X
- BritBox
- Nov 23, 2023
- BritBox
- Nov 23, 2023
Season Episodes
View All Seasons
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
62
55% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
45% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
62
55% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
45% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Isaacs does a complicated job, and that strange, mid-Atlantic Grant voice, well. .... Where Pope's series was less successful was in its depiction of Hollywood, with an unconvincing Doris Day and Grace Kelly, and artifical sets. But the older, mellower Grant, made softer by the arrival of his daughter, Jennifer, was intelligently portrayed by Isaacs.
Despite some stylistic missteps, Archie is a well-paced story about the life of Cary Grant, who most of us really only know from the roles he played in films that are 60 or more years old.
When it succeeds it’s not so much because it’s revealed something essential about Grant, about whom volumes upon volumes have been written, as that creator Jeff Pope has written scenes with their own dramatic integrity that allow actors to do good work. .... Isaacs is marvelous. .... Though Laura Aikman is excellent as Cannon (and is an executive producer along with daughter Jennifer Grant), the on-and-off, back-and-forth, pleasure-and-mostly-pain of their life together goes on at vexing length.
If debonair charm was the sole arbiter of a show’s success and critical acclaim, Isaacs’ would lead Archie to the highest of praise. His performance often transcends the surface-level scripts, providing a moving amount of depth to Grant’s greatest role as a father and a son.
A solid, if inevitably insufficient, portrait of a still-enigmatic Hollywood legend. It doesn’t completely get under Cary Grant’s skin — but Jason Isaacs’ thoughtful, transformative performance makes it worth the attempt.
It gives you exactly enough good stuff to make you wish the rest of the series was better, or at least more insightful.
Fans of Grant may struggle to recognise the actor in the haunted, faltering figure Isaac inhabits. I suppose this is the point, to a large extent. But Isaacs’ disarmingly British version of Archie never really feels real, either. This may be down to the writing – laboured jokes and trite drama mark this as a script the real Grant would have surely scrapheaped.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 5 User Ratings
8.4
100% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 5 User Ratings
8.4
100% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.