Nightingale

:

Season 1
  • Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: Jan 1, 2015
Metascore
67

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 13
  3. Negative: 1 out of 13

Critic Reviews

  1. Salon
    Reviewed by: Sonia Saraiya
    May 27, 2015
    60
    Aside from being a vehicle for a fascinating performance, Nightingale doesn’t quite satisfy as more than a very well-executed student film--a one-trick pony whose trick we’ve seen before.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Mary McNamara
    May 29, 2015
    50
    Unfortunately, without a more solid platform, even the greatest performance can go only so far. Oyelowo is mesmerizing in the moment, but each moment dies behind him.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: David Wiegand
    May 21, 2015
    50
    The riveting part is Oscar nominee David Oyelowo’s (“Selma”) solo performance as a disturbed war veteran who is struggling mightily to keep it together, despite the fact he’s already failed to do so as the film begins. The difficulty is that as credible as Oyelowo is, the whole script feels like a writerly set-up and you only believe it from time to time.
  5. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    May 28, 2015
    40
    The power and ambiguity of the soldierly bond is one of the fascinating things in Nightingale. Alas, it’s the only fascinating thing about this movie, the only idea in the movie that isn’t blaringly obvious and hammered home. It’s a shame. What could have been an evocative journey into the mind of a lost veteran, as he opens up his thinking across a one-man show set entirely inside his house, is more like a quasi thriller revolving around a very mad hatter.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 10 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 10
  3. Negative: 2 out of 10
  1. googolendtimes
    Sep 18, 2015
    8
    A somewhat pretentious but brutally effective drama, "Nightingale" succeeds on the strength of a riveting and quite heartbreaking performanceA somewhat pretentious but brutally effective drama, "Nightingale" succeeds on the strength of a riveting and quite heartbreaking performance by David Oyelowo whose heartbreaking and nuanced portrayal of Peter Snowden is compulsively and often disturbingly mesmeric.… Full Review »
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