Critic Reviews
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Marnie has her momentary breakthroughs, but the show manages to remind her (and everyone watching) that with mental health, fixating on an unequivocal solution is a counterproductive approach. The show gives the space to let Marnie figure things out in tiny incremental chunks, even when a giant breakthrough might be easier to hang an episode or a season on.
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It can only add valuably to our knowledge, and increase our capacity for nuance when seeking to understand the myriad ways our minds can malfunction and trap us in a hell of our misfiring neurons’ own making. That it can do this while making us laugh with Marnie, and never at her, is barely short of a miracle, but that is what it is. Pure brilliant.
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It’s attempting to educate its audience on a complex topic, to craft a recognisable narrative about a university graduate moving to London, with a protagonist whose misadventures swing dramatically from the humorous to the heartbreaking. Pure doesn’t get this mix quite right in the first episode. ... But the ingredients are all there, and Pure shows a real potential to not only entertain, but add a much-needed layer of depth and complexity to our understanding of mental health.
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Pure is a better illustration of OCD and its debilitating effects than it is a portrait of a young woman who has it, even with a fantastically versatile turn by Clive. ... Well-meaning but by-the-numbers series.