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Critic Reviews
The IndependentJul 8, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Each of the nine episodes tells a different woman’s story. The second focuses on Steinem, played with sensitivity by Byrne. ... The script revels in these ironies, and they pile up to form a picture of a messy, conflicted battlefield, where interests and ideology are rarely in perfect alignment. It’s testament to Blanchett’s performance that although she’s firmly an anti-hero, with views on abortion and gay marriage and ethnic minorities that will appal many viewers, she never feels like the villain. The all-round intelligence and wattage of this series means that a back-and-forth over legislation never feels dull.
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Apr 17, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Mrs. America is maybe the first great television series of 2020, a project that manages to capture the complicated essence of real characters while telling a story at both micro and macro levels. ... It’s Schlafly, played as an elegant coil of wound ambition by Cate Blanchett, who turns Mrs. America from a starry historical miniseries into a stunning explainer on the poisoning of national politics.
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Apr 14, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Breathtaking. ... The decade-long fight that unfolds is epic and swaggering, bubbling with cultural ferment and bouncing along on a soul-laced soundtrack. There is an “Avengers Assemble” feeling here, both in the gathering of historical figures — a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg even appears, briefly — and the bumper crop of acting talent.
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Apr 13, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Brought to life by a star-studded cast. Though there are captivating performances by the men, James Marsden, Adam Brody, and most notably, John Slattery playing Phyllis Schlafly’s (Cate Blanchett) charming, but controlling husband, Fred, this show belongs to the women.
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Apr 9, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Ms. Blanchett is hypnotically over the top, politely frenzied, a frozen smile atop naked ambition. It’s a performance both fascinating and poisonous, as well as cartoonish, critical and, after a few episodes, addicting. ... The series seems a masterwork of visual manipulation and subliminal messaging. ... For all the first-rate performances in the piece—which propel chapters titled “Shirley,” “Betty,” “Jill” and, ultimately, ‘”Reagan”—a viewer will return, again and again, to Ms. Blanchett’s Phyllis, a character whose villainy, or tragedy, is of a classical nature.
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Apr 8, 2020TV Guide MagazineApr 8, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Women rule in the thrillingly acted Mrs. America, a fabulously robust recreation of the 1970s battle over ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. ... They're going to have to expand the Emmy lists to acknowledge this much terrific talent. [13 - 26 Apr 2020, p.5]
IndieWireApr 2, 2020
Season 1 Review:
None of the women come off as one-dimensional and there is just as much controversy found within the group supporting the ERA. ... FX on Hulu’s new series is a must-watch. ... “Mrs. America” is a show that will leave you thinking and, if you’re femme in any way, questing for a revolution.
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Apr 2, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Brisk and unwilling to hand-hold, Mrs. America is extraordinarily attuned to the ideological and intersectional schisms within both the Second Wave and the emerging Moral Majority movement that the Catholic Schlafly helped bring to the political mainstream. But the miniseries is just as adept at humanizing these historical figures, particularly as vanguards beset with vulnerabilities and doubts. ... Mrs. America makes history come alive, in thoughtful and achingly real detail.
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Apr 2, 2020
Season 1 Review:
It will be worth it. Mrs. America is dense, worth savoring and discussing throughout. It manages to walk an almost impossible line between reverence and satire, and it also gives clear historical context for the rise of the Moral Majority and the women who have come to rule Fox News, and all who align narrow “traditional values” with being American.
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Apr 15, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Mrs. America has zip to spare, bounding along on a ‘70s soundtrack, limning complex history, ideas, alliances, and personal dynamics with assuredness, tact, and insight. ... The concise episodes are more effective than the diffuse treatment the show gives Steinem, who is by far the most famous figure but who never comes quite into focus. ... Ullman, Paulson, and Martindale all stand out, but Blanchett most of all. She brings all of her tremendous skill to bear on Schlafly, with a level of precision that makes her ring as clear as a bell.
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Apr 15, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Mrs. America’s smartest move was deciding to be a TV show first and a history lesson second, although it takes a while for that distinction to take hold. ... By the time you hit hour three, the actors have settled into their characters and internalized their co-stars’ rhythms and the story is on rails. The addictive energy of the ensemble infuses every scene.
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Apr 15, 2020
Season 1 Review:
It’s a compelling drama that’s as ambitious, colorful and bold as the characters it brings to life over each hour-long episode. ... The divisions among [the women's rights activist] ranks is where the drama really heats up, and strikes more than one painfully topical nerve. ... Blanchett is transformative and chilling here.
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Apr 14, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Despite looking back to the 1970s battle over the Equal Rights Amendment, Mrs. America is as fresh and urgent as the half-century of political jockeying that has unfolded since those events. Cate Blanchett heads a sensational cast as conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, in a limited series -- premiering on Hulu, but produced sibling network FX -- that's among the very best of both.
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Apr 7, 2020
Season 1 Review:
With astonishing nuance, Mrs. America pulls together the threads of the feminist movement at this moment, noting the discord between some and the rapport between others. The series really sings once it’s populated by these other characters—each singularly appealing, each attempting to define marriage, feminism, and the movement for themselves as they go.
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Apr 14, 2020
Season 1 Review:
It’s safe to say this bracing, exceptionally crafty portrait of a savvy political organizer; the thwarted Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and a decade of warring women’s movements, right and left, amounts to something rare. It is serious fun, full of wit, fully invested in the humanity and the hypocrisies in everyone on view.
