Critic Reviews

It would be irresponsible not to say right off that “Alley Cats,” written and directed by the comedian Ricky Gervais, is so gleefully vulgar it could make a TV critic blush. .... That said, the six episodes all end on some sweet note, some nod to basic decency.

On a broader level, this is fundamentally a hangout sitcom about free-range felines. The show nonetheless takes an unexpected direction that makes for an enjoyably low-key binge.

It's funnier when it isn't being juvenile.

There are a handful of moments in which you can see, maybe, what might have been.

The show follows its own unhurried rhythm, turning on a dime between casually vicious and ooey-gooey sweet. But lacking the creative depth to make either tone land, it winds up a comedy of existential angst that’s rarely all that funny and only occasionally kind of moving.

The short length of each episode (and the overall season, which can be watched in less time than it takes to see most feature films) allows for “Alley Cats” to be more forgettable than atrocious, and the writers do find a joke here or there that connects.

About as funny as Nightmare Alley and about as visually compelling as Cats.

Alley Cats offers nothing beyond Ricky Gervais once again playing himself and espousing his own opinions. Aside from a couple of funny gags, it’s comfortably the worst thing he has ever done.

The idea of imposing human psychologies onto talking animals has been done to death at this point; Netflix’s BoJack Horseman would be an example of something that managed to do this with infinitely more depth, and incomparably sharper humour, than Alley Cats can muster.

The mix of raucous crudeness and simplistic sentimentality – one thing the two elements share is that they’re both aggressively, insistently philistine – has become the signature Gervais style, but that doesn’t make Alley Cats any more appetising. In 2D, his writing falls flatter than ever.