Critic Reviews

All of these memories, painful and enriching, give the series a density equivalent to many dramas. Yet One Mississippi never sinks too far into the muddy river water thanks to its buoyant bits of comedy.

The six-episode sequel season is beautiful in its intentions and construction--a loving ode to a life made better by acknowledging the past to improve upon the future.

As with Notaro's deadpan affect, the show seems to be holding itself in reserve and refusing to engage, yet the impact--on both the serious and silly sides--ultimately lands just as sharply as one of the punchlines from Notaro's act. It's all easygoing until it's anything but.

Each cathartic confrontation near the end of the short but powerful season is meticulously earned, as is the weird sense of optimism that follows Tig around like the boxes of old clothes and mementos she can’t quite get rid of. The absorbing season finale is a fitting culmination of a show that is exceptionally assured in its debut season.

Bold and darkly funny. [26 Sep 2016-2 Oct 2016, p.17]

Notaro, who survived a version of these events several years ago, has added tragedy and time to make the kind of comedy that feels both fresh and familiar. She's as appealing, and as low-key, an actress as she is a comedian.

One Mississippi is effectively quiet and understated in many of the ways that Transparent is demonstrative and confrontational, while both shows share an interest in family histories and personal pain.

Notaro is an appealing lead, if you like bone-dry humor and deadpan, which I do. She carries the show in her low-key way, and she, like the show itself, warms up a little bit more with each new episode.

A tender, occasionally funny, often moving entertainment about the grieving process.

It is not a perfect series; episodes stall here and there, or swerve into unnecessary flights of fantasy or absurd narrative developments, but then a moment of quietly huge revelation blows the story onto a whole other plane.