Rain Dogs

It’s a messy, brilliant, sharp drama with buckets of pathos and plenty of laughs to lighten the mood. Don’t miss it.

“Rain Dogs” is for more daring viewers and not for those seeking a balm. The half-hour show is rewarding, rich in its characterizations and commanding in its self-awareness, but the journey can be harsh, especially as your hopes for the characters are so often dashed. ... Another compelling thing about “Rain Dogs”: Cooper, whose performance is remarkable, by turns tender, brash, and amusing. ... Extraordinary show.

Indelibly specific, and willing to alienate the many viewers who will probably find its crudeness off-putting, Rain Dogs, in much the same way as Waits’ best songs, tempers its menacing tone with unexpected hints of warmth. And like any great album, the show’s eight short, thrilling episodes demand to be played on repeat.

This series most certainly won’t be for everyone — it doesn’t hold back from the darkness of the world — but it is worth wrapping yourself in no matter how much it may end up hurting.

As brilliant and merciless as Rain Dogs is at skewering poverty voyeurism (“I will not be your liberal victim of the week”), the same point is endlessly replayed until it loses its bite. Still, what a bold, wild-hearted ride, and what a fiercely original performer Cooper is shaping up to be.

Rain Dogs is not really a comedy at all. It’s a bleak and beautiful drama in which the rare laughs are a matter of survival, like holes punched through the dark.

The unstinting flow of gags about sex, drugs and funeral parlours is not for all markets: it all depends on where you set your tolerance threshold. But Rain Dogs feels at its bravest and angriest when at its funniest. Whenever it tries to wipe the smile off its own face, it slightly camouflages itself as any other drama.

Rain Dogs promises to be an interesting examination in a certain kind of found family that’s by turns darkly funny and warmly inspiring.

Rain Dogs certainly won’t be for everyone—least of all those who don’t enjoy caustic, dark English humor—but that’s why it’s so surprising. Here’s one of the first series of the year that doesn’t try to operate on a scale of mass appeal. Instead, it’s focused on itself, making sure that its characters find a way forward for a satisfying tale of what real tenacity looks like.

A rewarding, but undeniably tough, little show.

There’s a lot of injustice in “Rain Dogs” but also a lot of love, bawdy humor, and perseverance. It’s ultimately a show about flawed people trying to do more than survive, and sometimes failing at it.

Because the material can be so difficult at times, and because the adult characters are all deeply flawed to varying degrees, a lot rests on the fundamental appeal of the cast. Fortunately, the ensemble is up to the challenge.