- Network: Apple TV+
- Series Premiere Date: Jul 10, 2020
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Critic Reviews
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Really, the show might well have been called “Everybody Loves Bess (but Bess).” All this adoration will create tension and conflict and episodes of inchoate moodiness among them, of an almost secondary-school intensity, and at times expressed exactly in the terms of a music video — which is to say, there is an audience for it.
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At moments during the nine-episode season, I cringed at the clichés and the sincerity and the cutesiness (except all the doggie cutesiness which is authentically cute, end of story). But there are a few embellishments around the bland romcom formula that are appealing in “Little Voice,” and ultimately I wasn’t unhappy that I watched.
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There’s little enough realism intruding on “Little Voice,” though, to make it something of an escapist treat, and a musical one. ... It’s uncertain, though, whether “Little Voice” can overcome its inconsistencies. ... [Louie's] also something of a bad stereotype, as an obsessive-compulsive musical-theater buff who is rendered unemployable by his temperament. Bess the character has a similar problem, though it engenders less sympathy.
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It's very, very earnest and sometimes very, very clunky. Those caught up in its earnestness will forgive the clunkiness. I only sometimes did. ... There are fine supporting turns from Luke Kirby (acting Bess' two love interests off the screen even in a smarmy role), Ned Eisenberg and a wordless yet wonderful June Squibb. With Nelson behind the camera on the pilot and several subsequent episodes, Little Voice is a good New York show.
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In fairness, this fairy-tale ambience is intrinsic to the show, and you may find it charming in its own right. But the story elements Bareilles and Nelson provide over the nine-episode season (three will be available Friday) don’t have enough originality or energy to get you sufficiently invested in the fantasy.
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Great musical TV needs tunes we want to hear. But Bess’s efforts are weedy little numbers, the kind of thing you hear in the corner of a quiet bar rather than indicators of misunderstood genius. In television, as in music, not every hopeful has what it takes.
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Nelson and Bareilles leave no cliche unexplored in their efforts to manufacture some dramatic tension. When their first attempt – Bess's crippling stage fright and a laughably unbelievable tendency to tell dad jokes onstage – proves too flimsy, their ambition grows.