Critic Reviews

Incisive, enraging and boasting an excellent ensemble, this timely drama may be made for binge-viewing but it offers plenty of food for thought.

"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.

If you’re someone who doesn’t mind substandard dialogue or visual gimmicks — and be warned, most episodes end with cheesy effects that make you think you’ve switched to a disaster flick — and you just want a decent page-turner that you don’t feel compelled to binge in one night, this fits the bill.

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.

“Anatomy of a Scandal” is a considerable upgrade [from "The Undoing"]. Don’t get me wrong, it’s garbage, but it’s high-end garbage and eminently binge-able. ... I would have liked more of an emphasis on how Kate builds her case, but the show isn’t particularly interested in the nuts and bolts of it all. It’s not a courtroom thriller.

If you were hoping that this six-part thriller, based on Sarah Vaughan’s bestseller, was going to be the sort of handsome, gripping but semi-brainless fluff you could gobble up over a couple of cool spring evenings, then fear not – it very much is. ....There’s plenty to irk you if you came here for serious drama.

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.

Out of all the thriller fare that Kelley has adapted for the small screen to date, the whole of Anatomy of a Scandal is disappointingly much less compelling than the sum of its parts.

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.

Dockery and Friend are pros, playing parts well within their respective comfort zones; lesser-known actors like Kudzai Sitima (as Kate’s protégé) and Kathryn Wilder (as Olivia’s confidant) make strong showings in smaller roles. The fault for Anatomy’s broadness—and certainly for the silliest twist this side of Netflix’s even messier marital thriller Behind Her Eyes—lies mostly with writing that tweaks characters to fit the plot, rather than the other way around.