Critic Reviews

It’s a lot to stuff into one series and sometimes “The Audacity” does suffer from trying to do too much. But what it does accomplish is to deliver a solid right hook to the tech world and that hit proves to be acerbic, relevant and unbelievably on target, as are the performances from Magnussen and Goldberg.

He [creator Jonathan Glatzer] avoids the mistake here that he and the other writers made with “Succession”: You don’t hate everyone. Mr. Magnussen’s performance, indelible and relentless, will define the warped values of a Musky-Zuck era for those inclined to hate it anyway.

If you come to TV for messy, fascinating characters and insight into how those personalities shape our reality, for better or worse, then your patience will be rewarded.

The series can be unwieldy in scope, slow to unveil its endgame and uneven in its character development. Still, these are minor faults compared to an enjoyably harsh yet perceptive look at the psychology of Silicon Valley elites.

The Audacity isn't perfect, but the effort Magnussen gives nearly is.

Despite the overabundance of characters, The Audacity still manages to make even its least important faces feel like fully fleshed-out, complex people, even if it does cause the story to drag at times.

While it takes a while to get to its point, the first season wraps up relatively promisingly, and the series has already been renewed for a second season. It's easy to see how The Audacity could grow into a truly astute show as it continues, but as a viewer, you can't help wishing it made itself worth investing in during its early stages.

We’re introduced to a lot of characters with a lot of things going on, and it’ll be interesting to see how the remainder of season one balances all of their storylines.

While we’re still not sure The Audacity is going to be an ultimately satisfying show to watch, we are interested enough in the plot between Duncan and JoAnne to keep watching.

The Audacity Season 1, Episode 1 has some potentially interesting plotlines, but little in the way of new ideas, and a protagonist that you'd avoid like the plague at a party. Fingers crossed it's just a bug and not a feature.