The reviews are united, and warmly so. Every critic finds the series emotionally affecting and, more unusually, fair: the praise keeps returning to how even-handedly Jack Thorne’s script treats a family dilemma with no right answer, giving sympathy to everyone in it. The performances draw the most attention, with Michael Sheen and Sharon Horgan named in nearly every review, Sheen’s restraint in particular, and Alison Oliver singled out by more than one critic as the discovery of the piece.
The reservations are small and scattered rather than shared. The Guardian notes some repetition and slack across the run, and Paste, otherwise the most enthusiastic, concedes the story can tip into the overwrought. The Evening Standard feels Marnie herself is underused, though The i Paper credits the flashbacks with giving her a life beyond her illness. The spread is narrow, with no dissenters, and the lower scores come from early reviews that judged only the opening episode.