Ricky Gervais is back on Netflix – or, at least, his voice is.
The creator of iconic comedies like The Office, Extras and Afterlife’s latest project is Alley Cats, a foul-mouthed feline-themed animated comedy.
When a lost orphan kitten can’t find her way home, a group of cynical alley cats take her in and show her the ropes.
Featuring voices from comedy like Diane Morgan, Tom Basden and Kerry Godliman, Alley Cats features all of Ricky’s trademark musings about religion, mortality and nihilism.
On paper it has all the ingredients to be a hit, but the reviews for Alley Cats are less than positive.
In fact, the general consensus is that Alley Cats is “abysmal”, “crude” and “smug”, with critics’ one- and even zero-star reviews suggesting that the series struggles to walk the line between its cynicism and its oversentimentality.
So, just how bad is Alley Cats? Here is what the reviews are saying so far…
“Ricky Gervais’s abysmal Netflix cartoon is the worst thing to happen to cats since Cats.”
“Alley Cats isn’t poor, it isn’t rubbish, it’s not shit (or even a shitcom to quote Andy Millman); it’s the worst thing I’ve watched on television this year. As such, I had absolutely no fun watching this – even to mock it.”
“This makes other Ricky Gervais comedy dramas look like Tolstoy.”
“You’ve heard of the manosphere? Well, somehow, via the medium of cartoon cats lounging about in a derelict house watching TV, Gervais has created the Catosphere, made up of a gang of miserable, offensive, toxic cats who have nothing better to do than spout their diatribe all day.
“This is just an aimless Ricky Gervais podcast channelled through cartoon felines.”
“Watching the abrasive, smug and completely mirthless new Netflix cartoon from the British comedy titan, I found it genuinely impossible to tell. Is this the work of a man who has lost all creative mooring, awash in his own self-belief? Or is it the work of a canny grifter-cynic, a man who has watched audiences lap up all his crudest, hokiest impulses in projects like Derek and After Life, and thought, ‘let’s just give the people what they want’?”
“There are glimmers of potential in this comedy about a potty-mouthed feline gang. But not even the great voice cast or a cute kitten can save it from being lazy, crude and boring.”
“Alley Cats has two modes. There are bits where the cats sit around and riff on taboo subjects and swear a lot. And then there are emotional bits and folksy homilies to friends and family, sections which feel as badly undernourished as these poor strays.”
“The show follows its own unhurried rhythm, turning on a dime between casually vicious and ooey-gooey sweet. But lacking the creative depth to make either tone land, it winds up a comedy of existential angst that’s rarely all that funny and only occasionally kind of moving.”
“Alley Cats doesn’t just revel in the nastiness of feral life. The show also depicts its hardships with disarming frankness, even verging on despondency. Sometimes, this undercurrent of gloom tips over into outright nihilism.”
“While this specific brand of comedy won’t be for everyone, it certainly landed for me. The meatier, angrier discussions elicited genuine laugh-out-loud moments evenly across all six episodes.”
All six episodes of Alley Cats are now streaming on Netflix.
