The Crowded Room

It feels aimless in the early going—not uncharmingly so, but seemingly without a defined objective. To offer a carrot—that everything comes together in episode 6—is asking for a good deal of time and patience, but stick with it. The performances throughout are, at worst, mesmerizing.

Despite a sometimes self-sabotaging sense of its own mystery and occasionally glacial pacing, The Crowded Room’s slick ‘70s stylisation, timely themes, and a mercurial Tom Holland will certainly keep you watching.

It’s not that these topics aren’t handled with the care and sensitivity they deserve. They are. It’s just that they aren’t written particularly well, nor does the show really have anything new or interesting to say about them. It isn’t all bad news. Relative newcomers Sasha Lane (How To Blow Up A Pipeline) and Emma Laird (Mayor Of Kingstown) shine as Danny’s magnetic best friend-turned-accomplice and enigmatic love interest, respectively.

The Crowded Room pivots from gritty crime drama to something altogether sadder and more sentimental, with unfortunately mixed results.

The cast is strong. The basis of the story – which has been dramatised before, usually more explicitly in the horror genre – is compelling. But The Crowded Room is an unsatisfying blend of these components, which takes, at best, a curate’s egg, and scrambles it.

By being so oblique about Danny’s true nature, “The Crowded Room” is left with a vacuum where a hook should be, one it declines to fill with a compelling pitch. .... “The Crowded Room” squanders ample resources in its unsuccessful efforts.

It's hard to imagine a worse show.

Just finished THE CROWDED ROOM. Excellent. Cathartic. Well written and well-cast. Tom Holland is fantastic. AppleTV does it again.

It would seem to be a familiar story, what else can be brought here, but acting talent and a gradual understanding of the situation do their job. Technically masterfully done work, elaboration of details at the highest level. The cast is perfectly matched, Amanda Seyfried and Emmy Rossum deserve special respect. But Tom Holland deserves all the awards - his role can be recorded in textbooks on transformation.

I have seen only 7 episodes so far, and I can say that Tom Holland is a fantastic actor with great talent. But the show itself is a classic movie for teens. At first glance, I thought that it had a very fascinating plot, but through the first 5 episodes, you can easily understand the whole plot if you have watched at least a couple of thrillers. To my regret, THE CROWDED ROOM turned out to be a standard timekiller, which will be forgotten in a few days after watching.

Though far from the calamity that professional critics portrayed it to be, which I believe led to the series going largely unnoticed, The Crowded Room offers little to defend itself with its drama that gets tedious quickly and a very simple mystery that never delivers. And can we seriously begin to discuss that Tom Holland might benefit from some acting lessons?

Tom Holland has an undeniable talent, but this is yet another role that was more rewarding for him than for the viewer. It takes place in 1979, when he and a friend take part in a shooting at Rockefeller Center. In an attempt to understand the reason for the incident, he spends much of the series in jail being interviewed by a psychiatric researcher (Amanda Seyfried). This leads to numerous flashbacks that start to unravel the mystery. Unfortunately, the scenario is too twisted yet repetitive and ultimately confusing. Holland and Seyfried are strong, but they’re constantly fighting the confusion. During Ep 6, there’s finally a revelation that helps focus the situation, but it remains to be seen whether that alone can justify 4 more hours to solve this frustrating mystery. (Review based on 6 out of 10 eps)