Rectify: Season 1

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 28 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 435 Ratings

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8.7

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8.7	Your Score
8.7	User Score Universal acclaim based on 435 Ratings

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Rectify

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Season Details & Credits

Sundance Channel | SundanceTV | Sundance TV | Season Premiere Date: April 22, 2013

Starring: Abigail Spencer, Bruce McKinnon, Luke Kirby

Summary: After 19 years in prison for the rape and murder of his girlfriend, Daniel Holden (Aden Young) is released due to DNA evidence. His return home brings new challenges including new family members and a divided community.

Creator: Ray McKinnon

Genre(s): Drama

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Season 1 Episodes

tbd
S1:E6. Jacob's Ladder
Air Date: May 20, 2013
tbd
S1:E5. Drip, Drip
Air Date: May 13, 2013
tbd
S1:E4. Plato's Cave
Air Date: May 6, 2013

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Metascore

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

100

The Daily Beast Jace Lacob

May 30, 2013

It’s a breathtaking work of immense beauty and a thought-provoking meditation on the nature of crime and punishment, of identity and solitude, of guilt and absolution. It is, quite simply, the best new show of 2013. Read full review

100

Curt Wagner

Apr 22, 2013

It's a powerful, emotionally engaging character study. Read full review

Zap2it (Inside the Box) Geoff Berkshire

Apr 25, 2013

The good news is that this contemplative, utterly engrossing and frequently gorgeous character study achieves and then surpasses both of those goals [justify the network's foray into the field while living up to the Sundance brand] over the course of its initial six episode season. Read full review

Tirdad Derakhshani

Apr 22, 2013

Throughout, Rectify maintains a remarkable rhythm--somewhere between reverie and anxiety. It takes its time, exploring characters' faces and gestures, their personal tics and their relationships--a glimpse into their souls. Read full review

Matt Zoller Seitz

Apr 24, 2013

It’s not rushing us to the next plot point. It’s content to be present. It breathes. Read full review

Tom Gliatto

May 3, 2013

[Rectify] feels damply airless--the tension might be ripped open at any moment by a thunderclap of revelation.... It's a disturbing, impressive performance [from Aden Young as Daniel]. [13 May 2013, p.49]

Mike Hale

Apr 22, 2013

For about an episode and a quarter, it’s very good television. But over the rest of its six-episode first season it resembles nothing so much as a bad indie film, the kind of slow and tepid bummer that used to fill Sundance’s late nights and afternoons when it was a full-time movie channel. Read full review

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User Score

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8.7

User Reviews

valeriepeltier

Dec 19, 2016

The best so moving so deep and Daniel whispers --unforgettable--- the mama Teddy all the actors are fantastics.. Thank you so much to the writer the producer the whole team... that breath u take watching Rectify

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

winniecm

Apr 30, 2013

This is a mesmerizing and engrossing story that captured me right from the first episode. It raises all kinds of questions and thoughts about someone missing 20 years on the outside. Very thought provoking; we need more of this kind of programming. Have seen 3 can't wait for the next 3.This is a mesmerizing and engrossing story that captured me right from the first episode. It raises all kinds of questions and thoughts about someone missing 20 years on the outside. Very thought provoking; we need more of this kind of programming. Have seen 3 can't wait for the next 3. Bravo to the writers, producers, directors and fine cast.… Expand

15 of 17 users found this helpful152

delorisholcomb

May 20, 2013

Best new show that I have seen in a long time. Shows that mistakes were made 20 years ago and that the town still believes that Daniel is guilty if only in their own mind. Same as the West Memphis 3.They were all wronged.

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

bgalbertazzi

Dec 4, 2014

To those that say the show moves too slowly;
don't compare this series to a one hour drama on TV.
Rectify is for watchers that like complicated characters and intricate plots. Nothing that can be solved it an hour's program. This show received no promotion, I didn't know it existedTo those that say the show moves too slowly;
don't compare this series to a one hour drama on TV.

Rectify is for watchers that like complicated characters and intricate plots.
Nothing that can be solved it an hour's program.
This show received no promotion, I didn't know it existed until I saw it on the Netflix menu.
I'm anxious to see the following season.

.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

fartbreath2010

Aug 15, 2015

Imaginative, great acting, addictive - all the things that network tv and the movie theatres cannot provide. We are in the golden age of TV, and this show is yet another example

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

SpaceCowboy_BR

Apr 26, 2020

It's hard to tell what this series aims to be in the first few episodes. You'd probably get yourself wondering if this is just another generic work on imperfect justice. By the end of the season, though, you find yourself confronted with something unlike anything else on TV. It surpasses theIt's hard to tell what this series aims to be in the first few episodes. You'd probably get yourself wondering if this is just another generic work on imperfect justice. By the end of the season, though, you find yourself confronted with something unlike anything else on TV. It surpasses the simplicity of "guilty or not guilty" and explores an important aspect of the human condition and the value of life itself. Even though it sometimes lacks depht, it's moving and I sure am excited to see where this is going.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Context

Apr 29, 2013

Guess I must be missing something based on the 9s and 10s showing up here. Me? I guess I was a little worn down by "Forrest Gump Leaves Prison." It's not that I'm unsympathetic to a man returning to society after two decades of what we are told is quite likely wrongful incarceration, but itGuess I must be missing something based on the 9s and 10s showing up here. Me? I guess I was a little worn down by "Forrest Gump Leaves Prison." It's not that I'm unsympathetic to a man returning to society after two decades of what we are told is quite likely wrongful incarceration, but it was 20 years, not 200. Aden Young isn't "dazed and confused" as much as "dumb and dumber." My goodness, he was imprisoned in the 1990s, not the 1890s. Things haven't changed that much. Heck, there were even large volume soft drinks back then, but the idea of a 32 oz. cup seems to have confounded him at one point.

But let's get to the characters. Can we get more cliched? I don't think so. The vengeful D.A. cum "Foghorn Leghorn"-type state senator. The equally vengeful and "what's-he-hiding?" current sheriff. The Henry Fonda-esque former sheriff (I think) who is morally conflicted by the fact that science (DNA) says not guilty while most town leaders see the release as BS. Oh, then there's the randy waitress trysting with the state senator, the jealous step-brother, the sympathetic wife of the jealous step-brother (she, of course, is conflicted and finds the newly released "innocent" almost irresistibly sympathetic), the noble sister, the cold mother and, last but certainly not least, the yin/yang inmates conveniently available for contrasting flashbacks. One is a redneck who torments the lead character while the other is open to the idea of reading W. Sumerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage." Puh-leeze. What a collection of cliches!!

I'm waiting for the scene when the newly freed character stops to take in the true meaning of a summer's shower and spots a small bird ruffling its feathers in the rain. Ah, freedom!

Ah, wake me when it's over.… Expand

6 of 42 users found this helpful636

SEE ALL 59 REVIEWS

Seasons & Episodes

88

Series Overview
Season 4

99
- Season 4 Overview
  Air Date: October 26, 2016
Season 3

89
- Season 3 Overview
  Air Date: July 9, 2015
Season 2

92
- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: June 19, 2014
Season 1

82
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: April 22, 2013
- tbd
  S1:E6. Jacob's Ladder
  Air Date: May 20, 2013
- tbd
  S1:E5. Drip, Drip
  Air Date: May 13, 2013
- tbd
  S1:E4. Plato's Cave
  Air Date: May 6, 2013
- tbd
  S1:E3. Modern Times
  Air Date: April 29, 2013
- tbd
  S1:E2. Sexual Peeling
  Air Date: April 29, 2013
- 6.8
  S1:E1. Always There
  Air Date: April 22, 2013