Mayflies

:

Season 1
Metascore
82

Universal acclaim - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8

Critic Reviews

  1. The Observer (UK)
    Reviewed by: Barbara Ellen
    Sep 10, 2024
    100
    Mayflies emerges as a fearlessly expressive poem about life, death and love, at once heartbreaking and uplifting. What a powerful drama to see out the old year.
  2. The Times
    Reviewed by: Carol Midgley
    Oct 16, 2023
    100
    It was lyrical and profound, a two-hour meditation on male friendship and childhood bonds, which can sometimes prove as grand a passion as romantic love. It was also a study of what constitutes a "good" death and the importance of dignity in the midst of suffering.
  3. Decider
    Reviewed by: Joel Keller
    Oct 31, 2023
    80
    Mayflies is an affecting story of a friendship tested by end-of-life issues, with some fantastic performances from Compston, Curran and Jensen.
  5. The Telegraph
    Reviewed by: Jasper Rees
    Oct 16, 2023
    80
    This story of departures – from home, from life – couldn’t cast too gloomy a pall. It was also a warm, sentimental hymn to friendship with all its rites and reference points (De Niro, Dalglish, Aztec Camera).
  6. The Guardian
    Reviewed by: Stuart Jeffries
    Oct 16, 2023
    80
    Anyone who has witnessed a loved one’s struggle for dignity and control amid the general rout of death, or been at a wedding where one of the couple is dying, will find the drama resonates.
  7. i
    Reviewed by: Ed Power
    Oct 16, 2023
    80
    Anchored by Compston's thoughtful and big-hearted performance opposite Tony Curran, it was a beautifully raw portrait of male friendship and the struggle, which kicks in from middle age onwards, to come to terms with mortality.
  8. The Independent
    Reviewed by: Nick Hilton
    Oct 16, 2023
    80
    Tender, to a fault, Mayflies poignantly captures life's terminal evanescence.
  9. Radio Times
    Reviewed by: James Hibbs
    Oct 16, 2023
    60
    When a story is as slight as this, and particularly when it's so emotionally distressing, character is everything, and these characters needed more time to be thoroughly explored. However, in the end it must be noted that emotionally the denouement simply works.