected surprises and convincing supporting actors. It's easy to forgive that the episode actually recycles an idea from the pilot in order to introduce an element missing from the US show so far: Big Time Television and its owner, Blank Reg – played by TV's jack of all trades, William Morgan Sheppard.

"Max Headroom" is an odd beast: An American series based on a British TV film whose main character first became familiar to American viewers through a series of advertisements. Furthermore, it's a TV series about a TV reporter which openly criticizes and ridicules TV networks and the way "news" is made. It doesn't get much more meta than this.