Lorena
Prime Video | AMAZON | Release Date: February 15, 2019
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeFeb 15, 2019
Season 1 Review: Over the course of four hours, we get to know Lorena as a human being, from her naive Catholic upbringing to her wise middle age. Twenty-five years after her trial, we owe Lorena Gallo an apology. This documentary is a good first step. Read full review
88
NewsdayVerne GayFeb 14, 2019
Season 1 Review: First-rate film that succeeds in re-working the story we thought we knew into the story we should have known all along. Read full review
80
The TelegraphHelen BrownJan 3, 2020
Season 1 Review: Some of those series – like Netflix’s 2019 retro-rubbernecking of the Ted Bundy killings – offer little fresh analysis. Others – like ESPN’s 2016 OJ Simpson: Made in America – provide a powerful and disturbing insight into the historic fault lines in our culture. Lorena definitely fits into the latter category. Read full review
80
CNNBrian LowryFeb 22, 2019
Season 1 Review: The four-part documentary Lorena, however, goes beyond the headlines about the woman who cut off her husband's penis, yielding a thoughtful, comprehensive look at domestic abuse and how the media covers high-profile stories. Read full review
80
SalonMelanie McFarlandFeb 15, 2019
Season 1 Review: “Lorena” doesn’t go out of its way indict any single party in the Bobbitt case, choosing instead to allow Lorena, as she is today, to guide us into understand who she really was. ... Part of the messaging here--subtle, but at times as blaring as a pharmaceutically-enhanced erection--is how dominant the phallus as an instrument of patriarchy remains in our culture. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonFeb 14, 2019
Season 1 Review: It gets better and more complex as it goes along. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Jen ChaneyFeb 13, 2019
Season 1 Review: Lorena is compelling not because it’s a well-done look at a wild and notorious true-crime case. It’s compelling because, in a way, watching it involves an examination of our past as well as our present. Read full review
80
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoFeb 2, 2019
Season 1 Review: All in all, Lorena is a moving portrait of a woman who has reformed her life into a quest to protect abused women. Read full review
75
Vanity FairSonia SaraiyaMar 18, 2019
Season 1 Review: The laughter in the series is abrupt, nervous, and sometimes even gleeful. Someone becomes a punch line here, but it isn’t Lorena Bobbitt. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 12, 2019
Season 1 Review: It’s fascinating. Going in, it might be hard to imagine how four long hours were needed to explore the nuances and implications of the single act that made Lorena Bobbitt famous. But four hours later, it all make sense. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyKristen BaldwinJan 29, 2019
Season 1 Review: Intriguing but somewhat scattershot docuseries. Read full review
70
TimeJudy BermanFeb 22, 2019
Season 1 Review: Lorena may not be a perfect work of art, but it’s a solid step forward for empathy in media. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesLorraine AliFeb 15, 2019
Season 1 Review: "Lorena" has its problems, but as a time capsule on where we were then and how far the media has and hasn’t come in years since, it is worth wading through the lurid muck for some long overdue reassessment. Read full review
70
Washington PostHank StueverFeb 14, 2019
Season 1 Review: A naturally fascinating but slightly overindulged and unevenly paced documentary series Read full review
70
VarietyCaroline FramkeJan 29, 2019
Season 1 Review: One of “Lorena” strongest attributes is that it features interviews with not just Lorena and John, but their neighbors and co-workers, first responders and medical specialists, domestic violence experts and comedians, judge and jury. ... The series’ attention to detail is painstakingly thorough, which is sometimes to its detriment. Read full review
63
New York PostRobert RorkeFeb 14, 2019
Season 1 Review: ilmed in a familiar “48 Hours” you-were-there style. ... By turns entertaining, shocking and finally sobering, “Lorena” shows that the only recourse for a woman in those circumstances is her own defense. Read full review
60
The GuardianLucy ManganDec 3, 2019
Season 1 Review: While it covers a lot of cultural ground, “Lorena” skims over it too fast and lightly. There are still a lot of dots to be joined and inferences left to be made by a viewer who must already be fairly informed about, and sympathetic to, the issues in order to do so. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDaniel FienbergJan 29, 2019
Season 1 Review: The frustration of Lorena is that there are many reasons the story is relevant today and worthy of closer examination and reexamination. Many of them are covered here. It just takes too long to get there. Read full review
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