Critic Reviews

The first episode of “One Dollar” wallows in the struggles of several sad sack characters and jumps around a confusing amount as it introduces the unwieldy, large cast, but the show becomes more engrossing in episodes two and three. “One Dollar” hits its stride by episode six, proving it’s a worthy addition to the Peak TV era.

The excellence of the acting and the admirable, one might almost say English naturalism of the production balance the sometimes improbable, even implausible action and the occasional sacrifice of sense to drama; it is true that in life, people do not act sensibly, but fictional characters should be held to a higher standard of consistency. Still, the writing gives the actors a lot to play with. ... A solid cop drama.

As end-of-summer video junk food, you could do a lot worse. One Dollar's cast of scruffy characters is an interesting bunch, even when under lethal assault by their own writers. I wound up watching them for four hours, about three more than I planned, and each one was more enjoyable than the last.

The central mystery is involving, but the sprawling tone is painfully stilted. [31 Aug 2018, p.53]

It's much less interested in solving the crime than it is in building a sense of place, which may frustrate plot-hungry viewers. However, if you're willing to sit back and think about race, gentrification, addiction, poverty and post-industrialization, One Dollar is rich.

There's not enough good writing here, not enough motivation to follow characters that are either intentionally half-baked or are merely uninteresting. Characters have quirks but the quirks prove there's not much else there. Smart people eventually do exceptionally dumb things. The early trends are not good.