Disclaimer: I / II Show Only

October 15, 2024 1:09 PM - Season 1, Episode 2

Chapter I: A novel exposes the secret past of a journalist when she realizes she is a character in a story with buried transgressions. Chapter II: Do you ever think of me?

“In its first 45-minute installment, Disclaimer feels reminiscent of Big Little Lies and Expats and any number of class-conscious series that tend to star Nicole Kidman. When bad things happen to people who drink vintage wine from crystal glasses, is it just as bad as when they happen to everyone else? Is it even worse? This isn’t new terrain for TV to cover by any stretch, though it feels new by dint of Alfonso Cuarón’s touch.”—from Amanda Whiting’s 3-star recap of I for Vulture

“It’s hard to predict where the show will travel from here. Two episodes have covered only two or three days. Timelines that appeared distinct have collided. Narrators that seemed close have proved omniscient: Catherine spilling what’s inside Robert’s head and what’s inside her son’s flat, where she’s surely never invited. A camera clicks on a sunny day and 20 years later and a thousand miles away a marriage is obliterated. Cats, always sinister, appear and reappear.”—from Amanda Whiting’s 4-star recap of II for Vulture

posted by bcwinters (7 comments total)

Between this and Ripley this is a wonderful year for cat acting.
posted by bcwinters at 1:15 PM on October 15, 2024 [3 favorites]

This is one of those shows where if they just showed all the footage in roughly chronological order the entire story would be wrapped up in about 15 minutes. Both Kevin Kline and Sacha Baron Cohen are both doing really really good work.
posted by ssmith at 6:46 PM on October 15, 2024 [1 favorite]

I found it kind of trashy, pretentious, but quite fast moving. The episodes actually fly by and are very pretty. I think the show would be better with no dialogue whatsoever. It's hobbled by a structure which forces way too much telling and not a lot of showing (exactly the opposite of Tar, which this show shares some commonalities). The telling hurts a lot of the characterizations. The characters feel very very flat. You end up not really caring about them, and end up wishing you could leave them and look for somebody more interesting somewhere else on the frame.
posted by Omon Ra at 9:31 PM on October 15, 2024

‘[Cuarón] continued: “I have to say, Cate broke the cat. The cat ended up doing whatever Cate wanted. The animal trainer was very upset because he said: ‘It took me three years to teach this cat to go from A to B, and now the cat does do whatever it wants to do.'” Blanchett then clarified she is an animal lover at home, revealing she owns two cats, four dogs and six chickens.’—from Lily Ford’s top-tier exposé for The Hollywood Reporter.

(This whole piece is solid gold)
posted by bcwinters at 10:24 AM on October 16, 2024 [1 favorite]

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Inkoo Kang on this one: “Disclaimer” Is a Baffling Misfire from a Great Auteur
posted by gwint at 7:23 PM on October 21, 2024 [1 favorite]

Tough crowd.

I thought Disclaimer was a very well structured story and use of the streaming format. Cuarón's narrative circles the truth as his camera circles its subject. A powerful indictment of the funnelling of perspective in the modern world.
posted by fairmettle at 1:05 PM on November 8, 2024

The cats are never sinister! They are occasionally naughty and often up in counters. It was very obvious by the way Cate B handled the kitty that she is an animal lover and mom. The show is pretty lame tho...
posted by supermedusa at 8:23 AM on December 15