The Slap (2015)

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Season 1
  • Network: NBC
  • Series Premiere Date: Feb 12, 2015
Metascore
62

Generally favorable reviews - based on 33 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 33
  3. Negative: 5 out of 33
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Critic Reviews

  1. Under The Radar
    Reviewed by: Lily Moayeri
    Feb 12, 2015
    60
    There is enough going on in The Slap without the addition of the narration, which is reminiscent of the voice over on Pushing Daisies and sounds like it's describing a comedy. Get rid of that smug, knowing narrator, The Slap can speak for itself.
  2. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Margaret Lyons
    Feb 12, 2015
    60
    It's not fully good by any means, but I will watch more episodes, and I'm interested how everything will get resolved. I'm more curious about the characters of The Slap than I am about the characters of, say, The Affair.
  3. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: David Hiltbrand
    Feb 12, 2015
    60
    No question, this is a high-quality production with a fine cast that includes Marin Ireland, Brian Cox, Thomas Sadoski, Michael Nouri, and Penn Badgley. But it's also terribly stagey and saddled with a pretentious voice-over by Victor Garber.
  5. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Sarah Rodman
    Feb 11, 2015
    60
    Even if the tale is not particularly captivating, the actors, in particular Sarsgaard and Newton, enliven the quotidian details.
  6. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: David Hinckley
    Feb 11, 2015
    60
    The Slap just misses being as sharp in the execution as it is in the concept.
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Mary McNamara
    Feb 12, 2015
    50
    It's quite a cast and a good thing too, considering the almost uniformly absurd character types they miraculously manage to animate.
  8. Slate
    Reviewed by: Willa Paskin
    Feb 12, 2015
    50
    Add all this up, and what results is not an elegant, adult, psychologically astute miniseries. Instead, The Slap is a bulldozer: bluntly, gracelessly effective.
  9. Denver Post
    Reviewed by: Joanne Ostrow
    Feb 5, 2015
    50
    The cast is inviting.... But the too-prominent, overly obvious voice-over narrator is a truly awful innovation.
  10. Hitfix
    Reviewed by: Alan Sepinwall
    Feb 11, 2015
    42
    It is humorless, pretentious, a waste of a number of good performances, and about as subtle as its title action, but it is also very real.
  11. The Huffington Post
    Reviewed by: Maureen Ryan
    Feb 11, 2015
    40
    Zachary Quinto, Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman, Thandie Newton and Melissa George all try their best, but this is not a legal drama or a cop show, where a near-miss can more or less work. You either nail this kind of challenging material or you don't, and The Slap ultimately fails to live up to the potential implied in its attention-getting title.
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  12. Time
    Reviewed by: James Poniewozik
    Feb 10, 2015
    40
    The Slap has the ideas and the assembled talent to make a better, subtler character exploration, but it’s brought down by hamhanded characterization and an assemblage of bourgeois-Brooklyn types that it’s impossible (even for another bourgeois-Brooklyn type) to care about.

User Reviews

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User Score
4.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 48 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 48
  3. Negative: 22 out of 48
  1. leckus
    Feb 12, 2015
    2
    I don't understand why the US re-made this series. The original book by Christos Tsiolkas is brilliant, as is the 2011 Australian TV series.I don't understand why the US re-made this series. The original book by Christos Tsiolkas is brilliant, as is the 2011 Australian TV series. While there is nothing particularly bad about the acting here, the characters are poorly drawn, and the direction is heavy-handed, leaving me as the audience little desire to invest in these characters or the remainder of the show. Additionally, a major underlying theme in the book and Australian TV series is a focus on race and class relations specific to Australian society. From viewing the first episode of the re-make, it feels that any adaptation of these themes appropriate to American society have been given short shrift for something that instead feels superficial and more like a soap opera than anything else.… Full Review »
  2. Bgrod
    Feb 12, 2015
    0
    I admit I was intrigued when I read the description of this show. It really did sound like something very different from the mostly safe andI admit I was intrigued when I read the description of this show. It really did sound like something very different from the mostly safe and bland stuff on broadcast television and the actors were all very good. Watching this show was pure torture, however. I can't honestly say it is the worst thing I have ever seen on television but it is definitely in the bottom 5, only redeemed by the actors attached to it. Unfortunately, good actors and an interesting sounding premise can't overcome pretentiously bad execution. I would have to be slapped unconscious to watch any more episodes. Even hate watching and hate tweeting is fun for only so long which I proved by watching Peter Pan Live once and only once. I wonder if someone threatened to slap NBC president, Bob Greenblatt if he didn't air this drivel? .… Full Review »
  3. Shadow10
    Feb 23, 2015
    0
    The first episode shows our society ills: spoiled kids, mom's who breast feed a child who is way too old, husbands who cheat with young girls.The first episode shows our society ills: spoiled kids, mom's who breast feed a child who is way too old, husbands who cheat with young girls. Why can't writers come up with something uplifting and the reader/viewer come away happy? Guess that is asking for too much?… Full Review »
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