|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
19
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
|
Critic Reviews
Season 1 Review:
A late contender for one of the best shows of the year. .... That “Say Nothing” manages, in just nine episodes, to deliver a survey of the Troubles, a devastating true-crime case, a harrowing object lesson on hunger strikes, a drama about sisterhood, a tragedy in which movement leaders betray each other, and even, at one point, a heist, all without trivializing the suffering its protagonists caused or absolving them of their complicity — is more than impressive. It’s astonishing.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
Say Nothing is spectacular television, deftly weaving multiple perspectives together in various timelines to give the viewer the full scope of the Troubles. It’s a show that doesn’t pull its punches, be it in terms of the bleakest moral nadirs of that time or in the sharply hilarious gallows humor of West Belfast. Say Nothing is propulsive, nervy, and FX’s latest must-watch masterpiece.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
Say Nothing doesn’t adapt some of the most intriguing turns in Keefe’s account—the mass prison hunger strike in the 1980s, the Belfast Project’s struggle to preserve the anonymity of its interviewees—and fast-forwards through years of political upheaval. In their stead, the series offers a thoughtfully constructed study of the conflict’s moral complexity.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
The series streamlines much of the larger historical context and can feel claustrophobic as a result — in excluding a full picture of what British occupation materially meant in the day-to-day of West Belfast, the series fails to communicate the scale of what this history means to the region. But the show ultimately weaponizes that claustrophobia to its benefit.
Read full review
The Mercury NewsNov 13, 2024
IndieWireNov 14, 2024
Season 1 Review:
Sharp editing keeps episodes at a tight 40-45 minutes each, and each entry has a memorable, clear arc unto itself. The cast is uniformly strong, with Pettigrew and Doupe as obvious but deserved stand-outs, plus Boyle making the most of a role that pivots on its ruthless efficiency. But no matter how solidly built, “Say Nothing” was never going to be an easy watch.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
“Say Nothing” is a heavy watch, and it remains to be seen whether American viewers will be in the mood to dive into a drawn-out resistance story so soon after an election won by a governing force eager to bring to heel millions of his countrymen, whether economically or by force. But captivating performances by Peake, Petticrew, Doupe and a fiery Boyle deliver us through the darkness of the days and years captured in its nine installments.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
“Say Nothing,” which begins streaming on Hulu Thursday, is, in fact, tough to watch, but for all the right reasons. The series, thanks to solid writing and even better acting, conjures many of the same emotions – anguish, dread, sorrow – as Keefe’s acclaimed 2018 book, and that’s quite an achievement.
Read full review
iNov 14, 2024
Season 1 Review:
It is upfront about its narrow focus on Jean McConville and the Price sisters and it would be a worry if viewers regarded Say Nothing as a complete A-Z of the Troubles. It is nothing of the sort. Instead, the concentration on one terrible event reveals how violence – no matter the cause – corrodes the soul and follows the living even as the dead are left forgotten in their cold, unmarked graves.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
But whether or not this is How It Was, it’s easy enough to accept that it’s How It Might Have Been; the production and set pieces feel right, the dialogue is more speech than speeches. At the same time, because it takes place over many years, with much elided, the series can sometimes feel abstract, especially when it moves away from Dolours.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
The problem is that, outside of an episode focused entirely on the 203-day hunger strike that Dolours and Marian staged in prison, Say Nothing keeps trying to also incorporate pieces of the larger story in ways that dilute the show’s overall impact, even when individual scenes and performances work well.
Read full review
The TimesNov 14, 2024
Season 1 Review:
Where the book is immensely detailed and nuanced, the series is necessarily dramatic, occasionally comic and at times glamorous, although the glamour fades as the miserable weariness of violence persists. Yet there is something discomforting in seeing such recent, unresolved history dressed up as entertainment.
Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score















