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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
13
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
ColliderMay 12, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Fortunately, The Essex Serpent delivers in just about every facet. From performances by Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes that are infused with a delicious note of inward yearning that slowly displays itself on the outside to the fog-blanketed marshes of the Essex village in which the bulk of the story is set, the resulting product is an atmospheric, Gothic romance that doesn't retreat from indulging in its overall foreboding while it ultimately looks toward the possibility of an optimistic ending.
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May 12, 2022
RogerEbert.comMay 16, 2022
Season 1 Review:
With pacing that’s best described as assured—in the allure of its writing, cinematography, performances, etc.—“The Essex Serpent” takes a bolder chance in letting its characters stew. “The Essex Serpent” successfully creates a full world beyond its marsh, oftentimes treating the monster as a revealing conversation topic.
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May 12, 2022
Season 1 Review:
It’s a narrative with huge potential to bore, but Anna Symon’s adaptation of the Sarah Perry novel carefully layers it with more probing questions about love, loss, and faith. In its most distinctive moments, “The Essex Serpent” is far richer than skimming along its briny surface might otherwise suggest. In its weaker ones, it indulges a vein of melodrama that doesn’t quite suit it.
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IndieWireMay 13, 2022
Season 1 Review:
“The Essex Serpent” tells a story where faith rarely manifests in ways other than preachers shouting about sin and love is rarely felt without being laid bare in plain terms. Regardless of what it is that Cora is destined to find out in the water, it’s hard not to want a little more from this show than what’s floating on the surface.
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May 13, 2022
Season 1 Review:
We’re tentatively giving The Essex Serpent a recommendation because the performances of Danes, Hiddleston and the rest of the cast can overcome the series’ plodding pacing in parts. But we’re just not sure how many people are going to make it through all six episodes when it seems like the first one doesn’t do much to set up the story.
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The IndependentMay 13, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The performances fade into the background, as the background comes to the foreground. The real star of the show is the murky estuary, where the fog rolls in and the treacherous waters are cloaked in bad omens and superstition. ... It’s a shame, therefore, that against this beautiful backdrop, the human drama never crackles.
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The GuardianMay 13, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Danes grounds and gives a remarkable truth to the whole. But even allowing for the fact that screen adaptations rarely capture the full filigree of a literary novelist’s work (one reason why uncomplicated genre fiction generally fares better – there is more to add, less to lose), it feels like slightly too much has been lost in translation here.
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May 12, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Despite the intriguing setup, the sharp direction and the earnest performances, “The Essex Serpent” is a six-episode slog through dramatically murky and not particularly deep waters. It spends too much time bogged down in various melodramatic romantic entanglements.
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