Critic Reviews

A dazzling matchup of pulp and prestige. ... Britton is perfectly cast as Debra. ... As Meehan, the actor [Eric Bana] pivots from charming to chilling and back with astonishing ease. [16 Nov 2018, p.45]

Riveting. ... Peet scorches the screen. [8 - 21 Jun 2020, p.5]

The success of this USA series (whose first anthology season curiously aired on Bravo) hinges on Peet’s fantastic portrayal. ... Showrunner Alexandra Cunningham never forgets whose story she is telling, and Dirty John is the TV equivalent of a compelling page turner.

The tragic consequences of Betty and Dan’s story hangs over Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story from the beginning, elevating the series from a possible Lifetime knockoff to a realistic and unforgettable portrayal of mental breakdown, casting Amanda Peet in a new dramatic light.

It’s a compassionate telling, one that teeters on the right side of empathy for a heinous convicted killer who was, also, a broken woman.

Revisiting the case that started it all with the kind of treatment Dirty John gives it—at times compassionate and introspective, at other times leaning into beats of outrageousness—is a delicate act, one that wouldn’t work without Amanda Peet as Betty. She is very, very good, somehow playing all sides of the tonal kaleidoscope here at once, differing depending from which angle you look at it.

What this scripted true-crime story may lack in surprise, it makes up for in its nuance, especially in the latter half of the season, as well as in its go-for-beyond-broke performance by Amanda Peet as Betty.

It’s too easy to say something like ‘the layers have layers,’ but there’s perhaps no better way of describing what Peet and Cunningham jointly accomplish here. ... While Betty’s performance gets much less convincing, Peet’s just keeps getting better and better. There is not a moment wasted, not a single line or non-verbal reaction not fully explored for all its potential. It is, and in this case this is a compliment, utterly exhausting to watch. The same isn’t necessarily true of the other characters.

Amanda Peet’s performance is more than enough to put Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story on a season pass. But Broderick’s story is an intriguing one, and it looks like it’ll be told in a way that will show that some of her simmering rage didn’t just come out of the blue.

Glossy and well-acted, its transfer from your daily commute’s most suspenseful listening stretch ever to serviceable wine-and-laundry-folding companion show feels, all in all, a smooth one.