Critical Condition: Jett

Jett | SoHo, 9.30 Wednesday

☆☆☆☆ “Written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez (Elektra Luxx), Jett feels like an adaptation of a long-running franchise of crime novels that doesn’t actually exist, filled (sometimes to excess) with suave crime lords, verbose henchmen, ambitious heists, steamy sex and unexpected double-crosses, and anchored by an enigmatic and intriguing lead character. Jett is probably a little too derivative for its own good, but through five of its first nine episodes, it marks another fun-but-not-too-deep entry in Cinemax’s stable of expanded B-movie genre pieces.” — The Hollywood Reporter.

☆☆☆☆ “Jett follows the exploits of recently paroled career criminal Daisy ‘Jett’ Kowalski as she takes on the proverbial ‘one last job,’ kicking off a propulsive crime caper that would be right at home with the works of Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh … And while Jett’s multitudinous narrative layers exceed the usual for an hour-long drama and sometimes teeters on the brink of convolution, it stops short of being overly engineered or exasperating, and instead is simply fun to watch.” — ScreenRant.

☆☆☆☆ “Jett fits in with the network’s history of action series. But even for a show this pulpy at times, there’s are enough scenes where sex feels shoehorned in as if done to meet a quota. So it feels all the more exciting when Jett does manage to play against expectations and deliver a version of this crime world that feels of its making rather than indebted to a genre checklist … It’s not a reinvention, but there aren’t many versions of this story that have done it with more style.” — IndieWire.

☆☆☆☆ “As the title character, a master thief, in Cinemax’s new crime drama, [Carla Gugino] gets the juicy starring role she’s long deserved … The sheer tonnage of plot and character and twists can be exhausting, even if you, like me, happen to be in the tank for hard-boiled crime fiction of this type … Gugino owns the frame every second she’s in it, which means the show suffers in her absence …  It’s a great performance buoying a pretty good show.” — Rolling Stone.

☆☆☆☆ “Gutierrez (who’s collaborated with Gugino, his off-screen partner, many times before) directs with a kinetic style and with a fondness for dramatic flourishes, moody lighting, and striking framing. It’s the work of someone who appears to be having a ball cutting loose and trying out every crime genre idea he’s ever had –and taking every chance to fill the screen with sex and violence — while still serving a story about a woman trying to hold onto her soul in a world filled with temptation and betrayal.” — TV Guide.