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- Disney+
- Mar 29, 2024
- Disney+
- Mar 29, 2024
- Disney+
- Mar 29, 2024
- Disney+
- Mar 29, 2024
Season Episodes
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
70
77% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
23% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
70
77% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
23% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
“Renegade Nell” gallops ahead of other Disney+ offerings by telling a new story tremendously well, and giving us a young woman who defies the ruling class to gain not only justice but freedom.
The production looks as good as any serious period piece, and the comedy is all the better for the persuasive richness of the setting. To borrow a word from the highwayman’s infamous greeting, “Nell” delivers.
While the first half is tighter than the second (with a bit of wheel spinning around the Episodes 5-7 period), thankfully we rise back up to full volume for a rousing finale that’s only marred by the usual streaming show faults (abysmal lighting during exciting and needed-to-be-seen action scenes). But despite the blemishes on Renegade Nell’s jacket, its charm wins out.
Like a lot of period pieces these days, the show is amusing, intelligent and very well executed, and it shrewdly exploits its comic and magical elements to get away with audience-friendly anachronisms of language, behavior and casting. The corollary, and perhaps the consequence, is that it feels like an exceedingly clever card trick — well worth the “Ooh,” but unlikely to linger in the mind.
The opening episode is strong, grounding the story in Nell’s family life. The further we get into the supernatural stuff, though, the more it feels like a rejected episode of Doctor Who. A truly memorable heroine is left battling through a script that isn’t worthy of her.
Bits of fun are scattered around a world too shabbily built to hold up to deeper scrutiny. As insistent as the series is about how much our scrappy young heroes matter, it’s oddly incurious about who they actually are.
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