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Apr 13, 2020
Season 1 Review:
“Mrs. America” showrunner Dahvi Waller expertly captures the historic feminist movement of the 1970s while juggling multiple storylines. ... There are times when Phyllis’ flintiness and her often wildly hyperbolic and convoluted reasoning make her nearly unbearable, but Blanchett is far too good to allow Phyllis to become a caricature. “Mrs. America” isn’t exactly a sympathetic portrayal, but it’s a fair one.
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RogerEbert.comApr 9, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Schlafly is ostensibly the subject here, and Blanchett’s performance is masterful. ... Each [pro-ERA feminists] gets her turn in the spotlight, if not several. Most of the uniformly strong nine episodes take their titles from one or more of these women, and while none of them (with one exception) focus solely on a single character, those points of focus are clarifying.
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The PlaylistOct 5, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Despite Paulson’s best efforts (and, boy, she gives it her all), Alice is the one character who feels the least authentic among the ensemble cast and that’s basically because she seems the most generic. ... “Mrs. America” is often entertaining and compelling, however, because of its exquisite cast and that begins with Blanchett who is also an executive producer.
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The TimesJul 22, 2020
Season 1 Review:
From the moment Blanchett sashayed in, wearing a Stars and Stripes bikini with huge granny-pant bottoms, she owned Mrs America. True, there were other strong performances, chiefly Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem in her oversized specs and centre-parted hair. Yet it was Blanchett who mesmerised, glacial and ice-eyed like a blonde Joan Crawford in a sturdy Doreen bra. ... Episode two didn't quite have the same fizz, but was boosted by great turns from Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug and Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan.
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Apr 24, 2020
Season 1 Review:
[An] intensely psychological portrait of Phyllis Schlafly, the godmother of the modern anti-feminist movement, played with frightening, actressy charisma by Cate Blanchett. A nervy, nine-episode period piece. ... The feminist fighters, drawn with less specificity and more reverence, are inevitably less interesting.
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The Daily BeastApr 17, 2020
Season 1 Review:
It’s all directed in a zippy, witty, chaotically invigorating style that captures the sociopolitical zeal of the time, centering the stakes in a way that is profound. ... The only issue is one of balance. [Schlafly's] presence looms threateningly large in Mrs. America is the point, but it also knocks things off-kilter. Grouping her opponents together like this prevents some needed depth, while also suggesting an inequity of impact. ... Combining the two into a series is less amazing, but clever enough to still work.
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Apr 16, 2020
Season 1 Review:
The first these episodes of "Mrs. America" ably depict the spectrum along which the series operates, starting with Schlafly's determined organizing and bullying of Midwestern housewives and the cool dominance she wields over them. ... Blanchett, Byrne, and Aduba – the stars of the first three episodes, respectively – personify the three reasons "Mrs. America" is well worth watching. ... Byrne plays up Steinem's flat manner of speaking, and her level, confident gaze throughout each scene very consciously. It's a good performance, and yet one that at times feels like she's wearing it as opposed to embodying it.
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Apr 14, 2020
Season 1 Review:
“Mrs. America,” FX’s invigorating, infuriating and only faintly inspiring dramatic miniseries. ... I’m fine with the liberties “Mrs. America” rightly takes. For those of us who’ve come simply to watch a TV show, the news is essentially good, with a pace and story momentum that is often surprising, enlightening and satisfyingly saucy. ... Blanchett turns someone many people would like to forget into someone who is wickedly unforgettable.
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ColliderApr 2, 2020
Season 1 Review:
While the civil rights strides that have been made over the decades represent significant progress, any narrative talking about the Equal Rights Amendment is going to feel like a tragedy. ... This casts a harsh shadow over what is otherwise a captivating, well-made portrait of an important American movement that features one of the best ensemble casts in recent memory.
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Apr 13, 2020
Season 1 Review:
While Blanchett waltzes through the miniseries like Eleanor Parker, she doesn’t quite get the hardscrabble woman who tilted at the ERA windmill. She’s too patrician for those of us who remember her. ... Martindale and Ullman have done their homework, but it’s Elizabeth Banks as Jill Ruckelshaus and Byrne who impress. They capture the movement’s urgency and help us understand their place in it. ... “Mrs. America” might have benefitted from an additional episode to explain how many of [Schlafly's] disciples went on to win seats in the House and the Senate.
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Apr 13, 2020
Season 1 Review:
The performances are so uniformly terrific, and many individual moments and episodes so resonant, that I kept with it long after Schlafly’s very presence stared to make me cringe. But like the movement whose high ideals and unfortunate failures it chronicles, the miniseries can’t help feeling like a missed opportunity.
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The TelegraphJul 8, 2020
Season 1 Review:
It’s skilfully written, impeccably acted and the soundtrack is a dream. ... It feels too sprawling, and the characters too distant – it’s fun to spot the real-life icons in a sort of Feminist Avengers: Assemble, but we are never allowed to forget that this is Important History.
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Apr 2, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Despite being careful to balance the screen time between factions, “Mrs. America” isn’t nearly as convincing, or even half as energetic, in its depiction of the Republican grassroots movement than it is in its liberal counterparts. The series may be fascinated by Schlafly and her various arms of power, but it never quite proves that it understands them.
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