Anatomy of a Scandal

"Anatomy of a Scandal" is, nevertheless, far from anything approaching lightheartedness. It's a saga about justice as regards the matter of sex—a story burdened by its tonnage of flashbacks, but one that remains, throughout, unfailing in its power to captivate.

An old-fashioned courtroom miniseries with a somewhat more modern backdrop of sexual politics, "Anatomy of a Scandal" is a crisply told, nicely binge-able mystery that doesn't overstay its welcome. Adapted from a novel, the material certainly doesn't break any ground but proves watchable enough for its various twists, some admittedly more strained than others.

Despite the genuinely good cast, the easily bingeable formula, and enough breadcrumbs laid out to make it seem like it’s going somewhere interesting, the show ultimately just… exists.

The thing that’s frustrating about Anatomy of a Scandal is that it’s ostensibly about serious issues like sexual violence, entitlement, and grey areas of the law, but it’s actually just a stupidly breezy thriller.

With all its squabbles, over-the-top drama, and borderline cheesy filmmaking choices, “Anatomy of a Scandal” most resembles a soap opera you’d watch in order to have something on in the background. But the ultra-serious subject matter make it an impossible mindless watch. The final viewing experience is infuriating, frustrating, and ultimately unfulfilling.

["Anatomy of a Scandal"] takes big swings, few of which connect. Despite able performers and potent themes, the show is so addicted to chaos that it squanders its chance to say anything substantive.

The truth is that this one feels phoned in, like a contract that Kelley signed and then never really bothered to put in the work to flesh out these characters beyond the checklist of salacious plot twists from the source material. The true scandal is how lazy it all feels.

Anatomy of a Scandal is dramatic miniseries that senselessly prolongs its stay by not being able to address with the necessary strength its central issue, which desperately cried out for a better handling of the plot. Besides the fact that its conclusion never sought to do more than look good to the audience and give them the feeling that somehow there was justice. It's not a real waste, but it does ask you to spend a lot of time on something that could have easily been summed up in 120 minutes.

Barely bearable. It tries to be interesting and creating a flowing narrative of mystery, but it’s just a stream of cliches and bad acting. Sienna Miller and the lead male role are simply bland. He’s like a robot and she seems subdued. They intertwine the new progressive topics with characters who are simply stereotypes. Then whilst you’re trying to Wade through the meandering story, that could literally be resolved in 3 episodes. There’s these ‘inception’ style dreams that see the camera do a 360 or the character fall through the floor, or look at their past selves. It just seems out of place. They should have kept it simple, but had a solid story.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

How many more series can we expect about people of great wealth and privilege whose lives are scarred by moral lapses - and when the male is a government high-flyer, and he is charged with ****, must we return again and again to a situation in which the man is determinedly foul and unarguably guilty? Is there no write who might find a new way to explore this terrain without resorting to the tried-and-dull path of far too familiar? In Anatomy of a Scandal, the actors do their level best to transcend the cliches that both follow and precede most of their screen time. Finally, who cares a whit for the smarmy, arrogant and overprivileged monied class that Netflix shovels our way with striking regularity.