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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
15
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
The GuardianDec 4, 2019
Season 1 Review:
They [Nick Hornby, Stephen Frears, Rosamund Pike and Chris O’Dowd] have created something close to a masterpiece (or 10). It seems like a double-marriage of true minds. The quartet make it look effortless, even artless, but every aspect, every frame, every word, every beat is a perfectly considered, crafted and curated thing that creates something even greater than the sum of its parts.
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IndieWireJan 29, 2019
Season 1 Review:
[Chris O’Dowd and Rosamund Pike are] both magnificent, as is the script and Stephen Frears’ confidant, clean direction. It’s so good, in fact, you’re left wishing there was more; more time, more settings, more to the story than just the simple structure these professionals excel within.
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Feb 14, 2022
Season 2 Review:
The season gets better as it goes along, and by the end, thanks especially to the appeal of stars Brendan Gleeson and Patricia Clarkson, it has a lot to recommend it — and nothing so much as how easy it is to coast past a stretch of so-so episodes when they’re only 10 minutes apiece.
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The TimesJan 7, 2020
Season 1 Review:
The two weak spots for me were that they seemed incompatible as a couple and he wasn't recriminatory enough. ... Maybe that will come later. Thus far, though, Hornby has created a cleverly structured two-handed play in ten segments, lush with domestic humdrummery, in which we will never see them in that therapist's room.
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May 9, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Frears keeps the visual language fresh, too, with playful camera angles and seamless one-shots following the pair whenever they cross the street. And O’Dowd and Pike are more than up to the challenge of a 10-part two-hander: They carry the rhythmic dialogue deftly and beautifully, capturing the complex chemistry of a married couple dealing with more than they ever thought they would.
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May 6, 2019
Season 1 Review:
With the talent on hand in front of and behind the camera, this series easily could have gotten away with something closer to the In Treatment model, where Tom and Louise argue for close to a half-hour each time. But in a TV landscape where episodes and seasons can overstay their welcome, State of the Union turns out to be the perfect length.
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Jan 29, 2019
Season 1 Review:
The conversations that Tom and Louise have are generally funny, skipping around pop culture references ranging from Call the Midwife to the films of Preston Sturges to generational confusion about modern dating. They're also utterly lacerating, things they can't bring themselves to say to a stranger, but know they need to say out loud, even in a public place.
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Jan 29, 2019
Season 1 Review:
State of the Union pulls off a neat trick; given both its short running time and its fleetness of dialogue, we never get tired of hearing this couple’s arguments, which could in other contexts be tiresome and circular. And both partners’ minds are so wide-ranging that — with an assist from Frears’s fleet direction — the show never grows claustrophobic.
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Feb 14, 2022
Season 2 Review:
State of the Union continues to be a fascinating peek into the psychology of marriage. Even if the specifics of Scott and Ellen’s situation don’t speak to the watcher’s particular experience, there are plenty of feelings between the two that are relatable and resonate because of Gleeson’s and Clarkson’s performances.
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IndieWireFeb 14, 2022
Season 2 Review:
Ben Travers [B+]: I found most every episode to be as engaging, sharply written, and splendidly acted as Season 1.
Steve Greene [B-]: When Season 2 locks into an honest conversation about what they want from the future (instead of surface-level spats about things out of their control), Clarkson and Gleeson really take all of that swirling anxiety and channel it into special moments. I just wish it felt more like a natural progression for both of them.
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The GuardianMay 24, 2022
Season 2 Review:
It is unusual, in a dramatic sense, in that it feels slovenly and sticky when it is all about conflict, but vastly improves when the tension between Ellen and Scott dissipates. Once they begin to have more even-handed chats – about the nature of intimacy and sex; about what they expect from life, now that they have reached this point; and about what it means not only to be happy, but to pursue happiness – then it becomes endearing, and plays to everyone’s strengths.
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