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- 2020
- TV-MA
- BBC One
- 2020
- TV-MA
- BBC One
Summary The forbidden romance between Sephy Hadley (Masali Baduza), a daughter of the home secretary and Callum McGregor (Jack Rowan), a son of the Hadley housekeeper are at the center of the adaptation of Malorie Blackman's books. [Premiered originally in the UK on BBC One on 5 Mar 2020 and in the US on Peacock on 4 Sep 2020]
- 2020
- TV-MA
- BBC One
- 2020
- TV-MA
- BBC One
Noughts + Crosses
Season 1 Premiere: Mar 5, 2020
59
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Summary The forbidden romance between Sephy Hadley (Masali Baduza), a daughter of the home secretary and Callum McGregor (Jack Rowan), a son of the Hadley housekeeper are at the center of the adaptation of Malorie Blackman's books. [Premiered originally in the UK on BBC One on 5 Mar 2020 and in the US on Peacock on 4 Sep 2020]
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
59
44% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
56% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
59
44% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
56% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Though Noughts + Crosses couldn’t be accused of subtlety, its portrait of a nightmarish alternative universe suffused in racism held up a distorted mirror to our own world – and invited us to reflect on what we saw staring back.
These Noughts + Crosses characters don’t yet have complexity and nuance to match its world-building. At this stage, it is difficult to imagine audience interest in Callum and Sephy sustaining the show into a proposed subsequent series. Even so, this is vital viewing.
Although Noughts + Crosses is an imperfect series, it features some compelling performances, particularly from Rowan, Joseph, and Baxendale. (Fans of the British rapper Stormzy will appreciate his small role in the show as well.) In the end, the acting saves the series from a romance that’s initially undercooked and a race-reversal narrative that could do more to complicate its alternate universe.
Visually, there’s a treat in store as the Empress of Aprica (a formidably grand Iretiola Doyle) makes a state visit and all the Crosses get their glad rags on to meet her. But the plotting gets dafter and clunkier, and the dialogue is as wooden as the Aprican sculpture in the prime minister’s home.
Blackman’s story carries a potent message about representation and power structures, so it’s a shame that the dramatised version doesn’t always trust viewers to comprehend it.
The series has a bigger problem when the actors aren’t speaking, because it has succumbed to the lure of the portentous pause.
No matter how impressed I might be with some of the big ideas floated in Noughts + Crosses, I can't get past the feeling that the series is trying to do two touchy and complicated things — speculative-fiction world-building and love-story heart-tugging — and isn't wholly (or in some cases even partially) successful at either.
User Reviews
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Production Company:
- Mammoth Screen
- Participant
- Roc Nation
Initial Release Date: Mar 5, 2020
Number of seasons: 2 Seasons
Rating: TV-MA
Awards
Royal Television Society, UK
• 1 Nomination
Ivor Novello Awards
• 1 Nomination