On Becoming a God in Central Florida

On Becoming a God in Central Florida is a series that caused me to, numerous times as I watched the first season, write in my notes, “What is this show?” But it was always in a good way, as I found myself in awe of what I was watching. With every hard left turn and 180 the series takes, the tone somehow manages to remain consistent.

“On Becoming a God in Central Florida” is such a clever, compelling, and thorough evisceration of American capitalism it’s shocking Elizabeth Warren isn’t listed as an executive producer. ... The awesome Kirsten Dunst (also an EP) is the story here, bringing a captivating vitality and unflinching veracity to her lead character, Krystal Stubbs.

A delectably weird and compellingly realized misadventure tale that makes a spot-on point about the inescapable degree of fraud that infests American-style capitalism and promises shortcuts to making millions.

Dunst is the saving grace throughout a rollicking Season One that keeps delivering whenever she’s on screen. It may well turn out to be the TV performance of the year, with some very able assists from Pellerin, Rodriguez, Ditto and Levine.

The exceptional cast handles the tonal shifts and more absurd developments with aplomb, but they can’t keep the season from losing steam in its final two episodes. When the wheels come off, it makes for an exciting stretch, but what follows feels a tad anticlimatic. It’s a quibble, though.

Krystal’s 10-episode odyssey, steered by showrunner Esta Spalding, is a viciously funny smashing of the sandcastle that is American capitalism, a rigged system illustrated by an Amway-style pyramid scheme. ... [Kirsten Dunst’s] performance is worth paying attention to from the start, but the show finds its muscle the moment Krystal realizes that the only way to crawl out of the beast’s belly is to dive into the heart of it, then gut it and strut around in its skin.

The pacing drags at times, but the cast and creative team always get it back. ... As great as the writing can be and as buoyant as the show has been directed, this show simply doesn’t work without Dunst.

Loopy, winding, and heavily atmospheric, this tropical noir finds just the right balance between social critique and Lynchian dreaminess.

A miscast Skarsgard sets the stage for a broad, mean-spirited satire. But once he’s sidelined—in an early twist too insane to spoil—the delightful Central Florida belongs to Dunst.

[Kirsten Dunst] sustains the series with a life-giving performance full of heart and, possibly more important, steel. ... For all its one-note darkness, the episodes move along compellingly, thanks in good part to sequences involving evidence-gathering against Obie led by a daring and determined Krystal along with a cocaine-sniffing TV reporter. Then there’s the complex, if also slightly repellant romantic connection that grows between Krystal and the youthful Cody (a jewel of a performance by Théodore Pellerin).

Dunst is perfect for the role — believable as a small-town girl, as she was in season two of “Fargo,” but also, as Krystal takes charge of her life, intuitive and driven.

It's a gem of a performance from Dunst. ... On Becoming a God in Central Florida establishes its foundation well and, especially early on, the payoffs are steady and sometimes surprising. Even if the conclusion and tease for the second season are much less exciting than I'd have hoped, after 10 episodes Dunst, Levine and the details of this strange world kept me from ever feeling scammed.

Dunst’s performance is so magnetic that the show could’ve focused on her alone, but it wouldn’t have been half as effective. While Krystal is its undeniable hellion heroine, the series is as much about egocentric scam artists and the widespread devastation they can wreak as it is about Krystal’s struggle to overcome it all.

Distinctive enough to stand out from the premium-TV pack, if not quite rise to the top of the pyramid.

As conceived by Showtime’s On Becoming a God in Central Florida, this vision of 1992 America is a morass of hucksters and hollow promises, and the series explores that world with both a sharp eye and a peculiar sense of humor.

“On Becoming a God…” entertains even as it observes the unfortunate circumstances Krystal finds herself in.

Not everything about this series works, but everything about its lead performance does. And for a first season, that’s more than enough.

After the initial promise of the early episodes, On Becoming a God in Central Florida loses its way in the second half of its 10-episode season with a struggle to keep things interesting and fresh.

“On Becoming a God” has a few standout episodes, including the pilot and a midseason trip to a FAM retreat. ... But down the home stretch, just when we should be most involved and invested, too many developments feel arbitrary and forced, and there’s far more weirdness and wackiness than well-earned, well-executed dramatic/comedic payoffs.

[Dunst] does what she can, but the script and story (the show was created by Robert Funke and Matt Lutsky) work against her natural vibrancy. Krystal’s a cipher — there’s not much to her beyond her single-mindedness, a weapon the plot uses to disrupt the lives of the secondary but more fully rendered male characters.