- Network: Netflix
- Series Premiere Date: Nov 29, 2024
Critic Reviews
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“Senna” does less well when chronicling his love affairs, including with Brazilian TV host Xuxa (Pâmela Tomé), which seems perfunctory and less than revealing. Another bump in the road comes in the fictional creation of a female journalist (Kayla Scodelario) who pops in and out and serves as narrative shorthand for Senna’s sports career and how the media portrayed him. Fortunately, the magnetic performance from Leone makes up for much of those misgivings, and brings the series satisfactorily over the finish line.
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At six hour-long episodes, "Senna" zooms by at a decent pace, even as its sports-story tropes start to wear thin the longer you watch it.
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It's watchable, for sure, but by failing to get under the skin of its protagonist, or flesh out the characters of those around him, the series has been left slightly flat and predictable, only bolstered by a winning central performance and some terrific, electric race sequences.
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STREAM IT, but only for the fantastic racing scenes. If you’re looking for a show that’s got any drama that happens off the track, Senna will probably disappoint.
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Senna is at its best when it lets Gabriel Leone do his thing, but other than that, Netflix's limited series is vastly unmemorable and offers no insights or takes about why Senna became an almost mythic creature in Brazil.
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Netflix’s Senna is for existing fans only: a series about speed that is too pedestrian by far.
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It simply goes from beginning to middle to tragic end like a Sunday driver goes through the gears on their way to do the big shop. Some of the racing sequences are impressive in their heavy metal dynamism, but then it would be just as impressive to make motor racing humdrum.
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This doesn’t feel like a definitive portrait of the man but an overly long hymn to him that lacks complexity. Senna fans will be entertained by the camera work but if they were hoping it would match for heft Asif Kapadia’s award-winning 2010 documentary, also called Senna, they will probably be disappointed.
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This is a straightforward eulogising of the great sportsman that makes him seem more straightforward a character than he actually was, and relegates everyone in his life to a flat cartoon. The race sequences are thrilling and the narrative is too naturally exciting for the series to be boring, but whenever the roar of the engines stops, the dramatic momentum dies.