Metascore
59

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 9
  2. Negative: 1 out of 9

Critic Reviews

  1. Reviewed by: Allison Shoemaker
    Jan 25, 2019
    80
    If you’re hoping to be simultaneously challenged and made deeply anxious, look no further. And if the quest for rightness in a world that too often makes rightness impossible compels you, Black Earth Rising is well worth your time. Just give yourself something to grab, or touch, or press while you watch it. The steadiness will help.
  2. Reviewed by: Tim Goodman
    Jan 24, 2019
    80
    Like David Simon, Blick is the kind of storyteller who's drawn to a form of bleak realism because that's where the tough stories that need to be told reside. In that sense, his work requires something of a commitment from viewers, but Black Earth Rising and Blick's previous work illustrate that it's one worth making.
  3. Reviewed by: Dorothy Rabinowitz
    Jan 25, 2019
    70
    A thriller of sorts, the series also manages a fair amount of suspense and can claim one of the better car chases in recent memory. ... The skillful cast carries the series, though John Goodman is wasted as an idealistic lawyer in the field of human rights.
  4. Reviewed by: Michael Haigis
    Jan 23, 2019
    63
    The truth of Kate’s childhood isn’t as shocking as Black Earth Rising’s writers seem to believe it is. The series effectively defines both the real villains of its story and who Kate is, so much so that what she is, by the end, feels poignantly immaterial.