Critical Condition: Gypsy

Gypsy (Netflix, from today)

➢ “Gypsy can’t decide what kind of show it wants to be. The new Netflix series  (**½ out of four) is a psychological thriller starring Naomi Watts as Jean Holloway, a successful Manhattan therapist who inserts herself into the lives of her patients’ friends and family. It’s part mystery, part soapy drama, but it’s so slow that it’s hard to get engaged. And without Watts as a grounding force, it wouldn’t come together at all.” — USA Today.

➢ “Gypsy is a psychological thriller about a woman whose quest for vitality and reinvention renders her certifiably Twin Peaks-y — surreal and lively, with a double life full of dangerous secrets. She’s a puzzle made utterly fascinating by Watts. Created by Lisa Rubin, the series challenges the Can women have it all?question with a complex premise that illuminates the clichéd notion’s oppressiveness.” — Entertainment Weekly.

➢ “Watts does a good job of conveying Jean’s simmering frustration and her yearning taste for danger, but the clarity of her performance is not enough to inject the series with sustainable energy. Gypsy is clearly meant to be the tale of a smart adult who likes playing with fire, but it is too somnolent and superficial to ever make her dilemmas ever come alive. Like Jean herself, the viewer is likely to be left wanting more.” — Variety.

➢ “TV is suffering from competence … Mediocre and even awful TV is often technically very good. This leaves you staring at a series like Gypsy, the 10-episode psychosexual thriller that arrives on Netflix Friday, like a what’s-wrong-with-this-picture puzzle. Something’s missing, but the flaw doesn’t leap out at you. The series is elegant, sensitively acted and directed — and an utter snooze.” — New York Times.

➢ “Gypsy frustrates because after nine episodes of tip-toeing and narrative evasion (in contrast to its thematic ham-handedness) … the finale is in an awful big hurry. Backstories are abruptly recited. Rugs are hastily pulled out from under people. Mistakes are made. Basically, the show you probably want Gypsy to be by the third or fourth episode might end up being the second season, and there’s too much psychobabble to wade through to get there.” — The Hollywood Reporter.