A Christmas Carol (2019)

:

Season 1
  • Network: FX
  • Series Premiere Date: Dec 19, 2019
Metascore
49

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 12
  3. Negative: 3 out of 12

Critic Reviews

  1. Salon
    Reviewed by: Melanie McFarland
    Dec 19, 2019
    30
    Between the overuse of dark lens filters, the grinding sorrow hovering over everything, and the spirit-deflating, narrative-defeating addition of a sexual abuse subplot, this “Christmas Carol” is short on joy and very, very, very long on purgatorial slogging. ... The impressive cast can only offset the dourness to a point.
  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Daniel D'Addario
    Dec 17, 2019
    30
    Pearce is undeniably good, but the script, with its aphoristic philosophy planted in the mouth of a character who’d historically been a fairly unintellectual money-hoarder, never allows him to compel us. And the visual vocabulary feels skittish and chaotic, presenting ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future that are unpleasant to look at and time jumps that can at times confuse. ... [Bob and Mary Cratchit are] written to truly despise Scrooge, and to want their time with him ended. Their performances sell it, but you’d join them and relate regardless.
  3. Cleveland Plain Dealer
    Reviewed by: Mark Dawidziak
    Dec 16, 2019
    30
    This isn’t a parody. It’s deadly serious. And deadly is a description that also fits the direction and writing. ... Drearily paced, clunkily written “Christmas Carol.” Everything seems to take forever as we move awkwardly and clumsily from scene to scene.

Awards & Rankings

66
#66 Most Discussed TV Season of 2019

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 29 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 29
  3. Negative: 9 out of 29
  1. Qishere
    Dec 22, 2019
    0
    Abomination! A so called “remake” of a beloved Dickens’ tale of redemption and love that has been recast as a dark and filthy three odd hoursAbomination! A so called “remake” of a beloved Dickens’ tale of redemption and love that has been recast as a dark and filthy three odd hours of psycho-sexual indulgence with very little entertainment.

    From the first image of a boy urinating on a gravestone to reveal, “Jacob Marley” to the later humiliation of Bob Cratchit’s wife submitting to Scrooge’s quid pro quo offer that she prostitute herself for much needed money for her son’s life and death surgery, this movie is an unfortunate array of artisitic choices that fails with every scene! As is exclaimed so many times in this movie’s dialogue, I can only shout out, “Fu@k”

    Why the BBC and FX allowed their resources to be squandered in this worthless project, I cannot answer, but I can empathize with the humiliation the great cast of actors in this abomination must feel! In the end, by resorting to cheap, lurid and dark tricks of the writer we have been cheated of a glorious Christmas story with an insult to our adoration of Dickens’ theme. It is not Marley who is turning over in his grave, but Charles Dickens!    … Full Review »
  2. Boozehound
    Dec 28, 2019
    0
    Terrible take on a cherished Christmas classic! A perverted assault on my childhood memories of what Christmas is really about!
  3. BigLill64
    Dec 21, 2019
    9
    This was a very dark, yet interesting take on a Christmas Carol. Enjoyed immensely.
See all user reviews »