Everything's Gonna Be Okay

At the moment, one of the smartest, funniest and sweetest shows on television. ... Barring some unforeseen and drastic drop in quality, "Everything's Gonna Be Okay" is poised to offer some exceptionally strong storytelling in 2021. I can say at the very least that it is off to a roaring start.

“Everything’s Gonna Be Okay” has an infectious, energetic momentum to it. ... There’s enough of a sturdy foundation of what this family is to each other that seeing them take turns as the show’s driving force gives the series some well-deserved wonder.

Wildly offbeat, genuinely original and remarkably frank family comedy for the Euphoria generation. [20 Jan - 2 Feb 2020, p.9]

The premise fuels the show, but doesn’t overwhelm it. More than any one scenario, this is a series about three distinct people — intense Matilda, raw nerve Genevieve, blunt and kind Nicholas — exploring what it means to be a person and part of a family. ... Watching them express their absolute loyalty to each other in ways that ring true and tender is a real joy.

What we get is no downer but a charming dramedy, with an oddball voice (you can almost hear that “Gonna” in Thomas’s reedy Aussie accent) and a bittersweet undercurrent (that “Gonna” is also, notably, in the future tense).

Although Okay’s setup—which smooths over logistical issues by making the family rich—comes off as contrived, it quickly evolves into a bighearted, bittersweet, sometimes perverse chronicle of three unique siblings teaching each other how to live.

The dialogue is sometimes quite amusing, such as when Alex – having discovered Darren has cancer – responds: “I can’t figure out if it’s rude to leave or if it’s rude to stay.” But the jokes suffer from its distracted direction, which isn’t helped by an annoyingly jaunty score and the kind of over-lit cinematography befitting of a daytime TV soap opera.