• Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: Jun 7, 2020
Metascore
86

Universal acclaim - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 27
  2. Negative: 0 out of 27
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Critic Reviews

  1. Reviewed by: Verne Gay
    Jun 3, 2020
    50
    Coel's a great talent — no doubt about that — but this can be an aggravating, unfocused sprawl at times. The power and horror of Arabella's ordeal is the unintended casualty.
  2. Reviewed by: Glenn Garvin
    Jun 5, 2020
    45
    Her plot is a Byzantine mish-mash, her characters complex but uninterestingly so, and her attention to detail frequently unpleasant.
User Score
6.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 96 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 63 out of 96
  2. Negative: 28 out of 96
  1. Jun 8, 2020
    2
    Tries so hard to be cool, edgy and exotic (opening scene is our protagonist black Brit girl having a crush for an Arab drug dealer in...Ostia)Tries so hard to be cool, edgy and exotic (opening scene is our protagonist black Brit girl having a crush for an Arab drug dealer in...Ostia) that it feels boastful, self-centered and totally vapid and immature. The whodunit (drug induced rape) seems also ludicrously low-stake.
    But, of course, this type of show is "à la mode" and will wow and flatter our average lower middle-class white target group, so keen to discuss this British show around the water-cooler.
    Full Review »
  2. Jun 8, 2020
    1
    Bad enough that I want to cancel my HBO Max account. Quite possibly the worst acting I have seen in a lead actor ever on HBO.
  3. Jun 20, 2020
    10
    So far, this is an original, exciting piece of work. Can't wait to see more.