Crisis in Six Scenes

The whole thing may seem patently ludicrous but it’s done with distinct artistic finesse, set to a furious, insidious visual rhythm in it’s bold, decisive, and intuitive editing.

The first few episodes meander by, full of too-long dialogue and not enough action, while all the best moments are precise. ... Crisis gets better as it goes on, perhaps because a climax is not so different in film and television.

Allen’s been doing this kind of humor for 50 years. It shows.

A lot of the qualities that still make Allen’s movies worth watching--especially his gift for crowding a bunch of actors into the frame and giving all of them something interesting to do--are present in Crisis in Six Scenes’ final episode. But the road to get there is so needlessly long, and so pointlessly convoluted, that many viewers will be forgiven for having abandoned it long ago.

The good news is that Crisis eventually gains a bit of traction in its stretch run, but it’s much too late by then.

Getting any mileage out of Miley and her Bernardine Dohrn-with-a-husky-voice character proves unrewarding. Most of Crisis is spent listening to Sidney and Kay dither about hearing aids, Freudian analyses, and one-liners that sound dusted off from Allen’s decades-old standup act.

Meandering, unfocused and unfunny. ... It's terrible. Don't waste your time.