Mary and Martha
  • Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: Apr 20, 2013
Metascore
67

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9

Critic Reviews

  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Mary McNamara
    Apr 22, 2013
    50
    What Swank doesn't bring is any sort of emotional connection, either to Mary, Mary's son or the audience.... Mercifully, Blethyn eventually joins her on the screen and is, as ever, simple perfection, needing to do little more than utter two words with an anguished squint to break your heart into 50 million pieces. When the two meet up, Mary and Martha begins to transcend the drumbeat of its message.
  2. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Neil Genzlinger
    Apr 19, 2013
    50
    The malaria story, it seems to say, is filmable only if the central figures are white and it is larded up with the kind of button-pushing that television dramas thrive on.... But the scenes in which the two actresses are together have some real power.
  3. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    Apr 19, 2013
    50
    Essentially, Mary and Martha operates like an EZ-to-read Lifetime movie with HBO production values.