Critic Reviews

P-Valley is the kind of series so variously accomplished you don't know what to praise first. ... The cast is uniformly excellent but the central trio of Evans, Annan and Johnson especially so, making the most of often luscious dialogue that veers between playfully obscene and heartbreakingly forlorn.

P-Valley blends the profane, the sacred, and the politics of the almighty dollar to tell sharp, wildly engrossing stories about Black women on the margins who use their bodies to keep families and whole communities afloat. It's also one of the year's best new shows.

Directed by an all-women team, with a perfectly crafted cast, P-Valley is the unexpected summer show you didn’t know you needed. ... The relentlessness of Hall’s vision shines through, allowing a rare look and perspective into sex work and the working class, devoid of white approval. With every episode unafraid to shatter presumptions, we get an even rarer look at how these types of characters are shot.

Ultimately, the series knows exactly what it wants to be: a sexy, fast-paced drama that sets out to de-stigmatize the world of stripping and shatter misconceptions. It succeeds. “P-Valley” is an engrossing ride into the Mississippi swamp, and like nothing audiences have ever seen on television. Welcome to the Dirty South.

Helmed by an all-female directing lineup, P-Valley is a compelling character-driven story that shines a spotlight on the beauty and scars of women, Black women, in particular. It is an unapologetically Southern and Black story that puts women who are often shamed and pushed toward society’s edges right back where they belong—center stage.

In all respects, "P-Valley" sides with these women and those who support them while previewing threats on the horizon. Their view informs the focus in the writing, the directing and the performances, turning every stereotype about these places and these women on its head and presenting them from a view that serves their perspective, for once. And when the story inevitably succumbs to some of its more melodramatic inclinations, no part of its potency declines in the bargain.

Hall is still doing something extraordinary here. Better yet, something original.

P-Valley may or may not be the next Power, but it deserves to be—what it adds to the TV landscape is fresh, raw, and provocative in all of the right ways.

Incorporating the pandemic is a risk for any TV series, but P-Valley isn't the type of show that takes the easy way out. COVID-19's crushing effect on the working-class residents of Chucalissa is particularly chilling for Keyshawn (Shannon Thornton). ... "Miss Rona" may be a formidable foe, but she's no match for P-Valley's Mississippi queens.

It is filled with powerfully good material, from the intensely lived-in performances to the internecine clashes that sometimes erupt into violence. Going in, though, you need to be prepared for a heightened, densely dramatic kind of atmosphere.