Critic Reviews

Divorce is raw and uncomfortable at times... but it’s also one of the best new comedies of the year.

Divorce simply has more to unpack than can be summed up in a singularly strong concept. It’s the overall experience that hits hardest, and while delving into heartbreak may not be something we’re all eager to become immersed in, the series’ value on levels both informational and artistic is hard to deny.

Its characters and situations are alternately aggravating, humorous and, to a lesser extent, poignant. Parker and Church are fully in charge throughout as a perfectly imperfect duo. Yes, they’re both that good--in a series that demands just that.

With the help of her stellar cast, creator Sharon Horgan (“Catastrophe”) manages to find plenty of humor in domestic turmoil.

Divorce struggles at first with tone, leavened somewhat by comically absurd supporting characters (including “Saturday Night Live” alum Molly Shannon as a friend of Frances’s who pulls a gun on her own husband during a 50th birthday party). ... Divorce is best when it sticks to its title.

Overall, Season 2 is less divisive than Season 1. ... Divorce is still authentic, still focused, and still telling stories few other series are willing to explore.

Horgan and showrunner Paul Simms, clearly working closely with Parker, who’s one of the show’s executive producers, have constructed Divorce so that it feels at once inevitable and surprising.

In this skillfully conceived series the characters never fail to remind us of the forces that drive them, and no one does it better or more compellingly than Thomas Haden Church as Robert, a man in chaos hurling his many selves around, all of them infused with his absurdity and raging wit.

The laugh-out-loud viciousness of the opening, which involves both a gun and vomit, is clearly the work of series’ creator Sharon Horgan, who also co-writes and stars in Amazon’s brilliant Catastrophe. But Divorce isn’t always as biting as it is in those moments, leading to a solidly acted but somewhat mundane exploration of a breakup.

HBO's other new Sunday comedy Insecure is more consistent and sure of its voice, but I laughed a lot more watching Divorce, even as I kept feeling frustrated that it didn't seem willing to fully embrace the awfulness of its premise, or its entire cast of characters. To be as good as it can be, it has to be more willing to be bad.