On Becoming a God in Central Florida: Season 1

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Ratings

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7.9

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7.9	Your Score
7.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Ratings

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Season Details & Credits

Showtime | NETFLIX | Season Premiere Date: August 25, 2019

Summary: Krystal Stubbs (Kirsten Dunst) works at a water park for minimum-wage in Florida while trying to make it to the top of a pyramid scheme run by Obie Garbeau II (Ted Levine)in this dark comedy set in the 1990s.

Genre(s): Comedy, Drama

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Season 1 Episodes

tbd
S1:E10. Go Getters Gonna Go Getcha
Air Date: October 20, 2019
tbd
S1:E9. Wham Bam Thank You FAM
Air Date: October 13, 2019
tbd
S1:E8. Birthday Party
Air Date: October 6, 2019

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Bruce Miller

Aug 19, 2019

Dunst takes risks and they pay big dividends. ... Emmy worthy. [Theodore Pellerin as Cody] is one of the best performances of the year. It makes you want to discover what drives him and where he’ll finally wind up. Others, though, are equally compelling. ... “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” is one of the best new shows of the year. Read full review

IndieWire Ben Travers

Aug 21, 2019

“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. Read full review

Uncle Barky Ed Bark

Aug 23, 2019

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. Read full review

Caroline Framke

Aug 15, 2019

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. Read full review

Matthew Gilbert

Aug 22, 2019

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. Read full review

Steven Scaife

Aug 19, 2019

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. Read full review

Alan Sepinwall

Aug 21, 2019

At first, On Becoming a God is strange and funny enough to merit a leading turn as good as Dunst’s. ... But the creative team soon runs out of new things to say about FAM, and about most of these characters. There’s some entertaining interplay between Krystal and Cody, and the way she learns to use all of her powers against him. But what you see in the first few episodes is mostly what you get throughout the season. Read full review

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User Reviews

aceshop3

Aug 27, 2019

Ostensibly about a multilevel marketing scheme called FAM, what this show is really about is the American dream, capitalism, and the lies we tell to maintain an air of immense success right around the corner when nothing could be further from the truth. In one of few series aboutOstensibly about a multilevel marketing scheme called FAM, what this show is really about is the American dream, capitalism, and the lies we tell to maintain an air of immense success right around the corner when nothing could be further from the truth. In one of few series about working-class people, Krystal Stubbs (another iconic character from the truly underrated Kirsten Dunst who should have a million Oscar nominations by now) is a water park employee whose life is tragically upended because of her husband (Alexander Skarsgard, darkly hilarious) snarls, hisses, manipulates, and deceives up the ranks of the same pyramid scheme she despises.

For anyone who knows Dunst's work well, it's unsurprising how well she plays both the tragic and sad with the dark and hilarious. She's spectacular. Krystal isn't really an "anti-hero" but someone you actually really root for and empathize with. Everything, after all, is for her baby daughter, Destinee. And her relationship with her "upline" superior, Cody (Theodore Pellerin, destined for big things) is twisted and delicious.

There's this crazy tone to the series. I've genuinely never seen anything like it. Sure, it's faithful to Florida weirdness but the surreal, weird, dark, and really, really funny is balanced with a tremendous amount of empathy for the working-class characters populating this show. At the end of the day, it's Dunst's show, and she's fearless. Like her, the show doesn't give a crap about looking too ugly or being too weird or vicious or surreal or really, really funny. And it definitely doesn't give two hoots about its brutally satirical takedown of the peculiarly American brand of capitalism.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

jimmypowder

Oct 14, 2019

hilarious look at scams that are so prevalent in society and their impact on families and individuals .

Obie Garbeau ! LMAO.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Seasons & Episodes

76

Series Overview
Season 1

76
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: August 25, 2019
- tbd
  S1:E10. Go Getters Gonna Go Getcha
  Air Date: October 20, 2019
- tbd
  S1:E9. Wham Bam Thank You FAM
  Air Date: October 13, 2019
- tbd
  S1:E8. Birthday Party
  Air Date: October 6, 2019
- tbd
  S1:E7. Flint Glass
  Air Date: September 29, 2019
- tbd
  S1:E6. American Merchandise
  Air Date: September 22, 2019
- tbd
  S1:E5. Many Masters
  Air Date: September 15, 2019
- tbd
  S1:E4. Manifest Destinee
  Air Date: September 8, 2019