- Network: Apple TV+
- Series Premiere Date: Feb 14, 2024
Critic Reviews
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The New Look lags and drags. It takes far too long to get its points across. When it finally does, it does so with not enough conviction. Instead of focusing on the fashion, which is in the title (The New Look was the name of Dior’s first collection when he set up his own house), the 10-episode series keeps forgetting what it’s about and reverts to being a Holocaust story.
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If taken as a whole, the series has a lumbering, scattered quality but there are things to enjoy along the way.
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It looks sumptuous but feels pedestrian. Much of that is down to the directorial decisions.
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While "The New Look" isn’t badly made or acted, it is just generally unremarkable. It’s too long at 10 episodes, and a challenge to embark on especially once it jumps back to 1943 and promises to cover the horrors of the time.
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Much of this 10-episode series is a rather dull and thinly written exploration of life in Nazi-occupied Paris.
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Subtle performances, particularly from Mendelsohn and Williams, end up submerged in a vast, confused, ethically dubious soup of a narrative.
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Mendelsohn and Binoche keep this period drama watchable, but playing fast and loose with its historical premise means the series comes apart at the seams.
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This series promises a lot but – like its accents – misses the mark too frequently. Never sure whose story it wants to tell – Christian’s, Coco’s or Catherine’s – The New Look feels like three wildly different garments sewn together.
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It’s just that, as a whole, The New Look doesn’t amount to enough. You could see it as escapism, but that requires accommodation of the fact that the Holocaust is essentially written out of the story in favour of a rivalry over tulle.
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The New Look’s approach to its subjects’ motivations, desires, and careers is all frustratingly surface-level for such a consequential story. The series struggles to find the balance between gossipy high-fashion drama and war tale, if there is even a sizable middle point to be established between those two stark opposites at all.