The Art of More

Rivalries between Graham and fellow auction-house exec Roxanna (Kate Bosworth) generate suspense and it's fun to learn the history behind auction items. [20/27 Nov 2015, p.103]

The show undermines any authenticity it tries to create with a general lack of specificity in language, presentation and mise en scene. It doesn't help that the characters are so off-putting even the expensive items up for bid can't keep the show from feeling ugly.

The characters manage to get themselves into a lot of trouble, and the show is genuinely suspenseful at times, as shows will be when guns start to wave. But it's hard to care, even after having seen six out of 10 episodes, about anyone's fate. Neither their tales of early or current sorrows nor their displays of aesthetic sensibility nor even their expressions of shame quite balance out the fact that most are kind of bad people, mostly out for themselves.

The characters, including Graham, aren't always as unique, subtle or well-drawn as the works they're dealing in, but it's a world most of us know only from the occasional headline on an outsized sale, and the four episodes (of 10) I've seen left me wanting more of "More."

A lackluster entry that's unessential viewing in this age of #PeakTV.

The Art Of More does a captivating job of offering access to this secretive, exclusive, and corrupt world.

Its unique venue and recognizable names guarantee some interest, but with its underwhelming star, production values and storytelling ambition, Crackle's arrival in this marketplace teases More, but delivers less.

The casting is delicious, the characters and their stories grow more complex with each episode, and Graham and Roxanna find that you can’t serve the rich without becoming caught in the quicksand of greed. And you know how quicksand works. The harder you struggle against it, the farther it sucks you in.

Meanwhile, there’s Bosworth, throwing glacial glares and selling her soul to impress her father and compete with upstart Connor, giving a beautifully restrained, imminently watchable performance that conveys depths with very little. Too bad there’s not more of her and less of everything else.

Any points the 10-episode The Art of More scores for its novel setting--an auction house where unscrupulous dealers vie for priceless collections and deep-pocketed clients--are tarnished by the dramatic fraud the show perpetrates with its paper-thin characters. [9-22 Nov 2015, p.13]

The Art of More is high on production values but low on basic believability with its discombobulated tale of two very amoral New York art auction houses.

In too many places, the program is clumsily constructed, from Quaid’s scenery-chewing performance to Graham’s flirtation/budding romance with the big boss’s granddaughter (Savannah Basley), who’s also cutting her teeth at the auction house.