- Network: USA
- Series Premiere Date: Nov 7, 2017
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Critic Reviews
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Bleak and nasty, Damnation brings a "Mr. Robot" vibe to the Depression era, wrapping class warfare and hostility toward wanton capitalism in a drab, dusty package. The result is a bracing look backward informed by present-day parallels, in another show that feels like an outlier for USA -- one that should have critical admirers but might struggle to satisfy TV's capitalist demands.
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But still, slow-moving and enamored of its own darkness as Damnation is, there’s something vital and real in the show’s insistence that the United States’ institutions have failed and are only looking out for themselves.
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It’s often predictable and to the grimdark end of the Quality Drama tonal spectrum, but the period itself is fairly novel (Carnivale was over a decade ago), and it plays its familiar tunes with brisk competence.
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Damnation has laid enough groundwork for a solid series, and the first episode ends with a kicker about Seth and Creeley’s relationship.
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It can all be a bit heavy-handed, but damned if I'm not intrigued. [30 Oct 2017 - 12 Nov 2017, p.13]
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There’s timeliness to the never dull “Damnation” despite its period setting, particularly in episode two when a professor (Gabriel Mann, “Revenge”) disparages the “unwashed rural masses.” Just don’t go looking for any heroes: There are none to be found.
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His [creator/writer/executive producer Tony Tost's] critique of capitalism is overt and bracing for scripted TV, and perhaps, like many science-fiction shows, from “Star Trek” to “Black Mirror,” its faraway setting will make its message more palatable. But the weight is undercut by moments that border on black comedy.
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Damnation spends so much of its early going caught in a spiral of misdirection that once the emphasis on bloodshed, doom, and duplicity wanes, a series with sharper insights might emerge. But in its current form, it’s a punishing watch, one with not much more to offer than an animalistic view of human nature.
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A lot of Damnation feels an awful lot like homework or worse: homework you’re forced to do on the sly while sitting in church listening to a sermon.
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Damnation is indisputably a good-looking show, and I think it has some things on its mind, though I wish the script had allowed the show to go more aggressively into the Man vs. Bank gear executive producer David Mackenzie brought to Hell or High Water. It's hampered by being a series that keeps its attentions most frequently honed on the aspect that engages me the least.
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It’s hard to figure out what this odd, bordering on bizarre historical something or other is trying to do, but it’s firmly focused on the sick soul of America.
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To Damnation’s credit, Seth and Creeley are compelling characters--worthy opponents with hangups that make their two sides of the story individually sympathetic. But too often, the details around them become a hash.
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Though it works hard to check the boxes of an "important show," the series leaves two fields unticked: interesting and new. [10 Nov 2017, p.45]
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Damnation is not all bad, but it never shakes the feeling of being merely a shadow of other, more compelling series that deal with similar struggles of class warfare, brotherhood, frontier spirit, and the like.
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It’s too often dull, tonally inconsistent, and just poorly written.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 25 out of 33
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Mixed: 3 out of 33
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Negative: 5 out of 33
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Nov 22, 2017
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Dec 29, 2018
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Dec 23, 2018