I Love Dick

:

Season 1
User Score
6.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 39 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 39
  3. Negative: 10 out of 39
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User Reviews

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  1. JennetP
    May 21, 2017
    5
    After looking forward to this series for months, I bailed out after 4 episods. I was expecting smart and funny and provocative--all the alluring adjectives the critics used--but I would have settled for smart-assed and somewhat original. Instead, "I Love Dick" is mostly dull. Occasional flashes of visual wit (most featuring Kevin Bacon and livestock) break the tedium and, for me at least,After looking forward to this series for months, I bailed out after 4 episods. I was expecting smart and funny and provocative--all the alluring adjectives the critics used--but I would have settled for smart-assed and somewhat original. Instead, "I Love Dick" is mostly dull. Occasional flashes of visual wit (most featuring Kevin Bacon and livestock) break the tedium and, for me at least, gesture toward the better series that could have been. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t say whether the TV version was too faithful or not faithful enough to its source, but I’d guess the former.

    The series tries to satirize the pretentious artists and theoreticians of academia, but most of its jokes seem ham-fisted. Example: at a cocktail party, a Holocaust researcher is told he must meet a board president because she “is a huge fan of the Holocaust.” Ha ha ha, aren't those pretentious twits clueless? What’s interesting about real academics is their exasperating mix of intelligence and stupidity, but the characters in "I Love Dick" are mostly just stupid. Worse, they’re flat, even for sitcom characters. They’re like old-fashioned comic protagonists--myopic, histrionic, and self-absorbed--but without the usual endearing qualities. Imagine Lucy Ricardo sans naiveté, enthusiasm, and affection for others. Not interesting.

    The “provocative” part is supposed to be all of the sex, which breaks with TV precedent by being ugly, clumsy, and unpleasant to watch. While I too am weary of coitus that proceeds from passionate first kiss to explosive simultaneous orgasm in 30 perfectly choreographed seconds, I’m also not eager to view more “realistic” sex (beyond a certain point) unless it advances a plot line or deepens a character. At least with conventional TV coitus, you know exactly how much time you have to grab a snack before the story picks up again.

    I haven’t said anything nice abou "I Live Dick," so why do I give this series a 5? Because Amazon is trying, at least. Some of its original offerings explore domains other than the usual hospital, courtroom, and/or police station, and, when they get it right (as with “Mozart in the Jungle”), the result feels really fresh. For some reason, academia has been a difficult culture for TV to crack, which is presumably why so many professor characters turn their hands to (surprise!) solving crimes. If Amazon wants to try again, they could start with David Lodge’s “Changing Places” or another truly funny satire of academic life. There are quite a few that would make good series.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

75
#75 Best TV Season of 2017
97
#97 Most Shared TV Season of 2017

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Generally favorable reviews - based on 29 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 29
  3. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Emily Nussbaum
    Jun 20, 2017
    50
    A feminist cringe-comedy and, like its horny antiheroine, it’s a train wreck, freely mashing together theory and practice. It’s sometimes beautiful but also, not infrequently, repulsive, a narcissistic spectacle framed as a liberating vision quest.
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  2. Vox.com
    Reviewed by: Caroline Framke
    May 15, 2017
    80
    As a TV show, I Love Dick’s makes the smart choice to lean into the book’s aggression, giving Hahn the freedom to fully let loose. The series embraces every sordid, horny detail of Chris’s desire, staring viewers directly (and often literally) in the face and daring us to blink.
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  3. Reason.com
    Reviewed by: Glenn Garvin
    May 13, 2017
    70
    I Love Dick doesn't have a safe bone in its body, salacious allusion definitely intended.
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