The reviews are uniformly positive, and the praise clusters in the same places: the recreation of the 1980s New York ballroom scene, the casting of trans actors in leading roles, and the writing from trans creators behind the camera. Most critics find the ball sequences opulent and the family drama around them warm and sincere, with the ensemble singled out repeatedly. Several note the series shows a world television has not put on screen before at this scale, and that it carries this with confidence.
The spread is narrow; nobody is unconvinced. The reservations are small: Variety finds the series sometimes takes on too much at once, and Vulture allows that it can turn didactic between the ball scenes. IndieWire is the coolest, arguing the core stories are conventional and that the familiarity is part of the appeal rather than a fault. Consequence singles out the fourth episode as the point where the series settles into its best character work.