Panic

It would be difficult to draft a contender who could rival Welch’s skill in steering the audience through the various travails of Panic. For an enjoyable summer vacation binge-watch, the teens should eat this up.

There’s a lot about Panic that makes us roll our eyes. But we’ll give it a recommendation because we were actually rooting for its main character by the end of the first episode, and we were surprised that we were doing so. That’s a good sign for the rest of the season.

Panic is an entertaining show, but it focuses too much on the investigation and figuring out who runs the Panic games, to the detriment of the teenage main characters and the game itself.

Summer is traditionally the time to turn off your brain. “Panic” is for those who’ve disengaged.

For a series that is supposed to be a suspenseful thriller and all about stakes, it rarely feels like there are any—whether that is physical, emotional, or psychological.

“Panic” is too thick with soap operatic twists that derail the honest emotion that could have emerged from this concept, one that merges typical teen rebellion and ambition with something new. Every time it pivots back to straightforward YA drama, especially in the truly poor scenes with Heather’s mom, “Panic” succumbs to mediocracy. And yet there are elements in the cast and high concept that keep it watchable.

There’s a version of this show that uses the fickleness of this game to say something about how teens treat each other and what’s expected from them by their elders. But all the inconsistencies and jagged pacing and disjointed plot threads are more an indication of a show spreading itself too thin for any of it matter.

There is negative chemistry between Heather and Bishop, but as the other side of the love triangle, Welch and Nicholson do what they need to do to sustain the first half of the season, which prioritizes sexual tension over full booby-trap horror. ... The final episodes descend into total incoherence.