- Network: Apple TV+
- Series Premiere Date: May 16, 2024
Critic Reviews
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Ultimately, this “mostly true” story would have been a better fit for a film, a la BlacKkKlansman, but Holland is strong as the revolutionary political activist grappling with memories, addictions and trauma.
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By giving Schneider co-lead billing in what should have been the Huey P Newton story, The Big Cigar has supplied a dispiriting answer to its own still pertinent question: no, Hollywood can’t be trusted to authentically tell the stories of Black radicals; the compulsion to centre whiteness is just too strong.
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What should be an enticing mashup of the civil-rights movement and Hollywood in the freewheeling ‘70s doesn’t entirely ignite, in a limited series whose underlying true story packs more of wallop than the finished product.
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When digging into the inner-workings of Newton’s mind and exploring the in-fighting and rival ambitions that ultimately undermined the Black Panthers, we are taken to the heart of a key period of recent history. So much so that Newton’s flight to Cuba and Schneider’s part in it feel like an unwelcome guest at the party.
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There’s a lot to like on the surface of “The Big Cigar.” It’s just too bad there’s no real fire to go with all this smoke.
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The series isn’t dumb; if anything, it has too much on its mind. But in attempting to tell so many stories about so many people, and with its ceaseless rocketing around in time, it loses focus and force. .... But Holland shifts gears smoothly through these twists and turns. .... He makes him someone you want to learn more about, the best thing an actor playing a real person can do.
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Despite the stellar acting, detailed set design and an electric musical score, “The Big Cigar” never finds solid ground because the center of Newton’s story isn’t placed in focus.
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The series consistently leaves him circling the same frustrations, rehashing the same arguments with Gwen, as well as the same worries about his role in the revolution. Newton was a man hell-bent on driving the world forward, but The Big Cigar spends most of its time running in place.
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The Big Cigar ends up being two different unsatisfying shows squished together into six episodes of under 42 minutes apiece — occasionally stylish and boasting a very good lead performance by André Holland, but frustratingly mediocre overall.
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The Big Cigar, unfortunately, seems most interested in Huey the icon, to the point where it all but ignores any details of the murder of which he was accused. (Nor, in the closing titles about what happened to everyone after the events of the series, does it get into the allegations that the Panthers later attempted to murder a witness in the case to prevent her from testifying against Newton.) Such messiness comes across as incidental to the magic-of-the-movies hooey that suffuses The Big Cigar.