The Path

Goldberg’s perfectly crafted script is realized through shattering performances at every level, especially among the major players.

"Breaking Bad" fans will thrill to the second coming of Jesse Pinkman, and there are Job-like similarities in Paul's tormented Eddie. But Dancy, taut as an ascetic and grimly magnetic, is the one to watch as Cal.

There's a lot to like about The Path, from the strong visual sense of place that director Mike Cahill established in the first two episodes to its theoretical take on faith, and of course the exquisite acting and deft writing.

Despite its flaws, The Path builds one hell of a foundation for seasons to come. It demonstrates the potential to grow deeper and more rewarding as it matures, like any drama Katims has been associated with.

The Path is not a rollicking Scientology takedown but a more measured, slow-building dismantling of the insidious accommodations required to maintain absolute religious certainty.

What benefits the series most is its strong cast to take on these intricate roles, which might fall flat otherwise. Paul, Monaghan and Dancy are outstanding as very flawed people, whose fate you can care about; they aren’t evil but at times susceptible to their own demons and blinded by their faith.

The Path works best as an intense psychological study of an extended family whose members equate faith and loyalty with happiness.

While skepticism may rule at the start, it doesn’t take long for the show to make one a believer in its own story, and in the power of its exceptional performances.

As The Path reveals details of the faith's underpinnings--its punishments and fundraising methods, and the past its leader is running from--it becomes more rewarding.

The Path delivers a sharp and persuasive commentary on the needs fulfilled by faiths of this kind, on the unyielding determination of the believers to continue believing.

There are also moments you’ll find yourself wishing Goldberg and Katims had trimmed away some of the less vital elements of their dense tale and cleared a path toward higher stakes and greater suspense. ... Still, The Path benefits greatly from the way it takes us into a murky world and repeatedly makes us question how we feel about its protagonists.

If you're patient and willing to sit through its slower moments, there's plenty to enjoy with The Path.

[A] dark and fascinating drama.

The Path is best when it offers more than just skepticism and cynicism.

When stacked up against a series like “The Leftovers,” which also examines a cult, it feels flat at first. But once the story does finally get rolling, the intersecting elements begin to build towards a compelling story with more complexity than first meets the eye.

It's a wild, weird blend of influences, and not all of it works. The Path is not a great TV show--not yet--but it's great-adjacent.

It’s a compelling but slow and dire series that falls into that mid-range of long-form TV drama, where you’re interested enough to keep watching till the season is through, but not so riveted that you don’t periodically wonder if the storytellers actually needed this many episodes to tell this particular story, and if the acting and filmmaking, however excellent, is enough of a lure to justify lingering on subplots or scenes.

It's the growing tension between Eddie, with his insecure decency and possibly actual mysticism, and the charm-boy con of Cal, that drives the show. Which works well enough--no doubt there will be Emmy nods--but it misses the even more golden opportunity to tell a story of faith and doubt, of the dangers posed by both compromise and rigidity, while examining the underpinnings of marriage and family.

I’m interested to see where The Path goes with its musings, because although it took me a while to accept the premise of the show, I cannot deny that it is well-made and thoughtful, if mostly concerned with the thoughts and feelings of very frustrating people.

Given how niftily realized The Meyerism Movement is throughout the entire first season, its stretches of twiddling banality only feel tiresome in hindsight. In the moment, The Path always seems to have its footing, mostly thanks to the confident strut of of its leads.

It’s another nice original series try by Hulu in its efforts to someday play in the same league as fellow streamers Netflix and Amazon Prime. But as with Hulu’s ongoing 11.22.63, there’s just not enough in the tank to make the engine really hum.

The Path is completely serious and sterile. The three leads are very good, though.

In TV, however, there are few worse sins than being uninvolving--and despite the best efforts of a strong cast, that’s where The Path lands.

While The Path is engaging, and smart when it comes to portraying the strangeness of cult life, it suffers from a bad case of tonal overkill.

Like HBO's doomy apocalyptic drama, "The Leftovers," The Path just misses being as profound as it wants to be, but remains watchable largely thanks to the superb cast.

Provocative but murky drama. [21 Mar-3 Apr 2016, p.19]

The Path is a grim unburdening, all right, but also that what-if series in search of deeper moorings, and a deeper meaning.

The Path is a winding one--the show has pacing problems, which is to say, it’s awfully slow in many spots. The acting is very good, but too much of the series forces the performers to play one note: grave concern or worry.

The combination has potential, but the execution, while offering glimpses into a fascinating subculture, is sluggish and unfocused.

It’s frustrating when a series hitches its drama to a lack of communication as its primary conceit because the solution seems so simple: Just ’fess up! The addition of new sources of dramatic conflict in episode two helps explain Eddie’s choice but doesn’t completely eliminate the show’s weak dramatic raison d’etre.

As it is, the drama’s overly deliberate pace and under-cooked character dynamics may cause some to lose faith before the season finale arrives.