Critic Reviews

Kelley doesn’t slow down after the pilot, and he manages to sustain the suspense over 10 hours of well-staged melodrama.

Its sense of giddy, unashamed fun buoys it even as the seams show. ... As it stands, it’s a captivating bit of cheese, anchored by a star making the most of a very strange moment.

Everything serves to highlight Zellweger’s gloriously goofy performance. As Anne Montgomery, the actress doesn’t so much chew the scenery as absorb it through every pore.

When Zellweger’s not on screen, “What/If” is a mostly empty, broad strokes neo-noir soap, frothy and forgettable. When she appears, it’s still all of those things—but dear lord, please pass the popcorn.

What/If has just enough emotional truth mixed in with the absurdity to stop it spiralling into absolute madness.

What/If has its longueurs and Levy and Jenner’s lack of chemistry lands like a dead fish. But it roars to life whenever Zellweger is on screen. Tossing her hair and crinkling her eyes, she’s a baroque riot. Her performance alone makes What /If a contender for guilty pleasure of the year.

If you can get past the thorny, sticky dialogue (a big if), What/If has an interesting premise about ostensibly good people doing bad things.

Whatever sizzle there is baked into the premise, in the execution, What/If feels a little too close to "So what?"

There is a prestige drama version of the show in which Anne's long game is actually surprising, and there is a guilty-pleasure version of the show that burns through twice the plot in half the time.

What/If transcends junk-food TV and moves into the realm of trans-fat TV. It's definitely bad for you but good luck resisting it. [27 May - 9 Jun 2019, p.13]