The Daily Beast

A superlative adaptation anchored by a cunning, complex, and captivating performance by Florence Pugh.

It doesn’t necessarily improve on the author’s original (or De Palma’s gem), but it’s a worthy reinvention that carves out its own unique identity in fire and blood.

Lacks virtually everything it needs—inspiration, cleverness, hilarity, suspense—and its cartoonishness is so extreme that it murders any chance at being taken seriously.

Merely a cornucopia of truisms in service of a painfully predictable tale about noxious characters doing noxious things for angry, selfish ends.

It’s amiable enough to sustain eight half-hour episodes—but just barely.

Youth is funny in a more realistic way. There are fewer laughs per minute, but they are well-earned and usually a product of Horgan’s reactions to the ridiculous and overwhelming situations Alex can’t stop finding herself in.

Remains as clichéd as before—but also cartoonish enough to prove mildly engaging.

The most mind-meltingly compelling genre series since Netflix’s Dark, and a twisty-turny triumph elevated by performances—led by Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly—that are as multi-layered as the various realities in which they exist.

Structural unevenness aside, it’s grounded even when its superpowered main characters take flight, thanks primarily to stellar lead performances from Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, which lend this fantastical material its down-to-Earth soul.

The most offensive thing about his six-part series, a point further emphasized by the 25th anniversary celebrations of his mainstream breakthrough, is its sheer laziness. .... The likes of Diane Morgan, Tom Basden, and Andrew Brooke sound thoroughly bored throughout. .... Gervais acolytes will no doubt lap it up. But it’s unlikely many will still be purring about Alley Cats in a year, let alone 25.